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Wednesday, August 15, 2018

That Time I Went Crazy Without a Car

I have had to have two repairs done on my car recently. It's a Toyota, so it's amazingly low maintenance, but it also has 200K miles on it, so things do wear out.

Anyway, even though I work from home and don't leave my office during the day much at all, just something about knowing I don't have a car makes me unhinged.

I've always been a car person - I enjoy driving, and when I travel I almost always rent a car so that I can have freedom and independence. Freedom is the word I associate the most with having a car.

So despite not having to be anywhere the day my car was in the shop, I still felt sort of trapped, so I channeled that into a mixed media card.

It started as a no-line watercolor. I stamped it in Fadeout Ink, and used Split E & F colors of Daniel Smith (from my split group) to paint it with. But then I though - I want to add a little colored pencil shading. So I put some dark brown accents with a Luminance Pencil on the petals. Then I added some lighter reddish brown with my Blick Studio Pencils (these are great pencils and very affordable) for finer detail - the lead in these is a little harder than the Luminance.

Then, because I had clearly lost my mind, I used a colorless blender pencil over all that detail to blend and soften it.

Then, deranged, I went back with Perylene Maroon watercolor for a few deep darks - that's the same color I used in the flower centers too. I just dotted it on and left white space for highlights.

Even after all that, my car still wasn't done - but hey - I had a beautiful sunflower card to show for it.

This gorgeous sunflower stamp starts shipping today, and is part of the Greenhouse Society program, which I love. Super affordable stamps for people who love plants!











Sunny Flowers | Clear Stamps to Color...
[ TCH ]
Greenhouse Society Flower Stamps &...
[ TCH ]
Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors
[ BLIC ]
Caran d'Ache Luminance Colored...
[ BLIC ]
22063-0369 - Blick Studio Artists'...
[ BLIC ]
Prismacolor Colored Pencil COLORLESS...
[ SSS ]
Escoda Versatil Brushes, Travel Round...
[ UTR ]
Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes...
[ BLIC | ELH ]
Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink
[ INK | SSS ]
Tsukineko VersaFine Clair NOCTURNE...
[ SSS | ELH ]
Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. Cold Press...
[ AMZUS ]
Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- Sea Glass
[ GNK ]
MISTI Stamping Tool
[ MSW | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | SBC ]
Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045
[ SSS | ELH | CST | ART | SBC ]
Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -...
[ BLIC ]
Multipurpose Liquid Glue by Stampin' Up!
[ SUP ]
Nesting Porcelain Bowls - BLICK art...
[ BLIC ]
My Favorite Watercolor Sketchbook
[ UTR ]
Coloring Glove - Anti-Smudge
[ AMZUS ]
Ipoint Orbit Pencil Sharpener, Turquoise
[ AMZUS | BLIC ]
Derwent Battery-Operated Eraser
[ BLIC | AMZUS ]
Global Art Classic Leather Pencil Cases
[ BLIC | AMZUS ]
Absorber - Synthetic Cleaning Cloth
[ AMZUS ]
Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding...
[ AMZUS ]
Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675
[ SSS | ART | AMZUS ]
Essentials by Ellen Storage...
[ ELH ]
Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC
[ ELH | SSS ]
Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two...
[ SSS | ART | BLIC | ELH ]
Ink Off Cloth
[ INK ]
Sizzix BIG SHOT EXPRESS Gray and...
[ SSS | ELH ]

Sunflowers have become the unofficial emblem of my retreat, so I had to have this beautiful image, and I adore the little ladybug in the set, which I intended to put on one of the leaves, but again, I was unhinged, so I forgot.

I mounted the watercolor paper on Sea Glass cardstock, and stamped the sentiment in Nocturne with the MISTI.

This is what I recommend for anyone who finds themselves without their car. It's a great way to spend a few hours and use different mediums together for a super unique look.

PS - my winner from the Altenew blog hop is Katya @ Archie & Ink! Katya please contact me via my sidebar for instructions on claiming your prize!

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

Loveyameanitbye.

13 comments:

  1. Phenomenal coloring! Curious what you use the nail sanding blocks I saw in your supply list for

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  2. I can totally relate to your feelings of being trapped - I am part of a one car family right now. That being said, if this is what you create in a couple of hours of waiting for your vehicle, then I am sure a month in a quiet retreat and you will be joining the list of the great masters! It is BEAUTIFUL (although you are sounding like Kathy Raccoosin with your "just one more thing" LOL!) Thank you for sharing your great talent!

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  3. I have the same feeling about my car (also a Toyota), it's that feeling of freedom and listening to the music I want as loud as I want. But if it meant you producing this gorgeous card I'd say it was worth it. It's STUNNING!!!

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  4. I love it, Lydia! Your coloring of these images is amazing. I wish I had an ounce of your talent. <3

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  5. Lydia, this turned out beautiful! As I was reading your post, with all your finagling, I expected a mess. But when I got to your pic I was pleasantly surprised. So keep up all that finagling, it does your art good.

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  6. This is just gorgeous Lydia! Your coloring on the flowers is fabulous!

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  7. Absolutely beautiful. I love the way this turned out. And I love this stamp. But I don’t love that every time I type love I get live and I have to go back and edit.

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  8. I hope you have your car back by now lol. It is funny to think about but I'm the same way, I rarely drive but I want to know my car is there when I do want to go somewhere. You may have gone nuts waiting but your card didn't suffer, it is STUNNING. Great job on keeping yourself occupied LOL.

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  9. This is so amazing. I wonder what you’d come up with if one of your other appliances was broken? Just thinking. You own us a ladybug.

    ReplyDelete

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