A Touch of Grace

I had the privilege of teaching a water color class at CHA last week in Anaheim.  To assist the women taking the class, I prepared a three page tutorial that they could follow along with as I spoke.  Since I was speaking, the narrative on the class tutorial was rather simple.  I sized down the photographs to fit within the three pages without placing my watermark on them for better viewing purposes.  For this tutorial I have included more narrative to give you the benefit of what was said in class, together with all of the photographs, so that you can follow along step-by-step.  There are 23 pictures that were sized down for the class tutorial and then were sized back up for this tutorial.  It took me a little longer than I anticipated to make the changes in Photoshop.  In the spirit of sharing, please feel free to print this tutorial for your personal use only. 

To those of you who took my class, I would like to say thank you very much.  I was thrilled that you came and hope that you enjoyed the experience.

In the class we used Canson 140 lbs. coldpressed watercolor paper.  The image was embossed with Ranger Gold/Gold Tinsel embossing powder.  The powders were mixed using a 50/50 ratio.  A 2 Royal Soft-Grip SG250 paintbrush was used to paint the image.  The brush can be purchased at Michael’s for $2.99.   

Ladies, this tutorial is long, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and enjoy the reading.

This first photograph is the completed painting:

To the lower right side of the image is a glistening sheen.  The photo was taken to show the students the proper amount of water needed on the water color paper for the background wash.

Using Tombow markers 555 and 665 dab a small amount of color into the upper corner of the petal, I usually place two/three dots of blue and then place two/three dots of purple on top of the blue.  Using a wet paintbrush, not too loaded with water, start in the lower white portion of the petal and work your way up to the color, gently pulling the color down and blending into the white area.

Using this technique continue on around the flower, painting one petal at a time.

Once your flower is complete, continue on with the rest of the flowers.

It is ideal to vary the color in the petals so that they are not identical.

I’ve continued with the flowers and have added more purple to some.

When the flowers are complete, move on to the leaves. 

Using Tombow marker 249, color a small amount of color onto the outer curve of a leaf.

Using Tombow marker 62, leaving a small portion of white in the lower portion of the leaf, apply color in the lower portion of the leaf blending up and into the darker green.  It’s okay to mix the lighter markers with the darker colors.  You can wipe them on a paper towel until you’ve wiped the darker color off. 

Now take your brush, loaded with water, but not too much, and start at the bottom of the leaf and work your way up blending the color.  You can see in this picture the proper amount of water you should have on your paper.

Continue on around the flowers painting the leaves one at a time.

As you can see, I’ve painted the leaves around the upper portion of the flowers.

Continue on around the flowers and work down to the bottom of the image.  I like to color the flowers before the leaves because the color in the leaves is very intense.  It’s very easy to pick up some of that dark green and contaminate the blue flowers.

The leaves are complete, we are now going to come back in with Tombow markers 177 and 133 and glaze over the first green colors.  By now the leaves you started with should be dry.  You don’t want to start the glazing until the leaves are completely dry, this is very important, or you’ll move the color you’ve carefully blended.

With Tombow marker 177 color over the dark green and with Tombow marker 133 leaving the white and a small portion of the lighter yellow visible, start about mid-leaf and work your way into the dark green, blending the colors.  Using a wet paint brush start at the bottom of the leaf, as you did the first time and work your way up blending the colors. 

Coloring each leaf continue around the flowers.  Do you see how much more colorful the two leaves are that I have completed in this photo with 177 and 133?  You may wonder why I didn’t paint all four colors on the leaves to begin with.  The reason is they would not have the same effect.  One of the reasons I choose to use Tombow markers is because they are artist quality transparent colors.  I laid the first set of greens down that I usually use when I’m painting Christmas holly.  I want brighter, more intense color with these flowers.  By going back in and glazing over the first set of greens I can build up the color.  The effect would not be the same if I used all four colors at once.  Look at the large leaf at the top of the flowers, you can see the pale yellow glowing through the darkers greens.  If I had painted all the colors at once, I wouldn’t see that.  If I had only used 177 and 133, I wouldn’t have these colors, they would be pretty, but I would be missing the beautiful pale yellow glowing through.  The first wash of 249 really makes the 177 intensely dark.

Now that the upper leaves are completed, scroll up and look at the pictures above and then come back and look at the leaves.  Can you see their vibrancy and why I like to layer the washes of green?

I’ve completely finished the leaves and will move on to the centers of the flowers.  If you go back up four pictures, you’ll see this same picture before we added 177 and 133.  I believe you’ll see the difference in color and will note just how vibrant the leaves have become.  Isn’t water color amazing! 

Using Tombow marker 62 color the centers of the flowers.   Go back to the first center you colored and add just a touch of 985 in the corner.  Using an almost dry paintbrush, pull the darker color down just a bit for a smooth gradation of color.  When the centers are finished, using Tombow marker 933, color a small area around the leaves and flowers.  Using a wet paintbrush, pull the color out for your background wash, being careful not to pull the color from your flowers and leaves. 

In this picture, you can see the proper amount of water you should have on your water color paper for pulling and blending your background wash.

Look carefully at this picture, you’ll see that I’ve added the wash in the middle of the image where there are openings between the leaves and flowers.  Again, you’ll see the wet paper, this should give you an idea of how much water you need on your paper.

Continue up and around your image, laying down color and pulling it out, making sure not to let your paper dry to avoid hard water lines.

I have now completed my painting.  As you can see the wash is still wet.  It will be dry to the touch in 15 minutes or so. 

Once a painting is dry, I spray a water mist very lightly on the back and place the image between two pieces of unused water color paper.  I then place that on a flat surface with a stack of heavy books and leave it overnight (or several hours) to dry.  When I take it out, I’ve got a completely flat image and am ready to use it in a design.  In the CHA class, the image was stamped on a card.  You can do the same with the card, spray the inside with the water mist, follow the same procedures, let it dry, and then finish with the design.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tutorial.  As you can imagine, it takes quite a while to paint the image, stopping to take photographs, running the photos through photoshop to size them within the allowable parameters for blogging, place watermarks on them, and then prepare the post itself.  As much as I enjoy that, it does take a lot of time.  I will do my best to prepare future tutorials, as time allows.  

I’m back!  What a whirlwind trip it was too!  I took my camera, my laptop, and my card reader thinking I would be blogging every day from Anaheim.  Little did I know how hectic and exhausting it was going to be!  I woke up last Saturday morning at 3:15 a.m. and flew to Anaheim.  I checked into the hotel and headed to the convention center to set up.  

The excitement of CHA was infectious, the show kicked off with these bagpipe players.

To add to the excitement Paris Hilton made an appearance.   Now for some this was incredibly exciting; so exciting that the masses filled into our booth and the booth beside us.  Fans were actually standing up on the displays in the booth beside ours and falling through the curtains into our booth, knocking down our displays.  We were blocked in our booth by the crowd for three hours.  Once Paris and her crowd left, we put our poor little booth back together again.  Unfortunately the damage was done to our curtains and we had problems with them the remainder of the show.

ETA:  I’ve received questions about why Paris Hilton would be at a craft and hobby show.  From what I understand a company paid for the use of her name on a product they are retailing.  I saw scrapbook albums and jewelry kits for little girls.  Paris came Sunday afternoon for photo ops and autographs.

Despite starting off with such a disastrous event for our booth, we had a wonderful time at CHA.  I met up with many friends and met new ones.  Here I am with Carolyn King (Cammie) and Carole Burrage (Tru Car Ma) at the My Favorite Things booth.

Sunday evening I was able to sneak away for dinner with the “dirty girls”.  What an event! It was so exciting to finally meet so many of the friends I’ve made at SCS.

Standing - Lisa Johnson; seated - Jenn Balcer and Natasha Trupp.

Jami Sibley and Michelle Giraud

Taylor VanBruggen and Lori Craig

Carole Burrage and Sharon Harnist

Sherrie Siemens and Jami Sibley (Taylor in the background)

Laurie Schmidlin and Carolyn King

Daven, Cindy Lawrence, and Tosha Leyendekker

Amy Sheffer and Carole Burrage

Lori Craig and Val Stangle

Me and Emily Giovanni.  Emily is the sweetest ever, totally precious!  I’ve decided that since I don’t have any daughters I’m going to adopt her.  Which will make me an instant grandmother as Emily has three adorable little boys.  Yikes, I’d better tell the hubby our family’s growing.   And Emily will need a sister, so I’ve decided I’m going to adopt Natasha as well.  Both these girls are totally adorable and were so much fun!

I taught a water color class at CHA and will be back tomorrow to post a tutorial of the picture we painted.

I’ve been so busy working on CHA samples, I haven’t had an opportunity to sit down and blog.  As soon as I return, I’m going to start posting what I’ve been working on and will start on the purse tutorial I promised.  Today I’d like to share a purse I designed several months ago.  My dear friend, Joan Ervin, created a fabulous design that I fell in love with.  After practically begging Joan (please, please, please, please), I know, I’m totally shameless, she graciously shared her stash of that wonderful leopard print DP with me.  I designed a set of matching luggage to go with it.  If you haven’t stopped by Joan’s blog, please do, she’s got this fabulous, totally gorgeous Valentine’s card posted with three insanely gorgeous roses on it, you can’t miss it, stop by and check it out.

I was so excited with the purse when I completed it, my favorite part is the handle, just love that!  I have it on my desk to make a template, I altered the design so many times from the original template that it was, for all intents and purposes, practically useless.  So, a new template will be forthcoming as well as a new design.  It is my plan to have it blogged some time in February following the purse tutorial.

No stamps were used on this design.

• Paper:  Ruby Red, Basic Black, Leopard DP
• Ink:  Ranger Old Linen Distress Ink, Versamark
• Accessories:  Coluzzle, black grosgrain ribbon, Making Memories gold brads, paper piercer, SU Mat Pack, EK Success oval punches, Fiskars embossing template, , stylus, heating tool, SU black marker, Elephant charm, gold chain, jump ring, large corner punch, medium corner punch, Anna Griffin alphabet embossing template, Ranger gold EP (for initial)

I’m so sorry I didn’t get the last purse posted three days ago as promised.  I’ve been working on an ensemble for CHA that is taking me far longer than I anticipated and I also took a day off from stamping and drove over to Orlando Saturday to met up with some of my SCS friends for a funtastic night.  There are times when I truly believe I’m a total ditz!  I forgot my camera and remembered it about halfway over to Orlando.  My new friend, whom I totally adore, Silke Ledlow, sent me these pictures from her camera.  Thank you so much Silke, you’re a treasure!  I also got to finally meet a person who holds a very special place in my heart, we are fellow “Dirty Sisters” and were on the Dirty Dozen Design Team together, and without further adieu, the absolutely wonderful Denise Marzec . . . . love you Denise! We had a fantastic dinner at Don Pablo’s where this picture was taken and then went for coffee and I’m afraid I talked their ears off.  I tend to be a chatterer, especially when I’m excited, and boy was I excited that night!  Also at the dinner were Deb Felts, Penny Allen, and Kathy.  Deb and I met up at Regionals in Tampa two years ago, I was so excited to see her again.  I met Penny and Kathy for the first time and those two ladies kept us in stitches over Penny’s pond full of Gators and Beavers.

Standing:  Deb Felts, Penny Allen & Kathy

Seated:  Me, Silke Ledlow, and Denise

Denise and Silke, aren’t they adorable!

Edited to add this picture sent to me by Deb Felts

Today’s purse is a rose purse that I designed using the small rose border stamp.  Due to time constraints, I have not taken a photo of the stamps.  I will edit my post at a later date to include the picture.

I stamped the rose border around the edges of the purse and embossed it in gold and then stamped it again in the middle of the purse and embossed it in white.  I masked the gold embossing before stamping with Versamark for the white embossing. I water colored the gold embossing and used a mixture of Pearl Ex and Gum Arabic to paint the white embossed flowers.  The little flowers for the clasps were stamped from the Wildflowers stamp, water colored, cut out, and covered with several layers of Crystal Effects.

I added a little extra on the inside of this purse.   After attaching the water colored Mulberry paper, I attached a pocket that I stamped and embossed on vellum cardstock using the Lace Scarf stamp.  Once I adhered that down, I then drew with a Versamarker around the edge of the purse and embossed it.  The little pocket is perfect for including a gift card.  I plan on making similar cards for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother’s Day and including gift cards to their favorite shops.

• Stamps:  Elegant Inspirations Sentiment, Stampin’ Up!
• Paper:  Canson 140 lbs. cold-pressed water color paper, White Mulberry Paper, Vellum cardstock
• Ink:  Versamark; Versapen
• Accessories:  Tombow markers, heating tool, watercolor brush, blending pen, Ranger gold/gold tinsel EP, Crystal Effects; pearl beads, dimensionals, craft knife, self-healing cutting mat, More Mustard Reinker

Hi everyone, today is day three for the purse series I’m featuring this week.  Today’s purse is a chintz purse that I designed using the chintz background stamp.  I’m including in this post a picture of the stamps used to create the purse so that you can see the size of the stamps as well as providing the stamp numbers below in blue.

The chintz purse was designed using the chintz background stamp.  After stamping the purse frame, I stamped the chintz background stamp and embossed it.  I stamped it again on a separate piece of water color paper. I painted the purse and the stamped image.  I let the image dry overnight and then cut out the flowers and leaves using a craft knife.  Several layers of Crystal Effects were applied, drying thoroughly between each application.  I attached the enameled flowers to the purse using dimensionals.  To make the leaf clasps, I stamped the Daisy stamp that I featured yesterday several times and cut out the same leaf four times, I painted them and let them dry overnight.  I applied several layers of Crystal effect to the leaves, letting it dry thoroughly between coats.  In real life the leaves look like emeralds, the entire purse has an enameled jewel tone effect, it doesn’t show up as pretty in the picture as it does in real life.  I used Stampin’ Up!’s More Mustard for the background wash.  I have found that Crystal Effects, if applied thinly, in several layers, dries clearer than clear embossing power and looks more like enamel.  I’ve tried using UTEE and it either turns cloudy or tints a yellowish color and sometimes has small bubbles in it.  It’s also messier to work with and the edges get a little chunky.  I have much more control with Crystal Effects and a much prettier effect.

I apologize for the poor quality of this picture, it’s very blurred and dark.  I normally take more time and get several shots, but the National Championship game is getting ready to start and I’ve got to put my priorities in order folks. Go Gators!

As you can see, these are the stamps I used for the Chintz purse.  Not included is the Daisy Border stamp that I featured yesterday and the Stampin’ Up! sentiment.  Please check back in tomorrow for the last purse in the series.

• Stamps:   Stampin’ Up!
• Paper:  Canson 140 lbs. cold-pressed water color paper, White Mulberry Paper
• Ink:  Versamark; Versapen
• Accessories:  Tombow markers, heating tool, watercolor brush, blending pen, Ranger gold/gold tinsel EP, Crystal Effects; pearl beads, dimensionals, craft knife, self-healing cutting mat, More Mustard Reinker

Hi everyone, today is day two for the purse series I’m featuring this week.  This is my favorite purse in the series.  As I did yesterday, I’m including in this post a picture of the stamps used to create the purse so that you can see the size of these stamps as well as the stamp numbers.   This week I’m going to be featuring four purses that I have made and, you guessed it, these purses are going to CHA with me so that all of you who attend can see them in person.

This is my daisy purse.  It consists of six stamps, three of which are shown in this picture.  The two flower clasps were stamped from the Violet Border stamp I featured yesterday on the violet purse.  They were water colored, cut out and left to dry over night.  The following morning I applied Crystal Effects and let that dry for a couple of hours.  I did that three times to build depth without it getting cloudy.  The tip is to apply Crystal Effects in thin layers several times allowing it to dry thoroughly between each layer.  The mesh you see in the middle of the purse is a mesh background stamp, shown below.  The purse stamp itself is the outline of the purse, also shown below.  In this series, I’ve tried to provide backgrounds that enhance the designs and colors of the purses.  The blurred images are almost like a water color itself!  I love the splash of gold on the left side, it brings out the gold in the bottom of the purse.  Looking closely at this image, you can see Kaiser pearls in clusters just above the flowers. Joan’s Garden’s sells these beautiful pearls.

This photograph is a picture of the inside of the purse.  To make the purse I first stamped the purse outline on water color paper and embossed it, I then cut a piece of white mulberry paper for the lining to be placed on the inside of the purse.  I used the stamp that I used on the lower portion of the front of the purse to stamp the daisies on the Mulberry paper.  Mulberry paper is sheer, like a very thin cotton and so beautiful.  I used it on the inside of the purse to give the appearance of a sheer cotton lining like you would see in a formal clutch purse.  I stamped the Mulberry paper with Versamark, embossed it and then water colored it.

To give you pictures with a little more detail I’m including the upper and lower portions of the inside of the purse in two separate pictures.

The colors came out beautifully vivid on the Mulberry paper, I was very pleased with the results.

Here are the stamps minus the sentiment from Stampin’ Up!.  You can substitute any sentiment stamp you want, I used this verse because I felt this is a beautiful gift to give someone who may be ill or feeling down.

When I return from CHA, I will be featuring a tutorial on how to make this purse from start to finish with pictures as well as written instructions.  We’ll start with embossing, I’ll show you how to mask the front of the purse to make it appear as  just one stamp has been used.  We’ll emboss it and then I’ll show you how to make the actual shape of the purse.  We’ll then size and cut the Mulberry paper and I’ll show you how to emboss that as well.  I’ll show you step-by-step how to paint the leaves, the flowers, and background on the front of the purse, as well as the Mulberry paper on the inside of the purse, I’ll provide a list of the Tombow markers that we’ll use.  I’ll also provide a list of all the supplies you’ll need to complete and assemble the purse once you’ve completed the watercoloring.  I’ll show you how to attach the Mulberry paper to the inside of the purse and to emboss the outer edges, and lastly we’ll adhere our floral clasps, as well as our beaded purse strap to complete our design.  Does it sound like fun?  You’ll be amazed at how beautiful your design will be.  Today is day two of the four day series.  When you’re ready to give it a try, you’ll have four different designs to choose from, or you can make up your own design with any stamp of your choosing.  Look at the picture above, do you see the stamp in the lower right corner with the daisies?  That stamp was made specifically to fit within the purse.  Two of the purses I’ll be featuring this week were designed with stamps that were made for the purse.  The fourth purse was designed with a background stamp that I chose and I’ll explain how I did that as well.

If you like this design, you’ll want to check back tomorrow for design three in this series.

• Stamps:  Stampin’ Up!
• Paper:  Canson 140 lbs. cold-pressed water color paper, White Mulberry Paper
• Ink:  Versamark; Versapen
• Accessories:  Tombow markers, heating tool, watercolor brush, blending pen, Ranger gold/gold tinsel EP, Crystal Effects; pearl beads, dimensionals, Pearl Ex Pearl White Powder, Gum Arabic, craft knife, self-healing cutting mat, Dazzling Diamonds,Kaiser Pearls

I just love this purse!  It’s one of my favorites to play with.   What I love most about the purse stamp is how versatile it is.  I can design any purse I want.  This week I’m going to be featuring four purses that I have made and, you guessed it, these purses are going to CHA with me so that all of you who attend can see them in person.

This is my violet purse.  It consists of four stamps, three of which are shown in this picture.  I’m featuring it first because my grandmother’s name was Violet and while I didn’t appreciate such a beautiful name when I was a child, I’m now crazy about it. The two flower clasps were stamped from the stamp used along the bottom of the purse shown in the picture at the bottom of this post, they were water colored, cut out and left to dry over night.  The following morning I applied Crystal Effects and let that dry for a couple of hours.  I did that three times to build depth without it getting cloudy.  The tip is to apply Crystal Effects in thin layers several times allowing it to dry thoroughly between each layer.  The mesh you see in the middle of the purse is a mesh background stamp, shown below.  The purse stamp itself is the outline of the purse, also shown below.  Isn’t the background so lovely in this picture, it’s almost like a water color itself!

This photograph is a picture of the upper portion of the inside of the purse, I wanted to give you a shot with a little more detail.  The butterfly is the fourth stamp used in the design.  I water colored it, cut it out, and adhered it to the inside of the purse.  To make the purse I first stamped the purse outline on water color paper and embossed it, I then cut a piece of white mulberry paper for the lining to be placed on the inside of the purse.  I used the stamp that I used on the lower side of the front of the purse to stamp the violets on the Mulberry paper.  Mulberry paper is sheer, like a very thin cotton and so beautiful.  I used it on the inside of the purse to give the appearance of a sheer cotton lining like you would see in a formal clutch purse.  I stamped the Mulberry paper with Versamark, embossed it and then water colored it.

This photograph is a picture of the upper and lower portions of the inside of the purse.  I apologize for the darkness of it, I didn’t have the benefit of sunlight and my OTT light wasn’t strong enough to function as a flash .  .  . LOL.   Looking at this picture, I now see that I actually used five stamps.  A stamp from Stampin’ Up!’s Elegant Inspirations was used for the verse.  Do you see the gold outline going around the edge of the purse?  I used a Versapen to draw that line and then sprinkled embossing powder on the outer edge and embossed it, being careful not to overheat and burn the embossing previously done on the flowers.

If you like this design, you’ll want to check back tomorrow for the next design in this series.

• Stamps:   Stampin’ Up!
• Paper:  Canson 140 lbs. cold-pressed water color paper, White Mulberry Paper
• Ink:  Versamark; Versapen
• Accessories:  Tombow markers, heating tool, watercolor brush, blending pen, Ranger gold/gold tinsel EP, Crystal Effects; pearl beads, dimensionals, Pearl Ex Pearl White Powder, Gum Arabic, craft knife, self-healing cutting mat

Hi everyone, CHA is fast approaching and I’ve got to get in design mode!  I’ll be busy over the next couple of weeks getting ready for my trip to California.   I have several designs on my blog using this stamp and I’m in the process of categorizing all of my designs so that when you click on the category, you’ll see different designs for that particular stamp.  This stamp’s actual name is birdhouse flowers, but I like to call it wildflowers because it reminds me so much of a spray of wildflowers.

I’ve designed a bookmark using my new long rectangle Nestibilities that I ordered from Joan’s Gardens as well as an order for Kaiser pearls, I love those pearls!  I added the pearls to the glittered butterflies in different sizes using the Martha Stewart butterfly punch.   This design also qualifies for Sharon Johnson’s ssnotime67 - new toys challenge; not only am I using new nesties and pearls, but I’m also using new bookmark tassels from The Paper Company.  My son said these won’t make good bookmarks because of the dimension of the butterflies (three layers total).  Silly guy, these are for looks, not function! Really . . . guys just don’t get it!

Oh, and isn’t this picture so lovely with the background colors, they almost blend right in with the actual design.  Another new toy was a fabulous Canon camera from my hubby, it’s just perfect for taking pictures of my projects, isn’t he such a sweetie! I think he was more excited Christmas morning than I was.

I made six bookmarks and will be bringing some to CHA as samples.  I hope to see many of you there, please come by to say Hi.

• Stamps:   A Muse Sentiment
• Paper:  Prism Dark Cobalt Blue, Bienfang water color paper 140 lbs. cold-pressed
• Ink:  Versamark, SU Classic Black
• Accessories:  Water color brush, hole punch, Martha Stewart butterfly punch; long rectangle nesties, Krylon gold leaf pen, bookmark tassle, heating tool, Ranger gold/gold tinsel EP, Kaiser Pearls, dimensionals, Tombow markers, Dazzling Diamonds, Glue Glider

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s.  I’ve taken the last two weeks off to spend time with my husband and sons.  Stephen came home from college on the 16th and returns to Nashville tomorrow (sigh), I’m going to miss him so!  Daniel also goes back to school on Tuesday, I imagine it’s going to be very quiet here with everyone gone.  My husband took vacation time during the holiday (for the first time ever) so you can see why I haven’t been blogging.  We’ve had a wonderful and relaxing time.

I’ll be back tomorrow to share a post with you of a project I worked on this weekend.  I finished late this evening and didn’t have the proper lighting for a good picture.  I like to take my photos in natural sun light as I don’t do very well with Photoshop (another item to put on my
“to do” list .  .  . learn Photoshop!).  Check out  Joan’s Gardens, she’s offering a few items I’ve used in my project that I’ll be posting tomorrow.

Sandi, Diana, and I met last Friday with the team designing the Me & Carrie Lou internet store and are hoping it will be up and running before the end of the month.  I will announce the opening here on my blog and will provide a link to the store in my sidebar.  We are headed to CHA at the end of the month and I hope to see you there.