Sail Away

Edited to add: I had a question about what kind of watercolor crayons I used.  Funny thing, that.  I am a total newbie at this, but I'll tell you what I've experienced so far.  Just a few weeks ago I purchased a small, cheap Staedtler set to see whether I liked them and if I would use them.  12 colors, mostly primary.  They are fun, and I figured I could get by for the near future with that.  When I went to Donna Downey's, however, she had Caran d'Ache Neocolor IIs in her shop, by the set, and *individually*!  I couldn't resist buying a few luscious shades individually (rust, coral, turquoise, olive... stuff like that).  So... the comparison:  both have beautiful, vivid colors.  Both are easy for me to work with.  However.... the Neocolors are definitely creamier, and blend more readily than the Staedtlers (that is, it doesn't take much "scrubbing" to have them blend beautifully).  If you have access to individual Neocolors, I'd say buy a couple.  (Although this is not "cost efficient" compared to the sets, it makes sense if you are unsure about what you want or how much you'll use them.  This way you've only invested a few bucks.  Try getting a few colors that are not in the smaller sets, that way you won't have overlap if you decide to invest in a set.)  But if you don't have Neocolors nearby and you want to try out watercolor crayons for the first time, the less expensive versions are still very nice, too.  So that's the long answer, LOL! Hope that helps.

Happy Friday. :)  Today I have a little clean and simple card featuring images from a brand new plate from Rogue Redhead Designs called "Beach Babes."  I decided that this little boat image, border design, and sentiment would go along perfectly over at the Less Is More Challenge, which this week is to use the colors of your nation's flag.  A little send-off to summer with the Red White and Blue.  I wanted to play with some new watercolor crayons I purchased, so I stamped the boat a bit off-center and filled in the sea and sky with crayons.  The boat is paper pieced, with a little crayon color added.  I scratched out some splashing waves with an Xacto knife.  The greek key border is embossed in dark blue, the sentiment stamped in a deep red.  The hardest part about this card was photographing it!  You can click for a larger view.... something went wonky in my photo processing efforts and I think I've ended up with a bit of a blurry image in the regular sized version.  I've also been having trouble uploading images to blogger again..... anyone?

I've got a few more pics of projects from my classes with Donna Downey.  Here are a few album pages from the Heart and Soul class......

Masking, glimmer misting, inking..... fun stuff.  Here's to a happy weekend for all! :)