I heart watercolors & lots more

Yes. It's true. I love them. In the physical world back when I painted, no medium frustrated me more than watercolor. I just couldn't get the stuff to do what I wanted it to do. Oil and acrylic yes. Watercolor no. (I did love watercolor paper because I loved the texture)

In the digital world I absolutely love watercolor and this week I worked with digital watercolor almost exclusively. It made me happy! Plus, Jaimee included a piece of actual watercolor paper with her brushes. Heaven.

When I created this page, it was snowing outside... a lot. In March. (and we STILL have snow on the ground) I think I wished too hard for a snowy winter. This is what it looked like outside.

I went the complete opposite direction with my layout, opting for sunshine and warmth.

I masked the photo, then used a water color brush set on white brush in the parts of the photo. The great thing about a mask is that you can just brush in black to fix mistakes. It doesn't hurt the original photo at all. You can also slip an already colored brush between your photo layers and the actual mask layer for some fun effects. I did that in the bottom portion of this page to add a touch of color to the foliage without having to increase the opacity of that portion of the mask.

To enhance the watercolor feel, I used the layer blend properties to pull the underlying layer (in this case the paper) into the photo.

I also did a page for My Scrapbook Art's Featured Designer, Jacque Larsen. Jacque does a lot of watercolor in her work meaning there was no technical savvy needed to create this page.



I love that this documents pre-iPad life. And it's hard to believe my kid was ever that small. Also, Spongebob PJs!! Super cute!!

In other news, I am completely losing at Calvinball. It's still lots of fun and my only regret is that real life keeps getting in the way of me enjoying it more. This is my life currently:

The great thing about being on Creative Teams is that I can justify scrapping when life gets incredibly busy. It's these times when I need the outlet the most. That's exactly why I'm thrilled to be losing at Calvinball: Because it means I'm playing.