Mini DIY Watercolor Books + Giveaway!

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My friend Nina at Waffle Flower is such a genius. Once again, she's created something I didn't know I needed and now can't live without - her incredible Color Combos bundle!

Now the idea for this bundle is that it's a great way to organize ink swatches, cardstock, embossing powder and ink blending combos!

There are square stamps and dies, tag dies, geometric shapes that fill up the squares and a ton more. It's really amazing.

When I was in Phoenix and got to go to her office, I saw this bundle and INSTANTLY knew what I was going to do with it, because at the same time I saw the bundle, I saw these amazing binding disks and binding dies! I could not wait to get home and start working on the idea in my head.

In between then and now, of course the world has gone a little sideways, and it turns out that this idea came in super handy for basically being on house arrest!

I used the color combo stamp on watercolor paper, and then cut it with one of the smaller disc binding dies from this set - there are two sizes of dies - the other ones are here. I did twenty of these to make myself a little daily painting book! IS THIS NOT THE CUTEST THING EVERRRR? I loved it so much I dropped one off at my sister's house for her to use. The little binders are genius - so easy to get the pages on and off with. SO many possibilities! FYI I took advantage of a Blick sale on watercolor paper and got this 12x18 pad. I cut 8 2.25 x 12 strips and then stamped the frame on those and cut them with the smaller die in the A7 set so that gave me 32 pages. I cut 8 more and made a 20 page book for me and a 20 page book for my sister.

AND - this is all 15% off for today only here.

Now let's contemplate my little fox! A few years ago I started painting daily in a desk calendar, but I couldn't keep up. I love this new format with no date pressure. Just flip to the next day's page and paint! I just quickly did a happy fox enjoying the sun - you'll see it in the video below.

Here's the video!

Now - to help Nina celebrate her 6th anniversary, I have MY Top 6 Picks of Waffle Flower!

1) The Color Combos Full Bundle! PS - if you want color combo inspiration there are hundreds HERE and HERE
2) Discs + Disc Bound Dies
3) This adorable set and everything else by Kamo.
4) These stunning florals by Karla Jodoin.
5) This oversized Hello combo - ESPECIALLY the "sassy pants" that I used here.
6) The water media mat + the watercolor swatches bundle + palette paper - or as I call it, the LYDIA bundle - I thought this was one of the top crafty product groupings to come out in the last ten years! Did you know the media mat comes in a mini version now? SO perfect for cardmaking. And the palette paper will keep it bright white forever!

Here are the other two cards I made with my picks!!!

This is JUST THE CUTEST set and I combined it with the gorgeous oversized hello. You can see my blog post with details on this card here.

And the gorgeous tulips! I LOVE these, and they were a joy to no-line watercolor with Fadeout Ink and Daniel Smith watercolor. They do come with matching dies.

Here are all the products I used today, and then stay tuned below for BIG giveaways below and some coupon codes!

A7 Disc Bound Die [ WFF ] A2 Disc Bound Die [ WFF ] Color Combos Bundle [ WFF ] Waffle Flower 201911 Disc Bound Bundle [ WFF ] Binding Discs - Mint [ WFF ] Color Swatches Bundle [ WFF ] Waffle Flower Mini Water Media Mat [ WFF ] Waffle Flower Water Media Mat [ WFF ] Premium Palette Paper [ WFF ] Oversized Hello Combo [ WFF ] Yippee Combo [ WFF ] Tulips Combo [ WFF ] Fabriano Artistico Extra White... [ BLIC ] The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World... [ BLR ] Fadeout No Line coloring Detail Ink [ INK ] VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne -... [ ELH | SSS ] Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors [ BLIC ] Escoda Versatil Brushes, Travel Round... [ UTR | BLIC | INK ] Da Vinci Cosmotop Sable Mix F Brushes... [ BLIC | ELH ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] My Favorite Watercolor Sketchbook [ UTR ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | MFT ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ] Waffle Flower 6 Year Anniversary [ WFF ] Last Chance – 25% off with code... [ WFF ]

Now to celebrate this momentous anniversary, they are giving away THREE $100 shopping sprees to three lucky commenters. You can comment here, on the Waffle Flower Blog, or on any of the blogs on the inspiration hop. Be sure and leave me your comment by the end of the day on April 8th - 11:59 PM and the winner will be announced on their blog on April 10th!

AND you can get 25% off anything on this page with code LASTCHANCE25.

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES
25% off everything on THIS PAGE with code LASTCHANCE25
15% off anything at Marker Universe or any of their other sites - Understandblue15.
10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10
 Arkon stand link  - click the banner below!

Holidays in Ink

I wanted to stop by with a VERY quick video today, and a message for whatever today looks like for you.

If it looks like Christmas - Merry Christmas.

If it's a time of year that's hard for you - I get it. I wish you a day of peace and quiet, or a movie, or a few hours with a good book, or a nap, a crafty day or just a day with your DND on on your phone and some Candy Crush.

Whatever it looks like - do it. And do it with no guilt. Life is short. Make every day what you want it to be, even if it's Christmas, and you feel like something is expected of you. I just expect you to have a day of happiness and peace, however that looks.

I've had a very busy few weeks, work-wise, and I might just sleep all day. I might find out what my phone actually does - as I just recently discovered it has a right or left-handed keyboard option that squinches the keyboard so you can type with one hand!

I might launch a project or two I've been wanting to launch for a while.

I might finalize the details of a very fun teaching event in Florida in the spring.

Or I might sleep. Maybe a coin toss is in order.

I am so thrilled to have tried out the new Atelier pigment fusion inks. They are so much fun and so unique!

Here are some of the things they do:

• Use with Copics when dry.
• Water reactive.
• Watercolor with the inks - great blending. 
• BUTTERY ink blending.
• When used with water, the ink is just as vibrant when dry, so this is different from traditional watercolor. 
• High pigment content.
• They layer beautifully, since they are pigment, not dye. 
• Crisp details when used to stamp because of the pigment content. 
• Full line has reinkers.

So I was intrigued.

Whenever I try out a new medium, I like to film it so that I can document my results and reactions in real time, so I did that for a few minutes this week.

Water reactivity is pretty much my favorite, so I started with that.

First, I stamped the ornament from my friend Karen's beautiful first stamp set from WOW in Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink. Then I applied gloss medium to the ornament to protect that from the color.

I used my craft mat and directly applied the ink to the mat and spritzed with water, before picking up the wet ink with my hot press watercolor paper with the image stamped on it.

While the ink was still wet, I flicked water onto it to test the reactivity - you'll see it develop in the video!

I cleaned off the ornament with water to make the details pop, and added these rainbow rhinestones at the end. The sentiment is from the same set.

I don't think I've ever watercolored with a pigment ink before. If so, I don't remember it! But one of the things that intrigued me about these Fusion inks is that you can also watercolor with them! So I wanted to see what the transparency and layering was like, so I used an ornament from the same set, and just used the reinker (shake well) and a fine water brush with them to layer the red and purple inks with water and I was amazed - not only does the ink watercolor and layer beautifully, but just in the red alone - there seems to be a big range in the color. So the red ink appears to be a warm red when applied very intensely with little water - but in the middle of the ornament where I added a ton more water, you can see that it appears as a cool pink! Magic! I added some of the purple in a few spots at the edges for interest. The sentiment is from the same set.

Here's the quick video for you showing you my process! Stay tuned below for probably my last recipe of the year.

Atelier Ink Pads [ INK ] Christmas Baubles by Karen Re tegui -... [ WWM ] Gloss Medium [ BLIC ] Gem Stickers | 300 Count | Holiday... [ HNB ] Simon Says Stamp Premium Ink Pad... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER PAINT IT BLACK Fusion... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER TWIGGY BROWN Fusion... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER MARIGOLD ORANGE Fusion... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER GODDESS GREEN Fusion... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER PEACOCK BLUE Fusion... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER BEE STING YELLOW... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER MY JAM PURPLE Fusion... [ SSS ] Inkon3 ATELIER MARILYN RED Fusion Ink... [ SSS ] VersaFine Clair Ink Pad, Nocturne -... [ ELH | SSS ] Fabriano Extra White Cold Press... [ BLIC ] Heavy Base Weight Card Stock- White [ GNK ] MISTI Stamping Tool [ MSP | HA | SSS | ELH | MFT | UNT ] Lawn Fawn STAMP SHAMMY Cleaner LF1045 [ SSS | ELH | CST | ART ] Rotatrim Professional Series Cutter -... [ BLIC ] Tombow MONO MULTI Liquid Glue Two... [ SSS | MFT ] LightView 2in1 LED Magnifier for... [ BRG ] Art Anthology BIG CRAFT MAT 24x36 311473 [ SSS ] Mudder 10 Pack White Buffer Sanding... [ AMZUS ] Xyron ADHESIVE ERASER 23675 [ SSS | ART | AMZUS ] Teflon Bone Folder - Ellen Hutson LLC [ ELH | SSS ] Crafter's Companion GEMINI... [ SSS ] Scor-Pal MINI SCOR-BUDDY Scoring... [ SSS ] Essentials by Ellen Storage... [ ELH ] Die Storage - Clear Storage Pockets... [ CHC ] XL Stamp Storage Pockets [ ELH ] Mermaid tidy towel case and glue... [ ETS ] Airtable: Organize your stamps & dies [ ART ]

Aren't those fun? I can't wait to experiment a bit more.

Speaking of experimenting, I thought I'd share one more recipe before year end. After a failed chicken soup experiment in which I ended up calling my friend Mel for tips, I learned that Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat solves all the things. She told me to add lemon juice - and that made my bland soup perfect! So here you go!

Rotisserie Chicken Soup

1 Rotisserie Chicken, meat removed, bones reserved

2 long stalks fresh rosemary

Handful fresh thyme

Two long stalks fresh oregano

1 tsp. Cavender’s

⅛ tsp. cayenne

½ tsp. Sweet paprika

Juice of 2 lemons

3 carrots, sliced paper thin

4 ribs celery sliced thin

1 large sweet onion, diced.

1 large sweet onion rough chopped

1 TBS chicken base (Mel uses this one)

Salt to taste

Dried sweet basil  ¼ tsp ish.

Chop the herbs and divide. Put half into a stockpot with the bones of a rotisserie chicken, the
Cavender’s, chopped onion and a teaspoon salt. Boil for a while, then add basil and chicken base.
I boiled it for an hour or so. While that’s boiling for a few hours, saute veggies in olive oil with rest of
fresh herbs until soft - carrots al dente. Turn veggies off if needed to reduce chicken stock.
When reduced and delicious - adjust as needed - put strainer over pot with veggies and strain broth
into it. Bring to a boil and add matzoh balls or dumplings if desired. 

Who doesn't love a bowl of delicious chicken soup??

Hope you have a lovely, uniquely you day today. Merry Christmas!

Loveyameanitbye.