Sunday, February 14, 2016

Brush Calligraphy Update

Hi all! It's been a month since I first bought the Brush Letter Practice Guide (links on the sidebar) so I thought I'd do an update post.

Here's a comparison pic of the same sheet that I did on Jan. 14 and Feb. 14 (the Feb ones are the 2 on the bottom):


Both were done with round brushes - it took me a while to get the hang of it and I'm still practicing!  You can see that I had a *really* hard time with the brush on Day 1 - I wasn't getting enough variation between thicks and thins and I had the bristles going all over the place and distorting my letters.  Today I have much better control - not many extra paint marks where I don't want them and much better variation between thick and thin.  Also you can see that I'm playing with mixing colors during lettering - it makes it even more fun!

So here's what I've been doing: I finished all the traceables for the lowercase letters and am slowly working on the uppercase (I've skipped the numbers for now).  I have to admit that some of the uppercase letters are really hard and that's why I'm working sloooowly.

In January I had printed 3 copies of the Traceables because I really needed the extra practice.  Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I've cut down the Traceable for February to 2 copies.  I've also printed a bunch of blank lined papers to practice freehand.  

To me, what makes me practice more is making it fun.  And I do that by using a wide variety of paints.  Different types of paints (cheap pan watercolors, more pricey tube colors, shimmery paints, etc.) and lots of different colors.  I'll do a linky below of the stuff I've been using.

If you're trying out the brush lettering, please leave a comment and tell me how you're doing!  I'd love to hear about what's working for other people on this same journey!  TFL!

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Hello

It's me.  :)  I have a card today for a couple challenges.

The first challenge is from Papertrey Ink - to be inspired by a piece of clothing.  I just recently got this dress from Gap:


I loved the black on black dots and the velvet texture of the dots and this is what I came up with:



I applied Graphite texture paste through the Falling Hearts stencil and let dry.  Then I used the hello die and cut it from black craft foam, black cardstock (PTI), and black glitter paper.  I layered them together and mounted on a plain strip of black cardstock.

This is also for Crafty Creations - Hearts.  I hope you like it and TFL!



Monday, February 8, 2016

Always & Forever

Hi all!  I have a card for several challenges today:


I stamped the heart image using my MISTI with Memento ink and colored with Copics.  Then I overstamped (again with the MISTI) with Versafine for a really crisp black finish.  I cut it out with my ScanNCut2 and foam mounted it over some balled up iridescent tinsel.  Finally I stamped the sentiment with my MISTI in Versafine.

This is for the following challenges:

I hope you like it and TFL!


Sunday, February 7, 2016

Heart of Gold

Hi all!  Today I have a card made for a few challenges:


The heart was stamped with Versamark ink and embossed with Detail Gold EP.  I then watercolored in the little triangles with my Finetec palette in shades of Silver Pearl, Shining Pink, and Green Pearl. I fussy cut it out and mounted it over some gold thread with foam tape.  Then I embossed the sentiment with the same Detail Gold powder and cut the ends into fishtails.

This is for the following challenges:

I hope you like it and TFL!


Saturday, February 6, 2016

Shinhan Watercolors and a Palette Tip

Hi all! Today I have a post about some watercolor paints I bought a while back - Shinhan Watercolors.  I just took the Online Card Classes Intermediate Watercoloring class and had a lot of fun playing with these paints!  Here's a pic of the box:




And the paint tubes:


They are 7.5 ml each.  I've seen most other tube paints come in 15 ml or 5 ml, so this is an in-between size.  Initially I thought the tubes were a little small, but once I saw how little paint I needed, I realized that there's actually a pretty good amount of paint here.

I bought a Folding Palette with 28 paint wells in it and was able to fit all 30 colors, except for the black and white, which I don't use much anyway.  Here's what it looks like closed:



And open:


You can see that I've labeled each well with the color name so I'll know which paint goes where.  It was really simple with my label maker and 6 mm label tape.  The tape is laminated, so it resists the water and paint that goes over the labels.  I haven't had any problems yet with the tape lifting or getting messed up.

So anyway, I'm no watercolor artist, but I'm really liking these paints - very nice saturated color and they mix and paint very nicely (sorry I don't know more artistic terms!).  Here are a couple cards I made using these paints and techniques from the watercolor class:


The card above uses a pear image from Your Next Stamp and the card below uses stamps from Create A Smile.


That's all for now.  I hope to share more watercolored cards with you in the future.  BTW, I'm also using these paints for my brush lettering practice.  I know that I can use cheaper paints (meaning not artist quality), but I feel like it's more enjoyable with supplies I really like!

TFL and have a great day! ~Maureen

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