Where Do I Even Begin...?

Hi guys!!!!  Wow, did I get ever so sidetracked or what..?  I set out to play with a few different mediums using the stamp set Spring Flowers by Simon Says Stamp (see my last "Sneak Peek" post), and I ended up...  well, everywhere BUT playing with Spring Flowers... I did, however,  watch a few days of the Watercolor For Card Makers class by Online Card Classes!!  I absolutely LOVE OCC.  Every class I've taken so far has been packed FULL of great information.   And they make it look so easy!!  I was so pumped and confident after watching day  7.  I thought for sure I could do what they were teaching! Well..., I  attempted to CASE one of Dawn Woleslagle's floral cards.  That was my first mistake.  If you've never watercolored flowers before, it probably isn't the wisest choice to go straight for the best of the best... I should've started out maybe practicing with day 1.  Lesson learned.  But I was in the moment and like I said, I was feeling confident so I went for it!!  That will be my next post..  It wasn't as big of a disaster as I was envisioning but I'm certainly not entering it into any watercoloring challenges any time soon.  Check out my next post to see how this ended.   But anyway, I didn't quite make my way back to my original plan just yet.  I then  proceeded to make a couple other cards that had nothing to do with that Spring Flowers set and THEN I came back and finished what I started, which ended in this card here.  I'm a lot like the dog, Dug from the movie UP.  If you don't know who Dug is, click here to see a short clip. I'm on a mission to complete a task and then all of a sudden, SQUIRREL!!!  

So let's start with the Spring Flowers set since that was my intention.  I wanted to play around with some different watercoloring techniques.  I started out with my Zig watercolor brushes.  I quickly learned that they are NOT my favorite.  And that's not to say they won't end up being my favorite, but for now, let's just say I didn't spend too much time with them.  I am an equal opportunist however, and I do intend to spend a little more time with them because I think if I actually learned how to use them, I might just change my mind about how I feel towards them..

Then I moved on to my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I knew I liked these, I just love how vibrant the colors can be.  Or they can be muted down by adding more water. At this point I didn't know if I wanted to stay in the lines or just cover the image with color.  So I did a little of both.  I still had no idea what I was going to do with all these images..  Truth be told, I still don't.  But that's ok! 

Next, I busted out my Mission watercolor palette and dabbled in a few different color combos.  I really haven't watercolored that much in my whole year and 5 months of card making experience.  I was more experimenting with combining colors and seeing what would happen if I added this color to that or more water or less.  This thought process is what lead me to take a peak at the Online Card Classes Watercolor class.  I purchased the class quite a while ago, but haven't really had time to play around with it just yet.  Before I got totally sidetracked, I played with a couple more watercolor techniques.  Next on my list was Distress Inks!!

I'd say this is my favorite technique so far!!  It just doesn't get any easier than this.   I really liked Peeled paint and Mowed Lawn for the leaves.  And Victorian Velvet made for such a beautiful mauve colored rose.  

Lastly, before moving on to my Copics, I used my distress inks one last time to do some ink blending.  I think I am in love with ink blending.  You can have two totally different colors come together and blend so flawlessly, it's almost magical.  And it's not just distress inks that you can do this with.  I used many Simon Says Stamp ink pads as well.  I cut these in rows so that I didn't cross contaminate the colors and also so that I got that really bright concentrated color at the base of the flower.  

Once I was done with the coloring, I fussy cut all the images out.  I tried cutting them out using my Scan N Cut, but it just wasn't working out for me so I fussy cut them instead.  These were pretty basic shapes so fussy cutting wasn't a problem for me. It's definitely not my first choice, but at this point, it was my only choice..  And just when you thought you've had enough...

I bring in the Copics!!!

There's just something about copic coloring that totally melts me heart.  I love the control I have, I love the flicking in color, I love all the different possibilities, and bringing a black and white image to life.  I love everything about them!!!  

I could color for days without coming up for air.  And I probably would if it weren't for this little thing called a FAMILY that I have to tend to.  I can't believe school is starting on Monday already!!  Where did this summer go?!!?

And then when all the coloring was complete, the real fun began.  Picking and choosing which colors to put together and which flowers go with what...  Can watercolored flowers be mixed with copic colored flowers??

Check out all this color!!  I LOVE it!!  And then a card started to take shape.

I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but it took me awhile to figure out how to keep that cute little curly cue in the long, straight leaves.  I didn't want a one layered card and I knew I wouldn't be able to cut around that tiny little thing, so I did the only thing I could think to do.  I stamped the leaves on the card front and then layered another colored image over the top!!  Voila!!  Problem solved.   

To finish this off, I added some foam adhesive behind some of the images and the sentiment.  I attached a few sequins here and there and some mini rhinestones on the 3 smallest flowers to add some sparkle.  I used the Spectrum Noir Crystal Clear glitter pen on all of the flowers which gave it even more sparkle.  The sentiment came from the Choose Happy set from Simon Says Stamp.  I really like how simple this card looks.  If I were to do it over again, I'd probably add some color behind the flowers.  Either a light watercolor wash, or maybe some ink blending.  The Clarity brushes would have been perfect!!  Ok, I know what I'm doing for my next card now.  I have a craft fair coming up on Labor Day weekend so I'll be making as many cards as I can between now and then.  

 I know this was kind of a loooong post, and I'm working on that.  I still don't know what my blogging style is but I'm going to try and keep it more short and sweet in my posts that follow.  It took me awhile to get this post up but I do still have a family to attend to so all I can do is post when I have the time.  School is starting on Monday so I'm not sure if that's going to give me more time or if it's going to make me even busier since I like to help out in class each week and we also have football practice every night...  Well, you know the song and dance if you've had kids so I won't bore you with the details.  My point is,  this took me so long to get posted.  I gotta get better at this and when I say better, I mean faster, if I ever want to have time to post.  I'm hoping to get some type of schedule here one of these days.  Until then, I will post whenever I can.  Like I said, I have a craft fair coming up so most of my free time will be dedicated to making cards so if I don't get many posts up, that is most likely why.  At least I'll have a lot of material to post about!!  Even if it isn't until after the holiday weekend.  Thank you so much for your patience and thanks for taking the time to read my lengthy post.  I know time is so valuable in everyone's lives whether you have kids or not, whether you work or not, no matter what we all do everyday that shapes our lives, time is one of the most important aspects of anyone's life.  We gotta use it wisely...