A Little Oriental

 Good morning friends... I hope you are all safe and well.

Tough times right now and not just with the pandemic, nature is also having her say and my thoughts are with all of you affected by the terrible fires raging in the USA.

Sadly this week, a neighbour passed away very suddenly which is always hard on the family and particularly her two sons who still live at home. Fortunately I did have an appropriate card. 

 I had been trying my hand a couple of oriental type cards similar to the amazing paintings that often appear on my Pinterest feed and thought this one would be suitable to send to the family

I used distress inks for the background and the sun and the bamboo is stamped. I've a few sets with an oriental theme that have been in my stash for years - I just never really used them much

I drew a few birds with a fineliner and stamped a border to the base of the card

I also tried another one using distress inks

 

...But I messed up a bit with the sun. I drew the little fishing boat, the tree and the birds and added some acrylic paint in red for the blossom
 

Although I messed up a little I still like it and I'm hoping to try more of this style

I don't know about you but I'm still struggling a little with this new blogger... I can't seem to get the line spacing right. 

Anyway... Thank you for stopping by, have a safe and happy day

 

~ Ros ~

 

Dew Covered Mushrooms

 Hi there... How are you?

I took a trip to the local shops earlier and it left me fuming! I was queuing at a checkout obviously distancing and put my heavy basket down whilst the woman in front who was NOT wearing a mask, packed up her stuff. There was more than a meter between us and I was behind the markings when suddenly the checkout operator shouted rather loudly to me "make sure you don't cross the line". When I got to the till I asked her why she felt it necessary to shout at me and yet not say anything to the person before me not wearing a mask and the others in the queue not wearing masks or distancing - Her reply? "Well we're not allowed to say anything in case we get abuse" I REALLY despair of people...

Anyway... Lets talk about something else like my sketched and painted card today

Another bunch of mushrooms complete with dew and a little spider web

My brother once made a remark on asking him where his wife had gone that day... He said "I don't know, I'm just a mushroom" When I asked what he meant he said "I'm always kept in the dark" Lol!

I mentioned a logo I did for a family member in my last post - She's starting up a cleaning business and asked for something whimsical with a mop and bucket and I can now share what I came up with

She's had all the cards and flyers printed and is delighted.

 Have yourselves a lovely day, thanks for stopping by and for all your encouraging comments

~ Ros ~

 

Stitched Mushrooms

Hello friends...

I hope your weekend is off to a good start...

My card today is another one I sketched and painted giving the mushrooms a stitched look

The only thing I didn't sketch here was the little bird... I found that stamp on a very old set that came free with a magazine years ago and he was just right for this sketch

  The watercolour paint is Prima but the gold sparkle paint is by DecoArt... I like their metallics 

I've been working on a whimsical logo for a new business a family member is starting. I'm happy to say she was really pleased with the result and maybe I can share that sometime in the future once the printing is finished. It's not something I would normally take on but seeing as how she was made redundant after lockdown plus she loves my sketches... I was only too happy to help.

I have another new mushroom one still to share but I'll save it till the upcoming week.

 

Stay safe and well 

~ Ros ~

The Doodle Bug

 Well, Hello and welcome to September!

I hope you are all well? It's wet and miserable outside but we've enjoyed a few sunny days so I'm not complaining.

Today's card was a sort of self challenge. I wanted to randomly apply watercolours and see if I could doodle on or around every part....And I did

Here's a secret for you... Eleven years ago when I was on the DT for City Crafter's, my team mate Linda set a doodle challenge. I was totally thrown... I had no idea what to do and ended up drawing some rather childlike flowers on patterned paper...Not good

It was only at the beginning of lockdown that I came across Ceecee's paintings and her amazing doodles that pulled me in and made me want to have a go. Now I am hooked! Okay, so my flowers are... unusual? I could/would never have just sketched them in this random way but by following the flow of the paint, a little different shading here and there, the blobs come to life in an non uniformed way that makes me happy. It's so relaxing to do, especially when inspiration is lacking. 

It's not everyone's cup of tea but each one is unique and fun to do and you get to invent your own flowers lol! It does get to be addictive though.

Thanks to my friend Diane for alerting me that this Monday's challenge at Simon Says

is doodling... So I'll add mine to the list 

I hope you have a wonderful day - Thanks so much for your comments and your visit

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Just Paint and Pens

 Hello... I hope you are enjoying your weekend

I'm just popping in with a couple more cards in calming blues today - We could all do with a bit of calm right? Everything seems topsy turvy in the world

And some blue flowers...

We have these tiny blue flowers that are growing up from between the flags and I can't bring myself to pull them out... That's where this painting and a previous one came from

Doing these keeps me calm though I've also done a lot of sewing lately. I had a day of alterations... You know when you go through your wardrobe and there are things you never wear because... it's to long, the neckline isn't right, the hem needs fixing etc., etc., So I decided to fix a few things and I also made another summer top even though the summer has deserted us and during these times I don't go anywhere to wear new stuff.

Stay well and safe and have a lovely weekend

Till soon

~ Ros ~
 

Paint and Sketching

 Hello friends... How are you all?

I've been following the news and  if Covid wasn't enough some of you are now enduring forest fires, storms and hurricanes...  I am so sorry and hope that you and your families are safe.

It's about time I did some blogging and shared some new cards with you. I had a visit from my brother at the end of last week, we hadn't seen each other since probably January so you can imagine how good it was and it was followed up with another visit yesterday with his granddaughter Sophie tagging along. She has been desperate to visit me so we were pretty careful and had a fun day making a sock sheep and she had me laughing till I cried. Needless to say I am pretty tired today.

So here are a couple of cards I did recently

This one was pretty simple and I like the colour combination

My fineliners are running out and I was checking all my pens to see what worked best till the new ones come. Working on cardstock as opposed to watercolour card makes a big difference... The pens need to be a lot finer with card and I discovered an ordinary biro worked perfectly here

...with random paint streaks and some sparkly gold paint.

For this I  randomly put down some paint blobs and then sketched over them

The frame was cut from painted card splattered with gold sparkle which really doesn't show up here as we are sorely lacking in sunshine

I hope you like them.

Be safe and thanks so much for visiting me... Hopefully I will share more cards this week

~Ros ~