Watercolour Play Album - Birch Trees

 I had watched a video of someone painting Birch trees and I really wanted to have a go. I found a photo on-line but neither the bases nor the tops of the trees were included, it was a mid-shot.

I took some time observing the tree trunks and trying to get a feel of the bark and I wanted to give a suggestion of some landscape around them.

I added some grasses at the bottom of the painting which then became the bases of the trees! I realised, when I'd finished, this didn't work as I had them all lined up like soldiers. Realistically they would be separated out as they must have been if we'd actually seen the bases of the trees themselves in the photo. The perspective is all wrong! - a learning curve to check out in the future.

But I still like the feel of the painting and am quite pleased with the tree trunks.

xxx

Watercolour painting with Distress Watercolor Pencils

Coneflower or Echinacea

Set up with under drawing on smooth watercolour paper and pink colours mixed on my palette.

Wet on wet using the pink colours and clean water. I'm not yet at a stage where I can mix colours on a brush to achieve variations so I use different brush for each colour and mix with water. This was left to dry naturally as I didn't want the colours moved about more by drying with a heat gun.

As each layer progressed so the painting emerged ......

I finished off my painting by using black Uni-Ball pens to outline and add some squiggles for more interest.

If you are here visiting me, thank you for stopping by.

xxx

Materials

Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor pencils Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick,Candied Apple, Blueprint Sketch, Back Soot, Mowed Lawn, Bundled Sage, Rustic Wilderness, Wild Honey, Chipped Sapphire.

Watercolour brushes sizes 4,6,8 and 10.

UniPin Fineliner Pens Black 0,1, 0.5, and 0.8

Playing with Distress Watercolor Pencils - choosing the right stamps to colour up.

 Playtime just for me recently - no challenges or FB posts to think about just me wanting to explore how different stamps would work with the Distress Watercolor Pencils (DWPs) how they would stamp, the effects achieved and what to look out for when choosing my next stamps to work with.

Process steps -

Create a distress background with the dip, drip and dry method.

I haven't photographed it but I used a stamp platform for this technique which allows me to stamp over the same image as many times as I want as long as I don't remove the stamp.

I used wet DWPs on the stamp to get some depth of colour. To get them wet I just dipped them in a jar of water for a few seconds to activate the pigment and scribbled over the places I wanted the colour to be.

This stamp is from an old set of Tim Holtz stamps - Distress Damask CMS190 and although I love the damask designs this is definitely a stamp I would not use with the DWPs again. The etching of the stamps is so fine in many places the pigment from the pencils just lay in the tiny crevices and it was very hard to get a good outline of the images in it.

I will definitely add this to my new watercolour book as a reference point reminding me to look for stamps that have nice flat areas and space to get a good stamp from the coloured images.

Here you can see that I lay my wet pencils on a piece of kitchen roll between dippings and at times some colours might get to close to other pencils and leave some pigment behind on them.

I gently use damp kitchen roll or a babywipe to clean them up and leave them out for a while to dry out before putting them back in their tins.

xxx

Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring bunny 2 for Country View Crafts

 Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring Bunny? 

This is my second inspirational project for Country View Crafts March theme.

I do love making a piece of home decor especially for special occasions, so this has been added to my Easter display box.

Cut Tim Holtz Mr Rabbit die, prime with white gesso then pounce grey acrylic paint over it.

Take modelling paste and pounce over and dry.

Add some rusty looking areas and paint in an eye.

Add a circular top to a wooden box and gesso it all.

Scrape gesso over all areas with a palette knife and dry.

Use Scorched Timber, Walnut Stain, Hickory Smoke and Black Soot distress watercolor pencils to create drips and drops on the surfaces.

Use the tiny Tim Holtz Sidekick Order 'Springtime' pack of dies to cut the little rabbit from a scorched timber distress oxide background and the butterflies I cut from a leftover piece of distressed painty background. Add them to the box with some greenery from the Holiday Greens and Festive Gatherings dies.

I added moss and natural elements to the little nest I stuck the rabbit to.....

..... and I stuck this to a base and added more moss and sticks.

I have placed this piece of decor under a cloche to form part of an Easter display in my dining room.

Here is a shabby metal rabbit I have that gave me the inspiration for this project.

xxx

Supplies - products and brands from Country View Crafts

Tim Holtz Mr Rabbit die

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/bigz-bigz-l--bigz-xl-dies-156-c.asp

DecoArt white gesso and white modelling paste.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-mixed-media-enhancers-850-c.asp

 

DecoArt dark grey and quinacridone gold acrylic paint,

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/decoart-mixed-media-fluid-acrylics-848-c.asp

 

Tim Holtz distress ink scorched timber.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Tim Holtz distress oxide scorched timber.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-oxide-ink-pads--reinkers-1049-c.asp

Tim Holtz idea-ology salvaged rabbits.https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp

Tim Holtz Sidekick Order 'Springtime' pack of dies. (Retired)

Tim Holtz Sizzix Holiday Greens

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/661597---sizzix-thinlits-die---11pk---holiday-greens-mini-by-tim-holtz-152420-p.asp

Tim Holtz Sizzix Festive Gatherings

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/666333---sizzix-thinlits-die-set-6pk---festive-gatherings-by-tim-holtz-171111-p.asp

Cosmic Shimmer glue

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer---glues-fluffy-stuff--accents-1522-c.asp

 

Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring Bunny for Country View Crafts

Mad March Hare or a sweet Spring Bunny? 

This is my inspirational project for Country View Crafts March theme.

He who wanders is not lost

I found several Cottontails from the TH die that had been roughly scraped texture paste over them. Cottontail on the right is a plain die-cut, the one on the left is textured with some pencil details.

I chose the cottontail to use and with a graphite pencil I drew in some details of a hare/rabbit and then took Lost Shadow, Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Black Soot and Scorched Timber distress watercolor pencils and coloured him in. These pencils are so versatile and I think bunny looks so much more realistic now.

I decided to make this hoppity into a collage panel so started to gather some pieces to work with - a background form my leftovers folder, Tim Holtz tissue paper, ephemera and entomology moth, stamped sentiment and 'Big Chat' word and spent time arranging them into a composition.

The composition changed a little as I firmed up how I wanted it to be.

And I fell in love with cottontail himself and his cute face.

There is a challenge every month on the Country View Crafts FaceBook page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/164920247712393/?multi_permalinks=1464040191133719&notif_id=1708239957586108&notif_t=group_activity&ref=notif

xxx

Supplies from Country View Crafts

Distress Watercolor Pencils

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-watercolor-pencils-1598-c.asp

Collage paper - 

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/th93705-tim-holtz-idea-ology---collage-paper-botanical-171830-p.asp

Big Chat

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp

Ephemera Pack- Number Strips

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/th94222---tim-holtz-idea-ology---ephemera-pack-snippets---number-strips-171863-p.asp

Ephemera Pack - Layers - Urban

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-idea-ology-102-c.asp

Stamps - Nature's Wonder CMS 343

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cms343-tim-holtz-cling-mounted-stamp-set---natures-wonder-172377-p.asp

Stamps - Entomology

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-stamps-by-stampers-anonymous-193-c.asp

Sizzix dies - Entomology

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/sizzix-thinlits-and-framelits-die-sets-wstamps-by-tim-holtz-519-c.asp

Distress ink - Scorched Timber

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/ranger---tim-holtz---distress-ink-pad--scorched-timber-171734-p.asp

How can you tell that a rabbit is getting old? Look for the grey hares. 

What do you call a happy rabbit?    A Hop-timist

Why don’t rabbits get hot in the summer?  They have hare conditioning

Stamps and Distress Watercolor Pencils

Stamping with Distress Watercolor Pencils 

What are your greatest loves in life? 

‘Love’2nd project February 2024 Country View Crafts

For me it has to start with family and this card will be for my daughter's birthday this year.

Process Steps

Focus panel. Langton Hot press card – watery dip, drip and dry background using Worn Lipstick, Scorched Timber, Aged Mahogany Oxides.

Bundled Sage, Aged Mahogany and Lumberjack Plaid Distress Watercolor Pencils to stamp Floral Outlines CMS430 using the stamp platform.

Water brush and rough palette with Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive and Scorched Timber to watercolour the leaves.

Fired Brick, Spun Sugar and Scorched Timber to watercolour the flowers.

I knew I needed to mute and distress the watercolours, so I blended Scorched Timber distress ink around the edges and when there was hardly any ink left in the foam pad I rubbed it gently over the whole card. 

I loved the effect of the Distress Watercolor Pencils with the Scorched Timber distress ink, it started to look like a piece of vintage wallpaper.

The backing paper is from Stamperia Rose Parfum collection.

Three idea-ology gumdrop hearts which were daubed with Aged Mahogany Distress Stain and heat dried.....

 Mummy Cloth, a little bit of Greenery I think came from Festive Greenery, thread and flowers from my drawer.

A sentiment stamped from Simple Sayings CMS 155

Products

Tim Holtz – Oxides, Distress Watercolor Pencils, distress inks and blenders, Floral Outlines CMS430 stamp, idea-ology gumdrop hearts, Mummy Cloth, Aged Mahogany Distress Stain, Simple Sayings CMS 155 stamp

Stamperia – papers - Rose Parfum collection

Worn Lipstick, Scorched Timber, Aged Mahogany Oxides.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-oxide-ink-pads--reinkers-1049-c.asp

Bundled Sage, Aged Mahogany and Lumberjack Plaid, Crushed Olive and Scorched Timber, Fired Brick, Spun Sugar and Scorched Timber, Distress Watercolor Pencils

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-watercolor-pencils-1598-c.asp

Tim Holtz stamps - Floral Outlines, Simple Sayings CMS 155

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-stamps-by-stampers-anonymous-193-c.asp

Tim Holtz - stamp platform.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-by-tonic-studios-200-c.asp

Scorched Timber distress ink.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Stamperia Rose Parfum collection.

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/stamperia---scrapbooking-pad-10-sheets-203-x-203-cm-88-mini-background-selection---rose-parfum-156000-p.asp

idea-ology gumdrop hearts

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/th93681-tim-holtz-idea-ology-gumdrops-15pkg-clear-hearts-90797-p.asp

Aged Mahogany Distress StainlandandDistrict Parish Council

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-stains-214-c.asp

Mummy Cloth

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/th94155-tim-holtz-idea-ology--mummy-cloth-172127-p.asp

Sizzix dies - Festive Greenery

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/sizzix-thinlits-and-framelits-die-sets-wstamps-by-tim-holtz-519-c.asp

Thanks for stopping by.

xxx