Gnomes & Bait Shop by Karen Day

 Hello Ai Watercolour fans!

I'm kicking off our June Watercolour Weekends with a couple of outdoor scenes - my first one is using everyone's favourite gnomes:

I wanted their home to be the focus, so I began by stamping one of the houses from 5790 - Fairy Houses Set on my Canson XL Watercolour paper using Tombows #969/565 (I use this marker combo for all of my main images!).  After masking the house, two of the smaller mushrooms from 5788 - Whimsical Mushroom Set were stamped on either side, using my stamp positioner.  I added a gnome from 5785 - Gnomes Set on either side of the house, positioning them a little lower on my page so that they appeared to be out in front of the house.  The sitting gnome was also masked, and I used my positioner to add the rock cluster from 5415 - WC Rocks Set.

With the house mask still in place, I also masked the mushrooms, then used my positioner to add in the ferns from 5830 - WC Mini Wreath Set, colouring the tops of them with #126, and fading it into #346 on their lower half.  I filled in under the mushrooms with the grasses from 5007 - WC Foliage Set 3 in #177.  After pulling the colour from the lines with a damp brush, I began adding colour to the images.  The house was painted with #991/993, with a mix of #565/969 added to the roof, and on the hat and coat of the gnomes.  Brown shades of #969/992 were painted on the stump and as wood accents on the house, keeping the shades darker in the crevices, and also used on their boots.  I made the suggestion of a pathway by painting a pale trail of #992, and put some grey shadows to mark the edges - then painted in the grass with a wash of #126.  The mushrooms and red clothes were painted with #856, and finally #565 was painted in as the sky, and used as shadows in the windows, and around all of the images.  

I used a decorative die to frame my scene, then mounted it to my kraft cardstock base with 3D foam adhesive.

For my second card, I knew that I wanted to paint a circular scene, so I traced my die onto my paper as a guideline, and painted within it.  

All of my images are stamped in #969/565 - and I began with 5523 - WC Bait Shop, positioning it slightly to the left, then used my stamp positioner to add the cliffs on both the right and left sides of it.  The two sets of boats from the set were added to create a bit of a harbour scene.  I used trees from 5010 - WC Tree Set 1 and 5372 - WC Mini Foliage, stamping them in #177/249, varying their heights to create a forest background, then used #177 to add the grassy hillside.  The cliff edges were painted in shades of #992/969/947, making the crevices darker, and the upper edges lighter.  I used #N57 to paint in the roof of the Bait Shop, and the greying dock, as well as on some of the rocks.  The grey was also used to add a few darker clouds along the horizon.  

For the water, I used #565 to paint a darker line around the cliffs, under the dock and around the boats, then painted in the rest of the water with #493 - and used it in the sky as well.  I wanted a bright red door, so it was painted with #856.  The boats are done in #249/565/991/856.  Finally, I created a grassy foreground, stamping the flowers from 4868 - WC Flower Set 2 in #177/856, and drew in some grass directly with the 177 marker.  A couple of the 4964 - WC Branches Set were stamped in with #969.  Shadows were added to the windows, cliffs, boats and trees using #565.

I cut out my scene with the circle die, and matted it in blue, then adhered it to my card base with 3D foam adhesive.  I pulled out my sewing machine to add a little zigzag stitching to my patterned background.  This would make a great masculine card for Father's Day!