As with most words in my native language (Texan) - "howdy" is actually a contraction. Minus the apostrophe.
It's a word we are all so used to, that people don't typically think of it as a contraction, but it is. Apparently we, despite our easy-going, slow-talking natures, are in way too much of a hurry to spend a ridiculous amount of time saying "how do you do," so we shorten it to "howdy."
LOOK AT ALL THAT TIME I JUST SAVED!
I can spend that time listening to exactly HOW YOU DO!
Isn't that nice?
We're nice people, Texans.
You know who else is nice? Fleurette Bloom from Inkon3.
I *met* Fleurette (over the phone) after falling hard in love with her magical Fadeout Ink. It turns out we have a ton in common. We are the same age, and she has a daughter named Lidia.
We hit it off instantly, and will be going as a team to Junkie Fest to teach classes on the wonders of no-line watercolor with her ink. Hopefully I will see some of you there! There's a large Texas contingent going - some of whom I believe are even on my flight to the great white north of Minnesota, where I have not visited since 1992!
Anyway, since we are the same age, we have the same graphic favorites in our psyches, like the marvelous puffy letters we used to doodle in our notebooks in the (redacted decade) when we were in school.
When I saw that she had brought that style to life in an alphabet die set, I knew it had to be mine.
I'm going to start the World Watercolor Month challenge on Sunday. Are you going to play along? This is the challenge that started my work in a sketchbook and I love it so much - I always learn a ton working on these prompts. I'll share some on Instagram.
So how about a giveaway? I accidentally ordered duplicates of the following inks from Gina K Designs: Key Lime, Tranquil Teal, Sea Glass, Plum Punch, Lucky Clover, Slate, Coral Reef and Tangerine Twist. You can click through to see the colors.Yes - I ordered doubles of EIGHT ink pads. I'm awesome like that. But now I can share her awesome ink with you - if you've never tried it, you'll love it, I promise.
So do you want to win one of these beautiful inks? You just need to do two things: 1) Leave me a comment with your weekend plans, and 2) Sign up for my RAK database! That's it! (No need to sign up if you have already done so.)
I will choose eight winners and announce them on my next blog post!
Thanks to a kind reader - thanks Sabrina! - I found out my feedburner has not been delivering my blog posts to you since June 10th! You've missed a lot! So hopefully this will be delivered to you and you can come catch up on some cool cards.
I did a deep dive into the UFO pile over the weekend.
The problem with the UFO pile is that it grows, like the blob, whenever I sit down for a practice session for techniques I'm going to use at my retreat, or in tutorial videos.
I always replicate a background technique at least three times, because I refuse to blog or film anything that I can't duplicate - because that's just mean, right?
But for *most* blog posts, I only turn one of those into a card, and the rest go into the UFO pile. I'm looking over at my bookcase right now at my UFO pile, and it currently takes up two fridge bins (these bins that I also store my stamps in), and they are packed full. That does not count the wire hanging basket in my closet that is full of gel prints.
Anyway - when I want to try a new surface treatment, the UFO pile is my friend, and that's exactly what I've done today.
I had done a tutorial a while ago about marbling with Smooch - one of my favorite techniques - you can see that video here - so I wanted to try surface treatments instead.
So for this first card, I just used a giraffe - well, technically a cobblestone - stencil and applied the Gold Lame Smooch to my card through the stencil with my finger. The UFO is a watercolor wash background I painted with Quinacridone Rose and Quinacridone Gold watercolors. The Smooch is subtle and shimmery and gorgeous and gives just a hint of giraffe. Then I stamped the silhouette giraffe from this set in Bubblegum Pink ink from Gina K. I love this color - how can you not think of bubblegum when you see it?? The sentiment is die cut with the Shine On dies from my fave new glitter paper - NO SHEDDING. Once you have the UFO in the bag, this card is super fast to put together!
This UFO is actually a reject from my original Drunken Acrylic Reveal session. It was pretty, but I didn't use enough water, so the "reveal" part didn't happen in a dramatic enough fashion. So into the pile it went until today.
The ticket to this look with the smooch - you'll see in the video below. You need to get smooth coverage of the ink before you add the alcohol. Very easy to do.
The seahorse is from this bundle, and the ink I used was Butter Bar, Tangerine and Mulled Wine - that last one is a surprise, right? It works perfectly! The sentiment is from the same set, and yes, I added more of that amazing glitter paper! The sentiment is stamped in Nocturne.
Finally - I did a similar technique to what I did above, except with lifting to get additional texture and it turned out so fun! I die cut it with various sizes of the infinity dies and glued that down on a white card base. Then I colored my sweet little Japanese girl from this bundle with Copics - I freaking love this stamp set. I die cut her with matching dies and glued her down, and then added highlights to her hair with a white gel pen. I stamped the sentiment in Nocturne. True fact - I also used the TEENIEST of the infinity dies and it was SO cute, but it ended up looking weird with the other circles, so that's going back into the UFO pile for another day. See what I mean about it growing exponentially?
In my climate - drying time is brutal. so I did dry these with my heat gun, but for extra assurance, I also coated them with micro glaze to be sure they'd hold up well in the mail!
And in other news - a few beloved friends are updating their websites, so you might want to take a peek!
The people who make my favorite adhesives and fave watercolor markers - Tombow - have a new website and also some fun supplies for brush lettering! After suffering with a thumb injury that took me more than 7 months to get over, I am thrilled to be able to hold a pen and write like a human instead of a deranged wolverine again, so I am in the mood to shop for pens.
Gina K. Designs has a new website on the way, and I can't wait to see it! The Bubblegum Pink ink I used on the giraffe is hers - all her ink is amazing. She has "pure" colors, IMHO - so you can find your favorite classics/primaries as well as shades and tones of those. So look for an update from her later this summer.
Taking on a new website is a Herculean task. I've thought about doing it myself for a while, but it's soooo much work I just avoid it. Sort of like laundry! :)
So head over to see our review at Splitcoast today and leave our awesome reviewers a comment to brighten their day. Do you know how much good you could do if you set aside ten minutes each day (coffee time) to leave kind comments for crafters? A TON of good. Trust me.
Here's my video of my experiments with Smooch - enjoy! (Click here to watch in HD on YouTube)
