Welcome to Seasons Givings Year 8

Edit 1/5/2020 – 10:00pm – Thank you for stopping by. Comments for my entry are closed. Winner will be announced Tuesday.

One of my favorite posts of the year, and thank you to my dear Latisha for inviting me to participate again. I love the season of giving, and I especially love being able to give back to our community!

If you’ve stopped here before, it’s no surprise that watercolor is one of my favorite things. So that’s driving my GIVEAWAYS this week!

Sharing one of my favorite uses of the Grid Background stamp from Taylored Expressions today.  This stamp was created to be an overlay to the large Buffalo Plain Backgrounder, but I had other plans! SWATCHING! I use white embossing powder for perfectly clean lines that hold the watercolor in place.

Something about swatching watercolor is very soothing to me. I love seeing all of the vibrant colors organized neatly, side-by-side. The practice within a confined square helps me learn control of the water and granulation of the specific colors. I honestly learn so much this way, and it’s very relaxing.

In both of these cards, I’ve used one of my two favorite watercolor mediums – Daniel Smith watercolors that I purchase in easy shared “splits” from Lydia. Lydia has curated a beautiful business concept in that she splits out tubes of beautiful color into pans and sells small collections to other artist and papercrafters. It’s a fabulous day when 1/2 pans of an entire collection show up in the mail, at a fraction the cost of purchasing tubes on my own. Search: DANIEL SMITH WATERCOLOR SPLIT GROUP on the Facebook for information and pricing. 🙂

A new-to-me medium for watercolor this year is the Karin Brushmarker Pro from Marker Universe. I’ve been working with these a lot over the holidays, just not necessarily creating cards. The fluid watercolor ink is visible in the chamber with a wonderful nib for creating thick and thin lines. The control of the nib is just fabulous!  Use them straight out of the marker, or with traditional blending techniques – palette and tip-to-tip for a burst of beautiful color! Check out this IG inspiration!

Here is a beautiful piece created by my friend, the amazing,  Jennifer Dove!? She has used the white embossing technique, as well. Love the beautiful, flowing color here. The nib control and fluid color is what I love about the Karin. Leave my friend Jen some love if you stop by her blog for a closer look or follow her on Facebook! She’s got beautiful original hand-drawn watercolor designs, as well!

And, finally, what many of you are here for. My giveaway! I have three different gift certificates to give away this year to the places I’ve mentioned in my post today. Businesses I am proud to work with and support because I appreciate  their products and their support in helping me grow as an artist!

• Taylored Expressions – a $50 gift certificate to the TE store!
• Lydia Fiedler – a $30 gift certificate toward the Daniel Smith split of your choice
• Marker Universe – a $30 gift certificate for Karin Brushmarkers

I’ve shared some ideas that are super relaxing about crafting to me. To be entered to win my giveway, please leave me a comment and let me know, what about crafting or art do you find most relaxing? How do you use crafting to unwind… or do you? What’s the best stress reliever!? 

My giveaway will close Sunday night, January 5th, and I’ll post my winners at that time!

Please take time to visit the other participants in this hop. There is so much inspiration in this list and wonderful, wonderful prizes! Happy New Year to you and yours, and thank you for stopping by!