A Few Questions Answered..

WARNING: This post is long, and may bore you to tears, LOL!

I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who has left such wonderful comments. I can't express how good it makes me feel, and keeps me motivated to do what I love to do! You don't know how many times I have thought to myself, how futile all the time and effort I put into this hobby is! Sometimes I scold myself for taking the time instead of doing something 'productive'. But the way I look at it is like this. Life is not always much fun. It's working hard, taking care of children, doing all of the things that we need to do on a day to day basis. Cleaning, making dinner, doing laundry, driving a gazillion miles to get all the kids where they need to be. So, when I have a few hours in between all of these things, I sit down, I create, I paint, I listen to my audio book and let all things just be for a few moments. It calms and centers me, allows my brain to take a break from worrying how am I going to pay for my car insurance, or buy Christmas presents this year. It allows me to take pleasure in what would otherwise be a very dreary life. If I didn't have something creative to do, I would be in a mental institution by now, LOL! SO, because I take this time for me, I am happier and healthier. Because I am happier and healthier, I can be a better mother, a better spouse, employee, etc. etc.

Anyway, I have been asked how I made the card in my previous post without a stamp? Well, it's actually quite simple. When I used to paint with acrylics on all sorts of surfaces, wood, plaster, tin, paper mache, whatever, I would have a pattern of the design I wanted to paint. (This card was made using one of the free patterns from Plum Purdy, you can download the ZIP file here) You will get a few B & W line drawings. I re size them to the size I want on my computer, then print it out. I cut out the pattern to fit on the surface I want to transfer it to, in this case a small square of watercolor paper, and use transfer paper to trace the pattern. In my case, I didn't have transfer paper, I just used a soft pencil to trace the lines on the back of the pattern. This way I can just put it onto the w/c paper right side up, and use a stylus to trace the lines again. Once I have my image transferred, I can go over the lines with a permanent fine line pen like Sakura Micron or ZIG. I use a brown .05MM Micron. I erase the stray pencil lines, and start water coloring like any stamped image. Yes, it's more work, takes longer, and isn't as perfect as a rubber stamped image, but I like it. It also gives me an almost unlimited choice of images because there are thousands of painting pattern books out there by a lot of wonderful artists! I have a very particular style that I love, folk art, primitive, rustic, whatever you want to call it, and there aren't a lot of stamps out there like that! So, this is my solution. It works for me!