I'm the youngest child, and so I definitely prefer to be left to my own devices, but when I am, I need you to not question what I'm doing.
I had a full day alone on my way to Ft. Worth last weekend. So I got all my favorite podcasts loaded up, and hit the road for 3.5 hours. I am not a fan of stopping when I am on long drives, which is why I mostly like to go by myself. If you are in my car and you ask to pee in a trip that is 8 hours or less, you are going to get the glare of death. Just don't. Be focused on the mission.
Once I got to Ft. Worth, I stopped at my favorite spice store for chili powder. I had made chili the previous Monday, and used the last few precious grains of my favorite powder, which can only be purchased in Ft. Worth.
I walked in the door, and started filling a basket and the lady at the counter said "Oh - I forgot to tell you - I can't take any credit/debit cards today - our connection is broken."
After a moment of stunned silence, I said - "WHAT?" She said "yes, I can't." I said "do you have a square?" She said, with an attitude I didn't really like - "WHAT is a SQUARE?" Imagine a head wag and a grimace accompanying this ridiculous question. I said "what about Paypal?" She said "I don't know what that is."
This could have been the intro to an unsolved murder podcast, but I held it together. I said "Well I drove 3.5 hours to come here...." She said nothing.
Fuming, I went to Walgreens and got cash out, knowing I wasn't going to make that drive again any time soon.
She was miraculously transformed into a nice person once I had cash, so I got my year's worth of spices and left.
I had brought my C&D Daniel Smith Watercolor Splits with me. (I have a private split group on Facebook where we split tubes of Daniel Smith watercolor so that it's more affordable. If you are interested, you can request to join here.)
I bring random splits with me when I travel so I can get out of my color comfort zone and use colors I wouldn't normally pick. I also don't put my splits in rainbow order so that I'm not led to make the same choices over and over again. It makes me work harder.
So I sat down with this beautiful center cut flower stamp and my randomly chosen splits to paint while I waited for my friend Dana to arrive. I'm a very slow painter and I took lots of social media breaks, so I probably worked on this over about four hours after dinner, and thoroughly enjoyed the solitude, the image and the process. The sentiment is from Mom Flowers. Before painting, I stamped it in the magical, disappearing fadeout ink I use for no-line watercolor. Now you see it, now you don't!
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When I got home, I decided that one of my Drunken Acrylic Reveal backgrounds from my Christmas cards would be the perfect brightness against the black. The HUGS die is from this set.
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I do have a video on the background technique from a while ago, so here it is.
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Finally - I was playing with this new pebbles die, and I originally had a totally different idea for it, but when I was staring at it, I realized that it not only said "stone path" to me, but it said "giraffe" - so giraffe I did! I used Hematite Burnt Scarlet for the stones, and Verona Gold Ochre for the background, and then I did paper piecing. I paired it with this stamp set and the matching dies.
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So that's what I do when I'm left alone! I guess it could be worse!
I encourage you to bring a limited color palette in ANY medium with you when you hit the road - I promise you will unlock some magic.
These are all part of the Simon Says Stamp Fluttering By release today - so check out the rest of it here - so much fun stuff, so little time.
Loveyameanitbye.
Fantastic cards! Love the kaleidoscope of color on the first. All stunning, fun and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI LOL'd. She recounted her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day to me when I went to pay out with my card. I love Aleppo peppers! It was so good to see you, and I'm really happy you shared your trip into solitude. I like long drives by myself with exactly the same protocol. Beautiful coloring! I'm saving for a Daniel Smith split...
ReplyDeleteI read your entire post to Bruce after he took his after-work nap. He had a really hard day. I even read it with a little bit of Texas in my accent (mixed with some Hawai'ian and Kentucky in there). Needless to say, both of our eyes grew wider when you said no one can take a pee break when driving with you - both of us take frequent pee breaks so this tells me a lot! We enjoyed watching your psychadelic paint molecular cell structures form. It was extra cool! Lovely card designs and esp the giraffing one :*
ReplyDeleteWow your creations are always amazing. And I always enjoy reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteThese are all great Lydia. Isn't this release AWESOME? There are so many beautiful products, its hard to choose my top 5 faves. for my must-have list??? EEEEP!
ReplyDeleteAmazing, Lydia! Great idea to challenge yourself with your colors too ❤️
ReplyDeleteLove these and the top card is gorgeous with these beautiful colors!
ReplyDeleteLOL at your story and loved ALL the cards you created! I'd forgotten about the Drunken Acrylic technique- thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteFrom your description it sounds like we would travel together very well! I love your cards! Especially the Drunken Acrylic Reveal one! Please explain or link me to an explanation on how to do this!,!!!! Looks like tons of fun! TFS!
ReplyDeleteWow, I always get the eye rolls because I pay cash for everything (oh, my bad, I'm slowing you down by 5.6 seconds!). I'll go with you next time, I promise to wear a Depends :). Your cards are awesome!
ReplyDeleteWowzers! I was just going to scroll for a few minutes on FB before bed and not hop to any blogs but your gorgeous card caught me and I had to see more. Wow, I love the colors you used on that first card. I also love the butterfly die cut. I like to make backgrounds but then I don't know what to do with them. All four cards on this post are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteSo much fun!
ReplyDeleteThe pebble giraffe is brilliant. But it's the first flower card I just LOVE. Your random colours came up trumps. The flower centres make me think of juicy blackberries, with the dogwood-like petals evoking the open calyx of a Cape Gooseberry.
ReplyDeleteThe joys (not) of technology when it doesn't work! Glad you got your spices. Our librarians were having an extra busy day last Friday when the self-service terminals weren't working and everyone was having to queue at the desk to return, renew and borrow.