Country Church and Hydrangea Florals with Guest Designer Julie Worthing

Hello Ai fans and welcome to Watercolor Weekend!

Today we have our second Guest Designer for April in place of Diane who
needed some personal time off.

Please give a warm welcome to Julie Worthing and enjoy her BEAUTIFUL creations.

Julie Worthing

 I was honored to be asked to create a card for the Guest Designer series. Today I created a beautiful scene focusing on a stamp from the Church set. The list of stamps and supplies used are as follows:

5058 - Church Set

5009 - WC Mini Flower set

5007 - Foliage Set 3 - tall grass

4051 - Original Foliage set - Large grass

5372 - WC Mini Foliage Set - Hedge, small grass and Tree

5373 - WC Large Tree Set - Leaves

Pens & Other accessories:

Dr. PH Martins

Pencil

Post it Tape - 3 1/2 by 3 3/4

Tombow Dual Brush Pens

173

177

249

526

533

565

856

933

969

993

Brown Twin Tone

First I used Post it Tape to make a frame for the painting. Next I stamped the church first using 565, then 969 and stamped off twice as the stamp is rubber.

Then I free handed the mountain line and greenway on either side of the church. Next I pulled color from the church lines and then water colored it with 565 and 969 mixed together for the roof and steeple. I used 565 on the window and then used Dr PH Martins for the panes. Next I painted the mountains with a blend of 565 and 553.

Then I stamped the small trees using the mini foliage set and the hedges. For the larger tree I used the leaves from the large tree set. Then used water to dab all trees and hedges and pulled some of the green down to create a slope. Next I used the grass from the mini foliage and stamped with 177 at the base of the church and after dabbing it with water, I added 249 off my palette as well as adding a little 249 and 177 to the trees.

After that I used various greens (177, 249, 177), orange (933) and yellow (993) to create the field base. I used the tall grass (5007) in the field and the large grass (4051) at the base of the card.

For flowers I used the tiny dots from the mini flower set with red (856) at the base of the Church and scattered in the field. I also used the yellow (993) with the mini stamp in the field. I then used Dr Ph Martin to create daisies and after drying, added yellow (993) to the center. The also used the white paint to added small dots in the field and next to the Church.

For the sky I used 569, 533, 993, 856, and 933 and a small amount of diluted Ph Martins.

Lastly, I added the cross on the top of the steeple with the brown Twintone and accented with the Twintone where I thought would enhance the picture and 565 for o

I removed the post it tape and then cut edges about 1/4 inch to crate a border.

For my second card I made a lilac colored Hydrangea floral arrangement.

Sets used:

4870 - WC Ornate Container Set

5827 - Hydrangea Set
5742 - Easter Journal Paper Pack

I hope you enjoy my little paintings and thank you Renee for asking me to help out!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you so much to Julie for helping out this month.

We hope you enjoyed her inspiration on this Watercolor Weekend.

See you tomorrow for more wonderful paintings from Jami.

Julie Worthing

February 2026 Monthly Challenge with Simone

 Hello Ai fans!

Welcome to our February Monthly Challenge.
We have a gorgeous LOVE themed card from Guest Designer Simone to inspire you.

As always, this challenge has no theme so anything you want to create is fine as long as you use something from Art Impressions on it. You might be the next winner of a free stamp set from Art Impressions. Winner is chosen randomly so all skill levels have a fair chance of winning. One lucky winner will also receive a freebie from me.

After admiring Simone's beautiful work, be sure to scroll down to see the winners of our last challenge.

Then, be sure to read our very special announcement.

Hello Friends,

February is the perfect time to celebrate love, warmth, and a little creative joy, and I’m excited to share today’s card with you. I began on Canson Watercolor Paper by tracing the 4th largest heart-shaped die, then lightly penciling in the bow and stem to guide my layout.

I stamped both the sitting gnome and the standing gnome using Archival Ink Shadow Grey. The sitting gnome was first stamped onto masking paper and fussy cut, then placed over the stamped image. Using a stamp positioner, I inked the flower pot with Tombow 565 + 969 directly onto the acrylic plate, then stamping it off twice for a softer look. Once I had the placement just right, I removed the acrylic plate and stamped the pot onto the paper.

After removing the mask from the sitting gnome, I began coloring. I colored the bow first, then covered it with masking tape before stamping foliage inside the heart. With a #4 brush and a touch of water, I gently dabbed the foliage to soften the look. Once the mask was removed from the bow, I stamped a few additional foliage pieces so they slightly overlapped the bow for added depth.

After painting the pot and gnomes, I placed the mask back over the sitting gnome to stamp flowers and grass inside the pot. I also stamped grass around the pot and near the standing gnome to ground the scene. To finish, I used Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White to paint delicate white flowers within the heart and grass, and added tiny white hearts to the bow for a sweet final touch.

I hope you give this project a try and have fun creating your own cozy, love-filled scene.

Materials Used

Stamps

Gnomes Set (5785)

Flower Set 2 (4868)

Foliage Set 1 (4051)

Foliage Set 3 (5007)

Bible Foliage Set – Small Grass (5073)

Ornate Container (4870)

Dies

Nested Heart Die – 4th Largest (5721)

Paper

Canson Watercolor Paper

Valentine’s Patterned Paper (5741)

Inks & Coloring Mediums

Archival Ink – Shadow Grey (for stamping gnomes)

Tombow Markers:

933 – Gnome shirt, flowers

856 – Bow, pot, flower centers

245 – Gnome hat

555 – Gnome pants

942, 912 – Gnome nose and hands

027 – Pot

947 – Gnome shoes, shirt

N55 – Gnome beard

177 – Grass, heart

526 – Sky

969 + 565 – Stamped pot

Other

Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White

Lovely Simone. Thank you so much for your inspiration.

Now, let's see who won our January 2026 challenge.

The winner of a free stamp set from Art Impressions is:
#10 Ellen M and the winner of the free stamp set from me is #8 Julie W.

Ellen, 

Please contact Leah at Feedback@artimpressions.com

to claim a free stamp set of your choice!!

Julie,

Please email me at Renee@artimpressions.com with your full name and address and I'll send you a photo of the freebies I have available for you to choose from.

Congratulations to both of our January winners. We LOVED all of the entries and we hope you'll continue to enter. We can't wait to see your beautiful art each month.

Now for our special announcement.

Though we've loved having Simone as a special Guest Designer, it's time for her to move on.

Don't be too sad though...

She's moving on to become a full time Watercolor Design Team member!!

You'll now get to see her on a more regular basis!
She'll have her own Watercolor Weekend posts as well as participating in one of our Bi-Weekly challenges each month. Are you as excited as we are??

We're very excited for all of the new changes coming soon and of course, all of the new releases!

See the rules below and then be sure to come back and enter your crafty creation. You might just win a free stamp set!

 ✻ Please make a new card or handmade crafty creation using either stamps, dies and or designer paper from Art Impressions. You can make any item you wish; this is not limited to cards! (unless specified)

✻ Limit two submissions per person.

 ✻Please include your first name and last initial on your submission. You may include your entire last name, but it's not necessary.

✻We love to comment on your entries, but keep in mind if you use a private group or a platform that you need to sign up for, we probably won't be able to.

✻ The Ai Challenge is open to everyone, international submissions are welcome!

✻ Include a link back to the Ai Blog or grab our button on the top right of our sidebar!

✻ Share the Ai love if you can, by clicking and commenting on your fellow crafters.

✻ Make sure to get your link up by the deadline to enter your creations.

✻ Good luck and happy stamping! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Inspiration Everywhere by Gennette Houghton

 

Hello and welcome to Watercolor Weekend! Inspirations are everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. My first card today was inspired by a painting I saw in the Doctor’s office, an old world villa painted in rich earthy tones, deep flower hues and a sense of viewing a past era.

I went for a vintage journal page themed card with the 5746 SF Village that I stamped in 969 and stamped off once. Lightly pulling the color out of the lines in the areas that are shaded, I then added more of the 969 to the roofs and used the #1 brush to add additional details on the roofs and gables (the triangle piece under the roof).  The chimneys and the walls of the buildings I added 947 adding more in the shaded areas leaving the more exposed parts lighter. I also used 565 to darken the shadows even more and added just a touch of 403 on parts of the ledges. I started working on the shadows for the window boxes and awnings, and added 526 to the top of the awnings, keeping in mind that I still needed to put in the foliage and flowers, so not too dark. The windows I used a mix of 565 and N25, just a touch of the black helps tone down the more purple hues of the 565. The doors are 969 and the shadowed areas were done with the same mixture I used on the windows. Using 126 I placed some green on the building in areas to give an appearance of moss, aging the building even more.  I then used 526 to put in the sky and 249 for the distant background greenery giving a slight look of trees and filling the gap between the buildings.  The ground level pots I left white adding in 565 for shadows on the pots and on the ground, a bit of the 947 onto the sidewalk to blend with the buildings a little bit. The chalkboard was done with 969 and N25 with Bleed Proof White for the Hello. I edged the sidewalk with 969 to give depth and 565 to add shadows on the road. 

That leaves the foliage and flowers. For the white pots I used the larger “dot” filler flower from the 5074 Bible Flower Set (you can also use 4052 Flower Set 1), separately I used 126 and 026, stamping just a couple of times for each pot and then using 177 over the top of those two colors and adding water to blend the 3 colors together. For the flower boxes, the top of the one awning, and the vine growing up the building I used 5126 Foliage Set 4, inking just the tip of the small vine with 177. The small “dot” filler flower from 5074 Bible Flower Set (you can also use 5009 Mini Flower Set) was used for the flowers, 403 for the vine, and 685 for the window boxes/awning, adding just a little bit of water to blend them out.  Bleed Proof White flowers were also added. The grass from 5196 Desert set in 177 was used in the back left pot. Brown Twintone marker was used on the small sign to give a suggestion of writing and for putting in the panes on the windows and anywhere else I felt needed a little more definition. I used the small frame from 5718 Mini Journal Template for the sentiment from 5136 Sentiment Set 2 and stamped the leaf cluster from 5126 Foliage set 4 in 133 with a line drawn up the branch through the leaves with 177. I also added a die cut cat colored with 947, shaded with 565 from 5333 Cat Mini Dies and popped up with foam tape. 

My next card was inspired by a Gnome made out of painted terra cotta pots, I seriously want to recreate this in real life, but for now I will use my stamps. Like I said, you can find inspiration literally anywhere, even a craft show that my daughter in law went to. (Wink) The Gnome is made out of two sets of containers, 4869 Small Container Set and 4870 Ornate Container set. All pots were stamped in 565 and 969 and stamped off twice. 

Using the small pot, I stamped this one first. I then used the pot from the ornate set, inking only the bottom of the top rings and the main sides, leaving the saucer off of the bottom. I used the stamp positioner and centered it under the first pot with about a ¼ inch gap.  I extended the lines up with a pencil to create the “hat”.  Using the same stamp from the ornate set, inking the edges of the top to leave room for the beard and just the sides, I masked the pot above and again using the stamp positioner created the “body”. After pulling the color out, I added 565 for shadows on the top 2 pots. I then sketched in the nose, beard, and feet with a pencil.  I used N25 for the feet, 403 for the body. 850 and 910 for the nose.  Using the stamp positioner and one of the flowers from the new 5925 Honey Bee Set inked in 565 and 969, stamped off twice and positioned it onto the “hat”. I used post-it tape to mask off to the right side to keep from stamping off of the pot.  I used 177 and 403 to color in the flower, keeping in the details of the pot.  I then added the single flower coming out of the top pot from set 5008 Flower Set 3 with 177 and 993, from my palette I added just a touch of 933.  I used a ruler and pencil to create the background boards, then with a touch of 565 to give a bit of detail to the underside and edges of the boards for some dimension.  969 was used on the floor, adding a darker layer for the shadow under the pot. I then used a mixture of 565 and 969 to create the shadow behind the pots and the flower.  Finishing off with the brown twintone to add lines back in.  The flowers and colors were chosen to match with the paper from 5892 Easter S2 PP. I cut out my image with the 5065 Oval Double Stitched Dies and the mat I cut out with the 5727 Nested Oval Dies.  Thank you for joining me today, I sincerely hope you enjoyed my tutorial, until next time, Create…Share…Inspire!