Announcing: That The New Spring Florals Mini-Collection Has Arrived...

Click or tap here to visit my Craftsuprint shop...

Hello there and I hope you're thriving.

If you're one of the card makers who reads BoundingSquirrel, thank you so much for your patience...

The watercolour spring florals have finally made it into a mini-collection in my Craftsuprint shop. 

(Every sheet in the mini-collection links to the others at the bottom of the Craftsuprint site page, so it doesn't matter which one you browse first).

Each sheet gives you a watercolour design, (shown above) a blank insert, and a choice of six occasion tags, and six verses that fit into any insert. So, for example, even though these tulips are for Mother's Day by default...

Click or tap here to see the "Wild Tulips"
 card front sheet

you can change the tag to a different occasion, and mix and match with the verses that go with the crocus birthday card, 

Tap or click here to see the
 "Wild Crocus" Card sheet

or the verses that go with the daffodil card. As with all the cards in this series, the spring flowers intentionally burst out of the frame, as if in joy...

Tap or click here to see
the full daffodil card sheet...

This is much easier to see than to describe. So to have a peek, please take a look at the daffodil, crocus and tulip sheets in my Craftsuprint shop.

And, if cardmaking sheets aren't your thing, thank you for your patience too. There'll be something new and different for you too, in the next post.

Until then, thanks so much for being here, and enjoy your week.

More soon.

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Spring Watercolour Flowers (and Favourite Line and Wash Tools)

Spring Watercolour Flower Sketches...

Hello there

This week, it's time to share some spring flower sketches, as promised last week. 

These are from imagination, but  you never know-if everyone thinks of them enough, they might appear "for real," soon...

Update on Feb 27th 2025: To see how the mini-collection turned out, tap or click straight to this post...

Line and Wash Watercolour Paints, Tools and Supplies

If you're the kind of person who likes to know how things are made, I used my current go-to favourite supplies for physical watercolour: a waterproof Sakura Pigma Micron black pen (size 0.1, though from a set with several), Derwent Inktense paints from the 24 half-pan set, Pentel water brushes, and my latest trusty Daler-Rowney sketchbook... the third one in a row, and am planning to buy another one soon...

And yes, all of those links (and in the pic below) *are* affiliate links, because I really do turn to them whenever I want to draw a non-digital watercolour, and also do sometimes get asked about my tools and materials. So, just to be really clear,  if you buy via these links, I get a small commission, at no extra cost to you.

The Derwent Inktense paints were actually a lovely Christmas gift (thank you Computer Man!). (And yes, I really have meant to talk about materials for that long...)

Anyway...here's a pic of them when the set was newer, and much less paint-spattered than it is now...(Note, the set had already been in immediate and delighted use, so even this pic doesn't show the paints in their initially, pristine state...:-) ).

These Derwent Inktense Paints got put to such immediate
use that an initial "pristine," photo of them never got chance to exist...

Sidenote: As far as I know, all these products are animal-friendly too (being a life-long vegetarian, it just isn't in me knowingly to use something that harmed either an animal or the environment in its production). But don't quote me on this, as I'm just a concerned consumer doing her best, not a paint and materials expert.

Do hope that this peek into materials has been interesting to you. As ever though, I've written more than I meant to, so I'll leave it there for now, and let you get on with your day.

But hope all's well with you, and thank you, as always, for reading down this far. Have a lovely week.

More soon.

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The Flowers Are Coming...(Work-In-Progress)...

Wild Tulip Sketches: Work-in-Progress

Hello there

How are you doing? Up here in the northern hemisphere at least (for I know I have other readers too-hello, and I see you...and can you send some sun, please?!) it feels as if things have been rather grey and cold for a looong time, as I type this.

But in this post, am doing my best to remind both you and myself that the flowers will be here soon.

The first signs of it are in the flower and leaf buds on some branches...

(OK, I exaggerated their progress somewhat in this Daphne bush sprig, but you get the idea...)

"Sprig of Daphne Flowers"

All of which is to say, spring will be arriving soon (rather like an upcoming collection, of which these are my some of my first, tentative, ideas). 

So far, it's mostly my wanting to evoke that *feeling* of walking around a garden in spring, when all the buds are beginning to burst into life, a gentle breeze is blowing, and the first warm sun begins to kiss your face again...

If that sounds good to you, stay tuned to see what becomes of these flowers, and in the meantime, as ever, thanks so much for being here, and for reading down this far.

More soon.

PS. Update on Feb 27th 2025: If you want to see how the final mini-collection turned out, tap or click to this post...

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Love in Morse Code...

"Love," spelled out vertically in true Morse 
Code, flanking hearts that spell out love it
more liberally...

Hello there.

I hope you're having an excellent week. I know, I know, I say (and mean) a variation of this every week. But this week, I especially mean it. Cos round these parts it's been one of those weeks where I feel knee-deep in everything, but finished in virtually nothing. Can you relate?

So, I thought it would be fun, and very much in the spirit of the current Valentineish  season, to show you something interesting that I've learned in pursuit of one of those unfinished projects., ie...

How to spell out "Love" in Morse code.

I was really attempting to make a repeating pattern using this idea (and will post it here if I ever, actually manage to make it in full).

For now though, am left with the motif you see in the picture. (Which I'm thinking might work for something like tape, or ribbon).

But...

In the meantime, the Computer Man and I are left having different views on this. He says it can only be Morse code at all if the dots and dashes pattern you see at either side. 

On the other hand, my feeling is that once it's bright pink, made visual, and aiming to be part of a pattern, that ship has rather sailed...And so substituting filled hearts for dots and outlined ones for dashes (especially seeing as they are hearts, and the word being spelled out is "Love,")... feels like something well within artistic licence, to me.

I'll leave you with this conundrum, and wishes for a wonderful week, no matter what.

More soon.

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