Blitsy Blog Leap!

Be sure to scroll down or click HERE to check out my post for the CardMaker + Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Blog hop!!

Hi Everyone! Today is a BUSY day!!! I think we're ALL taking advantage of this EXTRA day of the year and what better way than to get some extra crafting in! (Although, I'll be honest…I still think I'm losing 2 days. hahahaha February being a short month always gets the better of me!) Welcome to the Blitsy Blog Leap! You should have arrived from Andreja's Blog but if you've gotten lost along the way, be sure to head back to the Blitsy Blog to start at the beginning as well as for a FULL hop list.

Here at Blitsy we have a TON going on. Like…29 cent items hidden on the site - seriously!? Better hurry because THOSE are live now and I promise, they will go fast…(it's ok, you can come back and finish the hop once you find all your goodies. haha) We also have your top 29 products to choose from - yep, the 29 most popular crafty items, I know I have my favorites and I'm sharing one with you today!

I absolutely LOVE my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor set. Beautiful, rich and creamy pan watercolors. I love pulling these out to watercolor with. 

I created this card using the 36 set. These two colors are my absolute FAVorite from the entire collection. In fact, I've used them so often, I actually have hit the pan at the bottom. I sure wish they sold these individually! I don't know what I will do when I actually run out. 

Oh, did I mention a GIVEAWAY - oh yeah, Blitsy knows how to celebrate and will be giving away a $100 shopping spree to Blitsy to ONE lucky person who completes the hop - you have several chances to win - all you need to do is find ALL the secret words along the leap…my secret word is WATERCOLOR. Enter all the words as you go in the rafflecopter below to be entered! The giveaway is open until Wednesday night 11:59pm CST and the winner will be announced on Blitsy Live Thursday morning. Good luck!

For MORE watercolor inspiration, be sure to check out my Watercolor Playlist on my YouTube channel:

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Supply List:

Fabriano Watercolor 140lb Hot Press Watercolor Paper

Kuretake Gansai Watercolor 36 Set

JustRite Stamps (Butterfly Background, Meadow Circles)

White Embossing Powder

Versamark Ink

CardMaker + Faber Castell Blog Hop: Paper Flowers Kit!

Hi everyone! Today the CardMaker Blog Team is joining up with Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft for a fun blog hop featuring their new Paper Flowers Kit! You should have come to my blog from the CardMaker Blog but if you didn't - be sure to head back over there for the FULL hop list as well as details on this fun hop today. I had a lot of fun creating my flowers for my card today using this kit and I can't wait to see what everyone else has made because the possibilities are limitless with all the fun product provided in the kit! Also, you want to make it all the way to the end when you land on the Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Blog because I hear they have an AWESOME giveaway for you to enter!

I created a video showing you this fun kit as well as my process for the card I'm sharing today! I hope you will join me in my studio today.

You can see I used a fun background panel that had some resist images already printed on it and the Metallic Melon and Lemon Gelatos Colors to create a beautiful watercolor background for my card.

How fun are these paper flowers!? I love the layered look and the crepe paper texture. I tried coloring some of the crepe paper but ended up using it plain as my base for my flower instead so that it gave me a layer to make the flower stand out from the watercolored background.

I added a few of the Texture Gems around my panel to give some clear dimension, I decided to do this instead of sequins which is what I usually reach for as a final touch and I really like the way it added some pretty texture on my watercolor panel.

Thank you so much for stopping by today - please be sure to hop on over to Dawn's Blog to see what she made and continue along the hop! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Supply List:
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Paper Flowers Kit
Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen (Middle Purple Pink 125)
WPlus9 Designer Dies (Doodle Buds, Love Mom Layers)
WPlus9 Cardstock (Coal Mine)
Cosmo Cricket (Just Add Watercolor 12x12 Paper)
Kraft Cardstock
Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L (Crafty Foam Tape, Girlie Grunge Twine)
Zig Wink of Stella Clear
Ranger Multi-Matte Medium
Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher
Big Shot

Daniel Smith Watercolors 238 Sample Dot Card Giveaway!!

**please scroll down for newer posts. 

this will remain at the top until the giveaway closes**

Hi Everyone!

I'm here with an exciting post! You all know how much I love my Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors and they have been so generous to provide me with TWO sets of their Sample Dot Cards (all 238 colors) to give away. I will have one giveaway right here on my blog - just fill out the info below as well as one on my Instagram account so be sure to head over there to get entered as well! 

Watercolor Paper: Arches Cold Pressed 140lb

Stamp Set by Wplus9 (Beautiful Bouquets: Ranunculus)

Ink by Wplus9 Pure Color (Fairy Dust)

I have put together a little video for you today so you can see them in action. I wanted to have this up yesterday, but I had major technical issues when trying to record my voice over - after many, many, MANY failed attempts, I am leaving it as is and hope you don't mind. It's only at the very end that it stopped recording for me so not too bad, but I wanted it just right and it delayed my posting of this till today. I am leaving the giveaway open until the end of the month to give you PLENTY of time to enter and it is open to everyone world wide! 

Don't want to wait to see if you've won…Blitsy has these awesome Daniel Smith - Extra Fine Watercolor 238-Dot Card right now at a phenomenal price! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Join me as I draw for the first time - inspired by Dina Wakley!

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to be over at Blitsy show you how I learned to draw simple shapes in my art journal pages following a book that is always near my desk: Art Journal Courage by Dina Wakley. I honestly believe anyone who loves mixed media or wants to learn about it should have both her books!! They have helped me so much to grow and shape my own art. Hop on over to the Blitsy Blog today to see more of what I've created along with a full supply list as well as my process video!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Playing with Dr. Ph. Martin's Radiant Concentrated Water Color

Hi Everyone! I have a fun post I want to share with you today. I was just playing around in a couple of my watercolor journals this past week and I thought why not share what I created?! A lot of times, if I'm not creating for a special deadline, I honestly don't blog about it. There are days I create just for me and that's ok but I was so happy with the way these things turned out and I learned some things along the way so I might as well share.

Before we get started, I want to mention that while I did receive the some of the products mentioned in this post as part of the Blitsy Creative Team, this post is not sponsored in anyway by Blitsy OR Dr. Ph. Martin's and all the opinions are my, slightly watercolor amateurish, own. I'm still learning about this medium myself! ;)

While, I did create this page in my Strathmore Watercolor 140lb Visual Journal after I did the glazing experiment I'll go into below - I wanted to share it first because in my opinion it's pretty and colorful and just fun! 

I am using the Dr. Ph. Martin's Radiant Concentrate Watercolor Set A. You could also purchase individual colors if you wanted to during the Blitsy Daily Deal HERE. (This deal does end Feb 22, so if you are trying the link after that and it doesn't work, that is why.) I used nearly all the colors in my set for this page - I just had fun experimenting with layering different colors over others as I learned from the glazing chart below.

I love stamping on my journal pages and today I used the Better stamp from the Prima Creating In Faith Collection by Jamie Dougherty. I have not loved a collection so much as this one - I've used the stamps and papers numerous times since I received them. What made this page so fun and unique with this stamp is that when I initially stamped it, due to the rough watercolor paper, it didn't stamp entirely clear. Once I was done watercoloring, I went over the lines with a few different sizes of Sakura Graphic and Micron pens as well as a white Sharpie and white Signo Uni-Ball pen to make the letters and design pop.

Ok, so now on to the exercise I've been mentioning in this post - a Glazing Chart. You may be wondering what exactly a glazing chart is! Well, Simply put - it is when you criss cross two colors over each other and the color that over laps is the glaze. You are glazing one color on top of another which is a lot of what watercoloring is! I saw this chart done for the first time in an awesome online watercolor class you can still find available HERE. I learned so much in that class! My chart isn't nearly as pretty or perfect as the one in that class, but I was just wanting to do it for fun and see how it worked so I pulled out my large Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Journal (the most divine watercolor journal EVER I have to say) and just started making some lines down my page with my 3/4 Flat Brush. I had just enough room for all the colors to run vertical on my page.

I did run out of room making my horizontal lines so I wasn't able to glaze with brown or black but that didn't really concern me. I think I pretty much know how black would shade each color on its own and I'm able to see how each color glazes over top the brown and black. Here you can see a beautiful example of glazing where the Juniper Green overlaps Violet and creates this gorgeous blue violet! 

At the top here you can see how even though I left the colors to dry from my vertical stripes overnight before starting my horizontal stripes, the colors instantly started to react to the water immediately in some areas. This gives us blears like you can see in the top row with the Lemon Yellow and Orange horizontal stripes. 

For the most part, this experiment is a success though because I can see what colors blend nicely or not so nicely so when I go to do my own paintings, I can pull this out to keep in mind. I could also start to mix my own custom colors for any that particularly stand out to me like here in the bottom right - a beautiful magenta is created with Cherry Red and Turquoise Blue. If you are newer to watercolors like myself, I highly encourage you to create some glazing charts with any watercolors you have in your stash. This works with them all and it is such an amazing learning experience - sure it's not super fun, but I think the information gained is truly invaluable when it comes to putting that particular watercolor set to practical use in your paintings and cards! If you don't have watercolors, these are such a great set to get to try them out. You get so much pigment in the bottles and a wide variety of colors to start. I do want to point out that while these are great for beginners, they are not lightfast which means they will fade if exposed to prolong sunlight.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Supply List:
Strathmore Watercolor 140lb Visual Journal
Dr. Ph. Martin's Radiant Concentrate Watercolor Set A
Sakura Graphic and Micron pens
Prima Marketing Creating In Faith (Better Cling Stamp)
Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Journal
Silver Black Velvet Watercolor Brushes (3/4 Flat Wash, 8 Round, 6 Round)
white Sharpie
white Signo Uni-Ball pen

Guest Designer for Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L

Hi Everyone! 

Fun news today that I've been eager to tell all of you! I'm so excited to be joining Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L as their guest designer for the next three months! With the wide range of adhesives and now mixed media line by Donna Salazar Designs, I'm eager to dive right in with you today and get started. You may recognize my watercolor panel from THIS POST on Thursday! I still have that giveaway going on so if you haven't checked it out, definitely do so! Please head over to the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L Blog today to check out how I turned it into a beautiful card using their awesome adhesives! I have more pictures as well as a full supply list there for you.

As part of the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L guest design team, I have received product from them to use on my posts. However, as always, I only ever use and design with product I already know and love in order to share with all of you!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Featured on Blitsy: Altered Art Journal Cover

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to be over at Blitsy show you how to alter your boring art journal pages into something that reflects your style on all the inside pages. That's right - don't let your art journal covers remain undecorated any longer!! Hop on over to the Blitsy Blog today to see more of what I've created along with a full supply list as well as my process video!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Featured on Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft: Simple DIY Home Decor

I created some mixed media home decor for Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft this month that I am super excited to share with you today. Check out my process video on the Faber Castell Design Memory Craft BLOG to find out more about this project and get a full supply list!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Featured on Blitsy today: Mixed Media Art Journal With Gelli Arts Mini Plates

Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to be over at Blitsy with my first project of the new term. I recently purchased some new supplies and I couldn't wait to try them out so I created this bright geometric journal page to get to know my new Dylusions Black Journal and Gelli Arts Mini Plates!!!  Hop on over to the Blitsy Blog today to see more of what I've created along with a full supply list and my process video!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!

U Inspire Me Card featured on CardMaker Blog!

Hi everyone! Here is a little sneak peek of the card I created with my U Inspire Me assignment!! I love creating watercolor backgrounds and this is one of my all time favorite. To see the complete card along with my process video and full supply list be sure to hop on over to the CardMaker Blog today.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I would love it if you would click on the button below to subscribe to my blog to let me know you enjoy what you see and would like to see more! 

Happy News - I'm part of the Blitsy Creative Team 2016!!!

Hi Everyone!

I'm seriously over the moon to share that I am remaining on the Blitsy Creative Team for 2016!!! It is no secret how much I love this company from being able to purchase my favorite supplies at fantastic prices to the incredible community of crafters we have that share their work and enthusiasm with all of us in the Blitsy Addicts Facebook Group.

One of my favorite parts of Blitsy are the videos and live streams!!! Seriously, I look forward to hanging out with Katy, Meghan, Emily and Claudia every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:00 AM CT where we get to chat about new supplies and also get awesome demos sometimes with amazing special guest artists!! You can catch all the replays and all the new videos (especially love the quick crafts videos) on the Blitsy YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe so you are the first to know when a new video comes out.

I'm so excited to bring you tons of fun inspiration throughout the year. I want to pinch myself every time I think of how my dreams came true to be a part of this awesome company. Having been able to meet and hang out with so many of the Blitsy Team last month at CHA, I knew I couldn't have asked for a better company to work with in this industry. You may not know this but Blitsy is a family owned small business and there is a certain family feel throughout the company. They are so encouraging, supportive and just incredibly generous with their Creative Team…I'm a lucky girl to be returning! Be sure to head over to the Blitsy Blog now to find out who else is joining me this year. We have some familiar faces and also some new ones to keep the inspiration going for you all year long! 

Until next time,

Happy Crafting!!