Weeds to Wildflowers

I hope this post finds you enjoying your long holiday weekend.  Bob and I have been enjoying time off together as we have four days straight off from work. It is the first time in our eleven years together that we have had more than one day off together during the holidays. Bob works for Disney and it is very uncommon for employees in the entertainment division of the company to have several days in a row off. Disney also does not allow vacation requests during the holiday season so you can't really make long term travel plans to spend time with family out of our area. It was a thrill to pull up Bob's work schedule last week and see that he had been granted so many days off.  Wheeee! I know most people think that Disney is all about "family"  and they are!!! Just customer families…..not employees!! 

My favorite Christmas present this year is a set of eight step by step watercoloring lessons. The set is called Watercolour Secrets by Bob Davies.  I also joined Bob's on line painting community called I Draw & Paint.  A few weeks ago I stumbled onto a You Tube presentation by Bob on how to paint clouds. My interest was so sparked that I asked Santa hubby to get me the whole program. I have been painting images on my cards for quite a while but have used always used sponges and a cloud templates of some kind to create sky and  texture images to enhance the ground area.  I feel it is a natural progression to learn more about creating whole scenes whether around stamped images or my own sketches. Bob's instructions are simple and totally unthreatening.

 I created this fun card and silly card using the simple watercolor sky technique taught in lesson one. I also painted the whole tree top (it is a little ugly) instead of using my little mini fern stamp as well as painting the ground area.  I stamped the fence across the page, masked the fence and stamped Anna Wight's Bo-Vina using Stazon on  the images. I then washed the whole piece of watercolor paper to dampen and prepare to accept paint. I painted the top portion of the sky with a dark wash of blue purposefully allowing blank spaces left to create the appearance of clouds. I painted a soft yellow wash along the second half of the sky area down to the ground line to give a soft glow to the horizon. The wet blue faded down into the yellow creating a natural looking sky  I used my heat gun to dry.  Yippee Skippy!!!!  I was having fun. I tried my hand at painting in the top of the tree and really only got a green blob but will keep working on it.  I used an artist pen to sketch in the lines of the tree trunk and painted with a wash of brown as well as painting in a few hints of branches to the tree top. I used a light green paint to paint the ground area around the fence and up to the sky line.  I added darker green leaving a few areas of light green for texture.  I have to work on this technique as well but I feel good about this first attempt.  I painted Bo-Vina with a couple of shades of brown and love the darling expression on her sweet cow face. Who wouldn't love her?  I finished off the little scene by creating a little line of flowers using a small scruffy brush dipped in a "real" watercolor paint called Permanent Rose and by adding little green stems with a new brush to me called a rigger brush .  By real paint I mean "from a tube of artist grade paint" and not my reinker.  I will gradually learn to play with the new Windsor & Newton watercolors that Santa brought me. I love the little sentiment "May all your weeds be Wildflowers" from Anna's Sweet Expressions set. I stamped it, embossed with clear embossing powder and hand painted a couple little wildflowers around it.  I thought the pink gingham ribbon was the perfect attachment for the sentiment.

It takes courage to step out and try new techniques but the feeling of enjoyment and accomplishment is well worth it. I do not expect perfection in my new attempts at watercolor and am sharing my "imperfect  project" here on my blog to encourage you to experiment with any new technique you may find interesting so you can learn new skills.

Stamps:  Whipper Snapper Bo-Vina, Anna Wight's Sweet Expressions, Rubbernecker Kittie Kits

Paper:  Arches Water, Bliss Blue, Regal Rose

Ink and Pint:  Distress Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans, Adirondack Lemonade, Lettuce, Windsor & Newton Permanent Rose, Stazon

Accessories:  Brushes- Round , Spotter, Rigger, Clear Embossing Powder,Gingham, Deckle Scissors