Playing with Watercolors

 

Last week I told you that I bought a set of Winsor & Newton watercolors. I didn't have much time to really try them out, but I did play around a little bit and this is my contribution to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date this week.

I made four watercolor backgrounds with a wet on wet technique that I learned in one of those free online classes and then stamped an image over it. 

 The color combination for this card was inspired by Toni Burt's taster lesson for LifeBook 2023. The stamp is by Stampington & Company.

"Lovely as a tree" is a favorite stamp set of mine by Stampin' Up. This card pretty much turned out the way I wanted it to be.

This Da Vinci woman is another favorite stamp - this one is by Rubber Baby from 1991. I actually dabbed away most of the color after I had put it on the paper. I love the subtle look. This is for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

I love everything ocean, so there had to be a lighthouse in the mix. The stamp is by Stampendous (1989).

When I came to the US I heard for the first time of Italian sausage. I had never seen that in Italy. Over time is has become a popular item for our dinners - I love the fennel flavor. Last week I made crumbled up sweet Italian sausage with zucchini, eggplant and tomatoes (all from my garden), garlic and Italian herbs (I used the Penzey's mix "Tuscan Sunset") and a little bit of cream. It was good.

New Watercolors

 

Last week I got new watercolors. These are the Cotman Watercolours from Winsor & Newton. So far I have only had a little travel set (also Winsor & Newton), but while I enjoyed mixing the colors, I was still craving more. This studio set had been on my radar for about six months and after I had got a big order through my shop I decided to splurge on this.

First, I unpacked all the little half pans and painted a sample with each color to see what they look like when they have dried on watercolor paper. 

I'm still little experienced when it comes to watercolors, but I really want to learn how to use them. While I painted quite a bit with watercolors, I didn't really know what I was doing. Not that I know much more right now, but eventually I will. After all, my word of this year is "explore".

So I painted a tiny little piece because my fingers were itching to try out these colors. I used a stamp and simply colored it in, adding the chili peppers as a final touch.

This is my art part for Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date. Now on to the dinner part.

There are still tomatoes and zucchini that I harvest from my garden. Last week I made veggie pasta with shrimp that I had marinated in sesame oil, smoked paprika and salt & pepper. Zucchini and tomatoes came from the garden plus Red German garlic from the garlic guy at the farmers market.

I had put a little chili sesame oil in it towards the end of cooking time to give it a bit of a kick - it was delicious!

What are you cooking these days?

Autumn Blessings

 Autumn - the most beautiful season in my opinion. Therefore, the current challenge at Try it on Tuesday, "Autumn Blessings" was perfect for me.

I have a box labelled "Fall" that contains all of my autumn themed stamps and embellishments. I haven't bought any new stamps or embellishments or papers for ages and was just digging through my old stuff. No new images or add-ons, all of these cards are made with whatever was available. Oldies but goldies.

"Autumn is a second spring"

I cut the file folder card with my Coluzzle out of patterned cardstock (Scenic Route), attached the stamped pumpkin (Stampendous) and embellished with brown ribbon, a pumpkin brad and a trianlge shaped paper clip. I don't know who made the stamp with the beautiful quote by Albert Camus.

"Autumn Pears"

Again I used the same Coluzzle template to cut a different file folder shape out of Bazzill cardstock.  I still have some glossy paper that I made with alcohol inks years ago that I cut and attached to metallic cardstock. The pears (A Stamp in the Hand) were stamped with green Stazon ink. Maple leaves were punched out of metallic paper and the tiny paper clip added as a final touch.

"Bountiful"

Yellow, olive green and ochre cardstock were matted on top of each other (with the yellow as the card base). Another alcohol ink paper piece was stamped with a cornucopia and a text stamp (Hero Arts). Two maple leaves, punched out of the alcohol ink paper, were added as well as the word "bountiful" (Hero Arts).

"Turning Leaves"

A super simple card! Different pieces of patterned (Scenic Route) and solid cardstock were mounted on top of each other, the top one with the autumn tree (Inkadinkado) stamped with Kaleidacolor. I cut two circles from leftover bits of cardstock and stamped the top one with "turning leaves" (Hero Arts). Finally, a maple leaf brad - done.

"Autumn"

The base of the card is Bazzill cardstock, topped with scrapbook paper that I randomly stamped with the leafy twig (Magenta). The oval was stamped with autumn themed words (Hero Arts), I punched two holes to pull the ribbon through and added an oak leaf die-cut.

"Autumn Greetings" - my favorite.

This card is based on olive green Bazzill cardstock. I cut out squares from an old dictionary and "painted" them with stamp pads. Using bubble wrap I stamped dots with orange acrylic paint and stamped a row of colorful leaves on the bottom. This bare tree is one of my favorite stamps (PSX), I use it all the time. "Autumn Greetings" (Northwoods Rubber Stamps) appear on the left.

If you're still here - thanks for your patience and looking at my cards. There are so many creative works with this theme that you can see here.