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Violet Cottage Blog

Art Journal - Happy Spring!

Watercolor, acrylic & pencil :)

Mother's & Father's Day Cards

Here are our 2012 Mother's and Father's Day cards :) These are being printed and will be ready to ship in a few days:
You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

You can find this card here

Next, I'll be working on Graduation, an Alice in Wonderland themed card set and then right on to Halloween (which is so hard to believe!). If you have any suggestions, requests or input, I'd love to hear it! :)

March Photo a Day

I've decided to participate in one of these visual scavenger hunt things. Looks like fun!

Hosted by Chantelle over at Fat Mum Slim, and it looks like a LOT of people are participating!!

I'm going to post my daily pics over on facebook and do a complete end-of-month montage wrap-up here on the blog.

Come join us! :)

Art Journal - Bouquets of Watercolor Flowers

Getting in the Mother's Day mood and painting lots of bouquets of flowers. These were painted using watercolors and a little acrylic whitewash on top. I'm loving this technique and how it's so light, delicate and sort of misty-dreamy. I tend to be heavy handed with traditional acrylic so this is a good exercise in self control, color speaking.

Most of these are wedding arrangements or bouquets. I love all the colorful, fancy bridal bouquet pictures on Pinterest. The textures, colors, unusual greenery, berries, vintage brooches, feathers and ribbons are so much fun and so creative... although I like a simple arrangement of just hydrangeas or lilies of the valley, too!

One of these might be re-painted to become Mother's Day card... but which one? Any opinions? :)

#1 - Blue & yellow flowers in milk glass

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#1 - Close up

#2 - Yellow ranunculus & sweet peas

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#2 - Close up

#3 - Pink flowers in blue vase

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#3 Close up

#4 - Orange & pink ranunculus with one succulent bouquet

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#4 Close up

#5 - Pink, white & blue bouquet

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#5 Close Up

I think I like #5 the best :)

Art Journal - Floral Watercolors

While anticipating "wintery weather" here in Cary (really, it mostly just slushed with a tiny bit of snow that lasted 12 hours... but it was really beautiful!), I did a whole lot of movie watching and doodling/art journaling while hanging out under a blanket (a very nice weekend, indeed!).

Whenever I use watercolors, I always run into the big question... should I outline these paintings or not?

So, I thought I would line them up, side by side... before outlining and after. What do you think? Which do you like better?

I sort of thought of this comparison idea after I started outlining the first painting... oops.

And I outlined this one in white paint...

I have one card in the line that has the outlined watercolor flowers... I didn't think it would be a popular design, but it turned out to be a good seller! So, I'm contemplating more designs similar to this in the future. Very 1960's wrapping paper... which I fancy.

So, what do you think? Watercolor flowers and watercolor flowers with outlines... yea or nay to this design?

Glittered Cards...

There's something magical about glitter... how it dances in the light and creates an atmosphere of fun and enchantment. Why more things aren't covered in glitter, I'll never understand. And glass glitter... if you haven't used it, you are missing out. It's a bit more expensive, but it's like mylar glitter on steroids.

It's quite strange how glitter turns me into a boisterous 4 year old with little control. I make such a mess... slowly, but surely, the carpet in my office is becoming permanently glittered. And the dog, too. She insists on sitting directly underneath the spill zone when I'm working with the stuff. Better put on her doggles next time.

So, here are my cards... all glittered up with mylar and glass glitters and Swarovski flat back crystals, too. (You can buy them all dolled up on the website, if you are interested!).

And here they are more close up...

And here are all the cards, in display in my office on an old dresser:

And here's a fixture from the store that I HAD to have... and moved it cross country, too (everyone thought I was nuts):

I love this card rounder. It was one of those things at the shop that made it feel like a "real" shop... if that makes sense. It had one purpose and one purpose only... to spin cards in a circle. And I could hear the little ball bearings in the rounder as someone turned it. Squeaky floor told me where they were, ball bearings told me what they were looking at. We ended up getting a few other simpler card rounders, but this was my favorite. My little sparkling glittered cards have a carousel to call their own ;) Perhaps the card rounder needs a layer, or four, of glitter, too? hmmmm....