New Floral Card Bumper Kit - And an Announcement

Click or tap here to see this kit

Hello there

This is a short post, just to let you know two things.

Firstly, the 15-page bumper kit in the graphic you see is now available at Craftsuprint. It's perfect for spring and summer, and contains a compilation of some of my favourite sheets celebrating those seasons. So this could be a great time to grab a bargain ;-).

Secondly, I'll be taking an extended break from the blog until at least after Easter. 

If you're wondering why, please know that there's nothing wrong, and that I really appreciate your support as a reader of this blog.

 It's just that (as you'll know if you've been here a while) a heck of a lot has changed for us over the last couple of years or so. And with those changes comes exhaustion...and a need to take some time out to replenish my creativity, and check that it's still on a track that feels good, in the light of all that change.

I will keep you updated though, and send you loads of love, hugs and thanks in the meantime.

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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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Celebrating Pink Lilies and More...

Pink Lilies, by Clare Walker. Available on Craftsuprint.Com

Hello there, and hope all is well and thriving in your world, despite these crazy times.

In these parts, the week saw plenty to celebrate. I'd like to say that the biggest celebration was getting the card kit completed for the yummy pink lilies you see in the picture above. And, to be fair, I am a little bit in love with the kit, the watercolouring of pink flowers being one of my favourite things in life. 

Am also happy that have  managed to jam in verses, a background, loads of layers and a gift tag, as well as the main card, into the kit and still keep it a manageable size for you to download.

The kit has its origins in a private ecard, which am relieved to know the recipient loved. So it felt only right to offer it on a bigger basis to you as well.

But, there was *rain*

Yeah, I'd *like* to say that all of that was the biggest thing we celebrated this week, but that wouldn't strictly be true. Because, (drum roll) we had *rain* here, people. After seven weeks without any meaningful rain (which normally just doesn't happen in the UK) we've had three days of proper rain here.

I would include a picture here of my face as I stuck my head  out into the rain to enjoy it, honestly I would. It just felt like pure joy...a primal moment, when the force of the heat giving way to the rain. I wish the same for you with all speed, if that's what you're needing in your part of the world too.

I *would* include such a picture, but luckily, none were taken ;-). However, I can include a picture of our resident snail, who hadn' t budged from his post on our window frame for two months...until stretching out luxuriantly yesterday...

Snail photo by Jim Fernbank

And for anyone not into snails, can I report that they may have been given a bad press? Despite having not eaten or budged for eight weeks, the snail in this picture had a first meal of *dead* leaves, not green ones...And continues to prefer dead leaves to green ones, as far as we can tell. 

But...

But I grant you, it *is* a long way from snails to luscious pink lilies. So I'll leave you with a picture of the full, "Pink Lilies" downloadable  kit (which you can read more about and buy by clicking or tapping on this link).

Pink Lilies Downloadable card making Kit. Click here to find out more.

And of course, am wishing  you a very lovely weekend indeed.

More soon.

P.S. and update on August 26th 2022: Marion Kimberley-Scott has been busy again, this time with a lovely make of this "lilies" kit.

Photo and make by Marion Kimberley-Scott

Photo and make by Marion Kimberley-Scott

(Please do click here to see all of her makes in more detail).

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Beautiful New Art/Home Décor: Pink Gladioli

Hello there, and hope you're well and thriving.

Today's post is for you if you love flowers. Specifically, loose watercolour pink gladioli, whose splooshyness and sploshiness was a completely new departure for me when watercolour went on paper wet-on-wet... But it turned into something *amazing* when applied to aprons, clothes, shower curtains, and other items by the lovely people at Redbubble.com.

For a closer look at these and other gorgeous items, just head here.

Thanks for dropping by today-more soon.

Something Old, Something New

It's been a week for creating and revamping new from the old (even if not very old).

If you remember the clematis illustration from a couple of weeks ago (more info here)...Well it's had two new incarnations this week.

Firstly, as a fabric design entered into Spoonflower's latest challenge.  Thank you to all the people who have already voted for it and put it in their favourites list. (If you like this and you're a Spoonflower member, please do vote for it-voting closes on April 27th 2016).


Next, comes the "new" part. A new version of these motifs forms the basis of a new "Pink Floral Wedding" Stationery set, available here.

Pink Floral Wedding Set
by BoundingSquirrel

So that wraps up this week. It feels good to have properly used some of the very many designs from the illustration challenge at last! See you soon.

New Digital Painting: Evolution of a Digital Watercolour

I'm loving playing with Artrage 4 again, especially its watercolour settings. (I'm not an Artrage affiliate, by the way, I just love its ease of use). Here are the several stages of a watercolour featuring the purpley-blue flowers from our window box, given lots of artistic licence.

I think they're "pincushion flowers", or have the less-than-lovely name of "Scabious", but they have their own determined beauty, and the bees love them.

Anyway, first of all, I started with the flowers, using Artrage. I chose a watercolour paper setting, and increased the grain slightly, using low-blend and a small brush size for the stems, and the "just a spot" watercolout brush for the petals.

I might yet pop these into a pattern, but as they are, I felt they needed some fixing into the ground.

So Stage Two involved "just a spot" brush leaves...

Again, they might yet have a purpose all their own. But it still felt like they needed fixing into some earth.

So it was onto some flecks, again with the "just a spot" brush....

 Very definitely, this design on the right would make a card.

But then, using a combination of "low blend" watercolour paint blobs in new Artrage layer, and the spreading around of those blobs with the "Just Water" setting, the final version of this digital painting (for now!) turned into the picture you see below.

Would you have left this here, or earlier? Or would you have added more? Please do leave a comment and let me know what you think. Thanks!