color-FULL! :)

one of the many, many things for which i am grateful to tammy garcia and the annual index card a day project is the fact that last summer (2015) i discovered i realllllly like watercolor. and then about a month later i got my first set of colorburst pigment powders, and fell in love with their clarity, their mix-ability, and of course the amazing range of shades. the new rich moroccan shades have just come out, and they are (of course) incredible. the love affair continues...

moroccan lanterns

because i've just listened to two books about morocco, and i'm a tiny bit obsessed.

SMOOSHING leaves

a few weeks ago i saw this video by mhelanie hernandez on instagram, and i could not wait to try the technique. she places drops of clear water on her paper, then adds a tiny bit of ink to each one (i used colorburst powders), then smooshes the drops with a piece of deli paper to get this amazing, random, colorful, not-quite-mixed-together background. i went one step further and looked for leaf shapes within my blobs of color. and i found them! ♥

diecut leaves

i needed a lot colorful leaves for a make-and-take i'm doing at the paper anthology fifth anniversary party later this month, so i misted a few sheets of vintage paper with water, sprinkled each with various autumnal shades of color burst and cut them with tim holtz's "tattered leaves" die. (and cut... and cut, lol!)

  

compass rose

i just finished listening to mr. selden's map of china (by timothy brook) and one of the many fascinating things within was the explanation of the various markings on a compass, such as the cardinal and ordinal directions; the italianate names of the "eight winds"; the traditional colors for the intermediate directions and... ok, yes, i'm the only person in the world who can become fascinated with something like this and have to draw her own version.

dia de los muertos

my first attempt at drawing a sugar skull. the proportions are trickier than i thought, but the opportunity for floral doodles is outstanding! 

moroccan tiles

i really really thought this was going to be a quick make, lol. i'd paint a few sheets of watercolor paper with the new moroccan colors, diecut them with some fairly geometric snowflake dies and build some funky fab patterned tiles. as a matter of fact, it took agggggggggggggges. but they look exactly like the picture that was in my head!!!

flowers

i painted the blooms a couple of weeks ago, and then for some reason never finished them. when i came back to it, i decided to outline with the sewing machine rather than a pen. ohhhhhh the texture! ♥♥♥

i hope that your first weekend of november will be full of fun and creativity... and maybe a teeny bit of chocolate, if you like that sort of thing? :)