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Video Tutorials

Make & Tell: Fresh Floral Background + No-Line Watercolor + a Giveaway!

by Betsy April 14, 2020

written by Betsy

Good morning and happy Tuesday! I’m so excited to finally get back into the groove of putting together some Make & Tell Tuesday videos for you! Watch for these more regularly over the next several weeks. 🙂 Also, there’s an opportunity to win something fun today…read on to the end of the post for more about that!

Today’s Make & Tell project involves no-line watercoloring with a bit of a twist. Typically this technique is done with outline images, but I wanted to try something similar with solid images. So for today’s project I pulled out our Fresh Floral Background stamp, some watercolor paper, a light-color waterproof ink, and my favorite Mission Gold watercolors.

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Here’s the video for you!

To finish off the watercolor panel I created in the video, I trimmed it down just a bit to 4″ wide, and added a striped accent strip, which was stamped with the Painterly Stripes Background. I stamped it once, then shifted it so that the stripes on the second impression would fill in between the stripes from the first time stamping it. I also added a sentiment from the Sketchbook Roses set. I wanted to let the background shine!

This was a fun project. I love to sit and watercolor. I find it to be so very relaxing – do you? You might be able to try this same technique using colored pencils instead, if that’s a medium you’re more comfortable with!

SO! I’m in the mood for a giveaway, and I think it’s a fun one. Every time I post a project that shows that cute ceramic mason jar I use as a watercolor palette, I get tons of questions about where I found it. Well, I got mine at Hobby Lobby a year or so ago as part of one of their seasonal collections, but I also recently found them here on Amazon (affiliate link). I just happen to have an extra one that I’d love to send to someone! Leave a comment on this post before Thursday, April 16 at midnight EDT, and I’ll announce the winner on Friday’s TGIF post. Let’s chat while we’re at it! I’d love to hear about what you’re up to during this time of quarantine…are you doing ok? Is your family ok? Leave a comment for the chance to win!

April 14, 2020 97 comments

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Make & Tell Tuesday: BotaniCuts Lily + Colored Pencils

by Betsy March 3, 2020

written by Betsy

Hello evening crew! It’s Tuesday, and that means I got to spend some time creating! I put together a new Make & Tell video to share with you. There have been several requests to do some coloring videos for the BotaniCuts Lily, so today I pulled out my colored pencils and put one together for you.

In the video, I’ll show two variations of the same basic technique. First we’ll color a white lily, and then switch the colors for something a little bolder and create a Stargazer lily – one of my favorites.

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I’ve been wanting to pull out my Simple Things set again after Laurie shared her beautiful project a week or so ago for her TGIF post, so I did that to create a few cards using the lilies I colored in the video. I thought it would be the perfect filler for a few of the lilies.

For the card with the stargazers, I layered the Simple Things eucalyptus under the lilies, along with the medium rectangle from the Nordic Frames die. I sponged some Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink underneath. The eucalyptus was stamped with Bundled Sage and Iced Spruce, along with Frayed Burlap for the stems. The sentiment is a combination of stamps from the Bountiful Wreath and Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You sets.

I wanted a softer, monochromatic look for the card with the white lilies, so I did a simple watercolor background and layered the white lilies and eucalyptus over the top. The sentiment is here is from the Simple Things set.

And good news! The BotaniCuts Lily dies were just restocked in the store!

I hope you enjoyed today’s Make & Tell, and you’re inspired to go create something!

March 3, 2020 19 comments

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Make & Tell Tuesday – BotaniCuts Roses in a Jar

by Betsy January 28, 2020

written by Betsy

It’s time for a Make & Tell Tuesday video!

Today I’ll be filling up our Just Mason Around jar with a bouquet of BotaniCuts Roses. I’ll show you how easy these are to color using just some ink blending.

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The key to creating flowers with lots of interest is mixing the shades and values from layer to layer. Make your leaves and greenery more interesting by using lots of different colors – I blended several different shades of green, and even some blues and yellows. We’ll finish off the design with an easy watercolor background over some embossed script from Pretty Postmarks.

Here’s the video – I hope you enjoy!

January 28, 2020 25 comments

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BotaniCuts Succulents Watercolor Tutorial + Succulent Garden Slider Notes

by Betsy July 17, 2019

written by Betsy

Today I have a video for you that’s been a bit slow in coming! Back when the BotaniCuts Succulents dies were released I promised a how-to watercolor video and had not had a chance to put that together for you until now!

In this video I’ll show the method I use for watercoloring these layered diecut succulents. I went a little crazy watercoloring a whole bunch of them when they were first released, and had so much fun playing around with different color combinations. I kept track of my color combos and snapped some pics of them so that I could share them with you here.

The technique I used in the video is pretty much the same no matter which color combination you choose to do them in. I encourage you to be creative and play around with colors – that’s the most fun part!

Here is the watercolor video…

I also have a bonus project and video! After watercoloring more of the succulents for the video, I wanted to put them to use on a project. I came up with these fun Succulent Garden Slider Notes. They’re easy to assemble and use a basic oval die to create the “bowl”.

Here is the how-to video…

Also, did you notice anything new in the Succulent Garden Notes project? I’m sneak peeking a few brand new stand alone dies that we’ll be releasing this week as a small add-on release. These new dies will be introduced in full on the blog tomorrow morning (Thursday) and will go up for sale at 10 am EDT Thursday along with re-stock of all of the items that are currently sold out in the shop!

(The links below contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on one and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.)

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July 17, 2019 16 comments

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Hand in Hand Watercolor Continued: Backgrounds Part 2

by Betsy June 11, 2019

written by Betsy

Welcome back to the second part of the two-part video series on creating the background for this sweet card using the little girl and dog from the Hand in Hand set.

Like I mentioned in yesterday’s post and video, today we’ll be painting the rest of the background elements. This is the fun part for sure! It’s fun to create scenes for all of the images we painted in the week-long Hand in Hand series. Here is today’s video…

I hope to create at least one more video with a rainy theme that includes a reflection. I’ve had a few requests for that, so I will try to put that together soon, but it will have to wait just a bit. Starting tomorrow we’ll be sharing sneak peeks of the June collection, and then we’ll be counting down to release day! So we’ll try to revisit that after the June release!

Note that the links below contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on something and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.

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June 11, 2019 7 comments

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Hand in Hand Watercolor Continued: Backgrounds Part 1

by Betsy June 10, 2019

written by Betsy

Good Monday morning! Thank you for following along on the Week of Watercolor using the images from the Hand in Hand set! We worked our way through each image in the set in last week’s videos and now it’s time to start putting those images to use on some cards!

So today I’m starting a two-part video series on creating the background in this card, which uses the little girl and dog we painted in last week’s videos…

In today’s Part 1, I’ll show you how to use the Pathway Stencil to create the pretty watercolored stone path. Tomorrow I’ll show you how to add the rest of the details – the daisies, grass, sky, and the trees, which were done using the Fir & Foliage No. 1 stencils. This is all done using easy watercolor techniques, so take it step by step, and you can do it!

Note that the links below contain affiliate links, meaning if you click on something and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission.

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June 10, 2019 4 comments

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Week of Watercolor Day 7: Painting the Dog

by Betsy June 5, 2019

written by Betsy

Today we’ll be painting the last figure from the Hand in Hand set – that cute little pup! He’s pretty quick and easy to do, and he’s the perfect final addition to our family!

And here’s the video…

And with that, our family is complete. I can’t wait to put these to use on some projects!

We’ll be taking a couple of days break from the series while I work on putting together some background tutorials. It’s been a little busy around here…can you guess what with? If you guessed getting ready for the release of our June collection, you’d be right! Sneak peeks start on Wednesday, June 12, and I can’t wait to start showing you everything!

June 5, 2019 7 comments

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Week of Watercolor Day 6: Painting the Umbrella

by Betsy June 4, 2019

written by Betsy

Good morning! Sorry this post is coming a day late, due to some technical difficulties!

We’re moving on through our Week of Watercolor featuring the Hand in Hand stamp set. In today’s video I’ll be painting the umbrella. It seems like it should be simple, but I actually find the umbrella to be one of the more challenging images from the set to color! It is a bit tricky to capture the round-ness as well as the depth that’s created from the spines, or wires of the umbrella. But, give it a shot (or two or three!) I’m still working on mine, too. 🙂

Here is today’s video…

I’ve also had a few of you ask about keeping track of color names in your palette. I’m not always great at knowing the names either, but you will come to remember your favorite, most used colors. I created a few swatch pages in my sketchbook to correspond with the two large sections of paint wells in the Mission Gold palette. Here is an image showing one of those pages. I laid it out just like the palette, swatched each color and labeled it. It helps when deciding on colors, and also in remembering names.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone! We’ll see you back here tomorrow to paint the little pup!

June 4, 2019 10 comments

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Week of Watercolor Day 5: Painting the Boy

by Betsy June 1, 2019

written by Betsy

Our watercolored family is growing! In today’s video I’ll be painting the little boy. He’s really sweet in his little jacket and rain boots.

I’ll be giving him a bright yellow jacket and green boots, but you can paint him in any colors your choose. 🙂

Also, in case you didn’t see, the Hand in Hand stamps and dies are back in stock, along with everything else. So if you’re wanting to paint along with the videos in this series you can grab your set now.

There will be no video tomorrow, but I’ll be back Monday to continue the series!

June 1, 2019 2 comments

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Week of Watercolor Day 4: Painting the Little Girl

by Betsy May 31, 2019

written by Betsy

Today’s featured image is the little girl from the Hand in Hand set. We’ll be painting her in her cute little dress and boots!

I thought I’d make her dress white so we could think a little about the concept of coloring something that’s white. My paper is white already, so I should be good, right? 🙂 But white in the real world isn’t just white, otherwise it would just be a blob. White might be just white in the very brightest, highlight areas of an image, but there is color in the shadows, which is what defines a shape and gives it detail. So for her dress, we’re going to use some Payne’s Gray (told you it was a favorite!) to add some shading and detail to her dress.

Once again, it’s a mostly real-time video. You can always change the speed in Youtube if you want to speed things up. Enjoy!

Tomorrow is the little boy!

May 31, 2019 9 comments