VIDEO: Part 1 of 2 - Beachy Backgrounds for Birds!

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

If you've been to the beach, you've been charmed by how delicate and cute the little sandpipers running by the surf are, I'm sure. 

I have a fun video that's a bit of a tease for you today - the first part is how I put together the cute little sandpiper die, and the second will be the completely unexpected way I created the print for the surf, so stay tuned for that - it was way too long to put it all into one video. . In front of the surf is a patterned paper that looks like sand - its is such an easy and fun card - send one to your beach loving friends!!

Here's the video:

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

VIDEO: The Rocks I Can't Get out of my Head

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

When I lived in Maine for a summer after graduating from college, I saw a ton of phenomenal art. There was a Wyeth museum that I absolutely loved, in this tiny, drafty, creaky building that people whispered in. 

And I love Wyeth. But there was a working artist there at the time that absolutely amazed me. He created these hyper realistic paintings of the beautiful stones that grace Maine's frigid beaches. You can see a collection of them here. 

I tried with no success to recreate them in watercolor, mostly because honestly - the simple shapes are one of the hardest parts to make appear natural. 

And then I saw this stencil. 

It was like DESTINY! 30 years later comes the tool I need. 

Because the process of creating this is so devastatingly simple, I'm not going to tell you how I did it - it will unfold in the video. But trust me - you'll be shocked at the simplicity. The greeting is this one - I wanted to keep it simple without the background getting too covered up. 

Here's the video:

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

VIDEO Scene Stamping with Stencils + Big Sale

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

I don't want to jinx anything, but it's been a crazy mild summer here - it's weird. We've had relatively low temps, lots of rain - just bizarre. Fun to garden in, but bizarre. 

Before I get to today's video - I wanted to tell you about a few kitchen finds. As you know - I don't have anything in my kitchen anymore that's made in China - which is a real challenge, but can be done. One of the biggest challenges is cast iron - as Lodge and many others are now made in China. But a few years ago my mom found this amazing company that makes these SMOOTH cast iron pans in the US that also are about half the weight of a regular cast iron and bought us all one - I love it. It's perfect for frying eggs - I have the teeniest one that's great for two fried eggs. If you struggle with how heavy your vintage cast iron is, you will love these and love not having to season them. Anyway, I got an email from them and they are having a 30% off sale, so I thought I'd share. The sale is on factory seconds and is only good while supplies last - some are already sold out. You don't need a coupon or anything.

Today's video is about a fun new way to use layering stencils like this one. I made this fun, Japanese style scene a year or so ago and just never shared the video until now.

Here's the video - enjoy!

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

Watercolor Leaves & A Crafty Trend Question

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

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