Watercolor Leaves & A Crafty Trend Question

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I had a crafty session last weekend that was very relaxing - it's been far too long since I just did simple watercolor, and it was nice. A few podcast episodes (I recommend Ransom!) and I had these beautiful leaves finished. 

I have the Rosemary & Co teeny tiny brushes, but I'm not happy with the way they (don't) hold water, so if anyone has a suggestion for a better detailed brush, I'm all ears!

I actually stamped the full image of this gorgeous stamp, painted it all and then cut it in half so I can have a second card later. It's sized so perfectly even half of the full image.

I just kept it simple. 

I also played around with a few embossing folders - I love this big peacock one! I just ink blended a panel, embossed it, and then brayered on gold paint. The sentiment is this die.

Since I had the brayer out, I added white paint to a black panel embossed with this gorgeous fall/winter folder. The sentiments are from this set, and I just punched out some pink glitter paper accents.

Do you still use punches? I don't see many punch focused projects these days and was wondering if it was just me.

Hope you have a great 4th! 

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Away to the Ocean + $50 Giveaway

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

I am DYING over the new map transfer sheets today with the kit release! Y'all have no idea how badly I wanted to hoard them, but that's how much I love y'all - I'm not only using one - I'm using my favorite section with the little Nessie on it!! I paired it up with this gorgeous little mermaid - singing her song to smash some boats against the rocks - muahahahah!

The kit itself has a stunning Heroscape style beach in it which you saw in my sneak! LOOK AT THE TENTACLES. omg. The kit stamps have a sort of classic, retro feel. I cannot WAIT to watercolor those rocks.

For my peek card, I did on stamp ink blending for the water and clouds in the MISTI. I hand ink blended the beach around the water - I didn't even mask off the water. I also ink blended the sky. For the sand I used my flat stencil brush with a darker ink and just pounced it. My fave part of this scene is the footprints stamps - they are so perfect and easy to use!

I also had fun with the little layering fishy stencil - the little jellies and octopi crack me up. I deliberately omitted the center bottom portion of the stencil to leave room for my sentiment, which is from this set. I stamped the little starfish and added a few sequins. 

Here are what all the extras look like this month!

Whoe Studio Kit [ HA ] Mermaids [ HA ] Layering Fish Stencil [ HA ] Tropical Fish [ HA ] Da Vinci Artist Bristle Brush -... [ BLIC ] Hero Blog Hop & Giveaway! [ HA ]

Want a chance to win a $50 gift card - leave me & the others a comment!

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team:

Channin Pelletier

Charlene Madrid

Heather Ruwe

Ilina Crouse

Jeannie Lieu

Jennifer Kotas

Kailash Naidoo

Karen Brown

💙💙💙 Lydia Fiedler 💙💙💙

Michelle Short

Natasha Polite

Natasha Vacca

Rachel Kleinman

Rosie Lopez

Seeka

Special Guests:

Jenn Shurkus

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Kelly Taylor

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Bandana Patterned Backgrounds

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

This weekend, I realized it's estivation season for my squirrels - it's HOT. I was wondering why I hadn't seen Monkey in a bit and then I just happened to go outside right at dawn and there she was! 

And y'all - the weeding tool is MAGICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC. I am so mad I've been using my scissor style snips on the oak shoots - this thing lays waste to all weeds. Apparently Japan is hoarding all the good gardening tools. I'm going to open an international investigation into what else they've been hiding from me!

What I'm not hiding from YOU today is a new bandana stencil that is freaking adorable. I save my cute squirrels for my most special backgrounds, so you're getting Tailette and her bold birthday greeting today. I used Cornflower and Indigo ink here. Do you see how I modified her? I close cut her out and trimmed off the little log, and glued her little paws on the sentiment. I just gave her two pink cheeks. 

I also tried it in Christmas colors, lime green and red which I think is adorable. 

The sentiment is from the same set and dies.

I had to try it in pink and black too and it's so fun - this is always a fun combo for a two layer stencil. This time I used the acorn Tailette and again just gave her two pink cheeks. Same sentiment set.

There's an inspiration hop for this today! The links aren't working for me today so you can see the full list here: 

The Rabbit Hole Designs

Bandana Stencil [ THR ] Tailette Logs [ THR ] Tailette log dies [ THR ] Tailette Acorn [ THR ] Tailette acorn dies [ THR ] Sentiment stamps [ THR ] Sentiment Dies [ THR ] Indigo [ HA ] Cornflower [ HA ] Key Lime [ GNK ] Red Hot [ GNK ] Hot Pink [ GNK ]

I'll be back at noon with another post today, just FYI!

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE