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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Thrive: Bright New Tulip Painting

Thrive, by Clare Walker.
Available on Redbubble.Com

Hello there, and as ever, I hope life is treating you well.

This week, it felt like time to offer you something *really* bright and cheerful. We first saw these tulips in Holland Park, west London, last weekend.

And in a spring that's still to get going full-time (I'm wearing a winter jumper and two layers as I type this) their brightness was *such* a huge beacon, as they danced by their yew hedging...

Tulips in Holland Park. Photo Jim Fernbank.

There's something about them that's so cheering and full of "get up and go," isn't there?

So, I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise when those there tulips almost began to draw themselves, (and in a wilder, freer way than I'm used to) as soon as we got home.

Once the art was done...

Once the art was done, something still felt undone. And there seemed no better word to add as a finishing touch, given all that, "get up and go," than, "Thrive".

I hope you like this design too, and can get any and all the energy you need from it, whether life itself is revving you up or not.

Should it float your boat, it turns out, not surprisingly, that this design also shines rather scrumptiously elsewhere too.

Such as on magnets and stickers...

Thrive magnet, available on Redbubble

Postcards and greeting cards...

Thrive Postcard, available on Redbubble

Or framed on the wall...

Thrive Framed Print by Clare Walker.
Available on Redbubble.

Above all, thank you for being here, and for reading down this far.

Have a good week.

More soon.
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Pretty Pink Tulips for Mother's Day (and Beyond)...

Hello there

Do hope the week's been treating you well.

"Tulips," by Clare Walker

The news from here is that my obsession with "garden flowers in interesting containers," seems to continuing, as you can see from these pretty pink tulips. (They are digital watercolours in Rebelle 5, but painted stroke by stroke with a graphics pen, as ever).

Could it be that this little run of paintings and drawings is turning into the very thing I once swore I'd never do...a series of related drawings and paintings :-) ? Watch this space...

Mother's Day is Coming...

If you're reading this soon after I type it, UK Mother's Day is this Sunday (March 19th 2023).

But fear not, because (whenever and to whomever you actually want to send it) you can still personalise and download this card on Zazzle.Com.

Click or tap here to see the card on Zazzle

And if you're reading this in March and feeling puzzled (because you live somewhere else), then know that this will also be available for when it's Mother's Day with you, later in the year.

Come to that, if you like the design, but want to send it for another reason, that's fine at any time, because both the physical and downloadable versions of the card can be changed to say whatever you want.

Finally, last but *not* least, the craft-kit version of this and all the "garden series" designs will also be up in my Craftsuprint shop, hopefully by the time you read this (a lot of painting also means a lot of uploading too :-) ).

Hope all of this helps, and have a lovely weekend, whether it's Mother's Day with you or not.

More soon.

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♥♥♥SPRING SALE-March 28th-31st 2018♥♥♥

https://www.craftsuprint.com/clare-walker/

Hello!

This is just to let you know that  all my printable craft sheets are ♥♥♥20% off March 28th-31st♥♥♥.

Plus you'll save a further 10% if you type in the code EASTER at checkout during the same period.

Click here to take a look.

Hope this helps, and that you have a very happy Easter/spring break.

Days of Cake & Blossom...

 It's been a story of spring and street parties (well, party) cake and blossom here in the last few weeks. So here are a few pics to show what I mean....


For example, there is a riotous amount of blossom in London this week...at long, long last...

.

 This (below), on the other hand, is the first Smartie cake I've ever made...for our street party.

This flower was a first too (at the same street party). I can't take any credit for the wonderful bricks, but as a digital girl, it was interesting to have a go at something completely different...

And if all this seems a way away from digital painting, perhaps it isn't. After all everything that any of us produces needs to come from somewhere, to be inspired by something. And colour provides that inspiration for me, wherever it is..

Speaking of which,  I had to add in these tulips. They are outside, of all places, the *public toilets* in St James's Park. Can you believe it?

Colour has come back to London after a long, grey winter.. And it's wonderful.