New Challenge in Town!

Hello, Hello and Happy New Year!!!

I have exciting news to start out the new year;  there is a new challenge in town that will stretch your creativity- The Rainbow Card Challenge will challenge you to create monochromatic cards!

So, here is your first challenge for the year 2019~

Yes, obviously we are starting out with RED!  I went with a Valentines themed card, but you do not have to do so.  Mynn, one of the challenge co-founders, has made some wonderful graphics for each month's challenge~

I  was inspired by the sketch at (CAS)E This Sketch~

I used an adorable MFT stamp set that is actually one of the United we Flourish stamp sets sold by Ellen Hutson.  It had yet to see ink, but it was perfect for a Valentine card, especially when paired with this fabulous Stamplorations stencil.  The pooches are colored with Copics and the ink color for stenciling is my new favorite red, Gina K's Cherry Red.

I am also linking up to The Mod Squad Challenge- 'Love'.  

You have the entire month of January to create, plenty of time to be stamping all things red!

Thanks for stopping by and have a Blessed New Year!

Lee Ann  

Watercolored Holly

Hello Again!

Have you been participating in Kathy Racoosin's coloring challenge?  I snuck in a couple of projects this weekend.  Coloring is my favorite thing to do and there just is not enough time in the day for it!  I am making a special effort to join in as often as I can this month.  You can find details on the 30 day challenge HERE, on Kathy's blog.

I fell in love with this Ellen Hutson holly as soon as I saw it.  It is just gorgeous!  Love the script sentiments as well. 
I used Arches watercolor paper and started out with Gina K Amalgam black ink, followed by a base of watercolor using Inktense Pencils.  Once I had a few layers of color down, I switched over to Arteza brush pens as I was not getting the deep color that I wanted.  Annnnd now it is a little too deep, lol.  I added details with Prismacolor Pencils.  The background was done with the Arteza brushes.  I used white gel pen and then Crystal Effects on some of the holly berries. 
The sketch I used is from Freshly Made Sketches~

I learned several things in doing this card.  First, if you are watercoloring an image with smooth leaves, do not use cold press paper.  When using colored pencils, avoid cold press paper.  Lastly, do not overwork your image! We keep doing to practice, practice, practice, right?

I still love how this turned out! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed week!

Lee Ann