Rubbernecker Design Team Announcement and Warm Thoughts for a Cold Day

The Rubbernecker design team is very excited to announce the addition of some very talented ladies joining us.  I believe you will recognize them from their wonderful galleries on Splitcoaststampers. It is a thrill for me to welcome each one of them as I have admired their gorgeous work and have known many of them for several years.

Cathy Bomgardner  -Mutnik  Gallery

Frances Gumprecht- Francie G Blog    Francie's Fancy

Charlene Merrick -LilLuvsStampin  Blog  Where m&ms Gather

Karen Hunsaker – Imastampin    Blog Karen's Kreations

Cathleen Torina -ctorina Blog   Crooked Card Creations

Julia Aston – artystamper  Blog    Create With Me

Anny Ryan   Gallery

Warm Thought for a Cold Day

Baby it’s cold outside.   That song keeps ringing in my ears.  I know most of you who live in snow country will not have much sympathy for a Floridian complaining about temperatures in the low 30’s. But with that said 30 degrees is as big a shock to us as your much lower temps. Especially since we were running our air conditioning just a few days ago with temps in the 80’s.  Change is tough…especially for an old broad like me.

I decided to warm up my thoughts last night as I played in the SCS Color Challenge.  We were to use Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Hunter Green and any neutral.  I pulled out the palm trees in my Kittie Kits Fun in the Sun set and created a place that I would certainly love to be.  Nothing represents warmth to me more than a lovely beach with the sun, sand and ocean waves rolling.

I stamped the image on watercolor paper using the lightest green color.  I wanted to avoid black ink and to create the appearance of a real watercolor. To apply color I used dry brushes that I stroked directly on the ink pads to lightly stipple on the ocean, sky and the sand.  This technique allows control while working on images that are stamped with a classic ink. If you use water on your brush you will make that ink run and ruin your image. I hope that makes sense.  I then used the dry brush, no water, dipped delicately in the reinker to fill in the tree trunks and tops.  This gave me more depth of color and still maintained the integrity of the image. I love the results.  I got the chance to drift away to the beach for a little bit while I created this scene. Brrrrr!!!! Now back to reality. 

I hope each of you are having a great first week of the New Year! 

Stamps:  Rubbernecker Kittie Kits Fun in the Sun  Paper:  Taken with Teal, Certainly Celery, Watercolor   Ink:  Bottle, Stream, Lemonade, Shabby Shutters, Vintage Photo (all Adirondack and Distress Inks by Ranger)   Accessories:  Grosgrain, Brushes