Doodling and Smooshing Diddly-Woo

Hello, Friends!

How was your week? Thank you so much for whooshing through it to come here!

There was a recent Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge where Ashley showed us how to doodle our nondetailed stamps. I missed the challenge, but I love the doodle idea so I incorpulated it on both my cards.

Now the current Make It Monday challenge shows us how to watercolor smoosh our backgrounds, which I also love, so I combined both techniques in my first card. Both of these techniques are super fun, so you should check them out.

Here's the smooshed and doodled card:

I have "smooshed" watercolor backgrounds in the past by using my craft sheet or acrylic blocks, but in her awesome video, Betsy shows how to apply ink to a sheet of acetate, spritz it with water, and then lay your paper over the ink. When the paper is lifted, you are left with a lovely watercolor wash. You can repeat the process for more color.

Now you might look at my card background and ask, "huh?" 

I know it's faint, but, honest, I did do the technique! It's just that I was looking for a very soft wash, so I only did the process once. Plus, I used PTI inks of spring rain, aqua mist, and a little enchanted evening, so two out of the three inks are soft. I usually like bright watercolor smooshes and I've got one to show you next week, but occasionally it's nice to go subtile and let the image be the star.

For my leaves and blossoms, I used my NBUS set "Beautiful Blooms II" from Uniko Studio (which I won, squee!). The stamp is a two-step stamp, meaning you stamp the flower "base" and then you overstamp it with the flower detail (lines). Because I wanted to practice doodling, I just stamped the base. I chose to do the doodling with a Micron blue #36 pen, rather than black.

After I doodled the lines, I used my water brush and enchanted evening ink to give the blooms some added dimention. Now that I look at my card on here, I think it looks like shadus interruptus happened and it could use a little more attention to dimention. The sediment is from PTI "Bigger Blooms." The papers are PTI white, enchanted evening, and spring moss. 

Oh, and Hammy wants me to tell you that the flower is also winked with Stella, but it doesn't show.

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And my second card:

The background for this card is a different kind of smooshing. It's the kind of smooshing that lazy stampers do. I took a cotton ball and pounced it alternatively between the spring rain ink pad and the paper. I actually did that after I did the flower and sediment because I felt it needed something. I like how it kinda sorta looks like blue sky peeking through the clouds. Kinda. Sorta.

The cone flower stamp is from SU called "Inspired by Nature." It is a stamp with no detail, so all the lines and dots you see are doodles that I did with my Copic multitliner pen. But first, of course, I painted my flower using my water brush and PTI pure poppy and SU going gray and mint melody. The sediment is from PTI "Think Big Favorites #24." The paper is PTI white and spring rain.

Say what? Oh, yes, here is a close-up of the WOS and the gloss I applied. Hammy is fussing about it because he always has to remind me to add sparkle and shine to my cards.

Thank you to Nichole and the gang for the awesome Make It Monday tutorials! 

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Challenges

• Mod Squad Challenge: Flowers
• Take It Make It Challenge (Craft Stamper): Anything goes with a stamp.

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Some Days Are Sad

I got news today about a dear bloggie friend who's husband is gravely ill. They are much too young for this tragic outcome, so I pray for a miracle.

Also, one of my surrogate moms, Verna, who has appeared here before, recently had a freak accident and she is not doing well. She is 90 years old and somehow she got squished between two automatic sliding doors, breaking her back in four places. She has already survived one broken back, but this is a hard uphill climb for her.

And then.

I missed getting a picture of the baby hummingbird eggs for you, but I did get a couple of the new hummerlings.

Wednesday

Thursday

That was just taken yesterday.

Today when I went out after lunch the nest looked a bit disheveled, so I climbed the ladder and took another picture. I can't see into the nest, even on the ladder and so you can imagine my devastation when I downloaded the photo and found an empty nest except for a couple of feathers. I will spare you the photo.

I'm O-for-2 in the surviving bird experiences in our back yard visible nests. The Mister thinks the mama immediately forgets and moves on, but I don't think he really believes that. He's just saying that to make me feel better, bless him.

I'm sorry to be the bearer of this news, but I got you all enthralled with me so I had to let you know what happened. Sometimes nature can be harsh. Next time I promise I'll take a photo diary and I won't share it with you and get you all becited unless and until it comes to a happy ending.

In the meantime, you take care, watch those sliding doors, and appreciate all the beautiful birds you see. It's a wonder that any of them survive to birdhood.

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And, of course, enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy.  LITS!* 

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to leave a comment and/or join as a follower! Please let me know you came by, so I can be sure and return the flavor!

  

 

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