Focus on Faith: Covered Bridge by Sara Furr

 Blessings my dear friends, and welcome to my first "Focus on Faith" for the month of June.

Not too far from me are 2 covered bridges situated in some beautiful scenery in "God's Country". The beauty of them always brings me peace and the nostalgia of times long ago, so I wanted to recreate one of those local spots. 

I used this wonderful stamp set called "He Leads Me", along with a couple foliage stamp sets to create my watercolor scene. I really had fun practicing my watercolor. I have created a mini picture tutorial for you to follow my steps......

I started with an A2 panel of watercolor cardstock and taped it to my board with post-it tape about 1/4" all the way around. I then stamped in my covered bridge with a layer of blue and brown marker. Then the fence and trees with just brown. I just stamped the tree from the set 3x up the left side to create a "Big" tree.

I then pulled color from the lines to create depth and shadow. To soften the tree limbs so they weren't so heavy i added some water to soften and then blotted up the ink before stamping in the green foliage.

I then stamped in the small grass from the Foliage set around the fence posts and trailing the fence leading to the bridge. I stamped the little bushes from the WC Mini Foliage in a bit darker green up along the bank in front of the bridge, and I stamped the bushy tree limb from the same set in a brighter green for the trees' leaves, stamping several generations for each of the stamps, and then blended them out with a damp brush. I added in more shades of green to extend my grassy areas. I also added in some darker shadows on the roadway for the fence posts with more brown. I then added some pretty blue for the creek water under the bridge and then watered it down a bit more to blend in my sky. I let that all dry and then went back in to add some pretty flowers with a purplish blue color using the "lavender" stamp from the Mini Flower set, again stamping several generations onto the edges of the roadway. 

I also added the tiny leaf branch from that set to add some foliage around my fence posts out front and I used it to create some big bushes on either side of the bridge.

I blended those out just a bit with a damp brush and let it dry before stamping in the tiny purple dots, also from the same set.

I then stamped the flower bunches repeatedly over in the right hand corner to give some interest in that corner, and draw your eye around the whole scene. I added  some more blue into my sky for more depth, and lastly I stamped my sentiment with Black Archival ink.

And finally, the reveal! I carefully removed the post-it tape from the edges and admired the beauty of the scene!😊

I honestly wasn't fond of the brown on the "Big tree" on the left side, so after distressing the edges of my cardstock with scissors I added it to a soft purple mat and added a pretty bow to strategically "hide" my tree trunk! Hehe😁 It worked perfectly and it added a lovely touch of softness. Besides, it wouldn't be a "Sara" card without a pretty bow on it, right?! Haha

Behind the purple layer is an embossed layer of black that has little flowers on it, but its hard to see the detail in the photo. But trust me, you can see it in real life really well!

So, with all the layers, my card wound up measuring 5 1/2x6 3/4".

I hope you like my creation and are inspired to create some "God's Country" of your own!

I absolutely love living in the country where there is so much beauty and scope for the imagination! I always feel so much closer to God here!

I hope you have a great week my friends and I will see you again soon!

Blessings to you all, 

Sara Furr- The Crafty Farm Chick

Art Impressions products used:

5129- He Leads Me set

5372- WC Mini Foliage 

5009- WC Mini Flower set

4051- Foliage set

Other products:

Watercolor cardstock

Watercolor brush

Archival Black ink pad

Dye ink markers

Chiffon ribbon

Embossing folder

Die cutting machine

Scissors for distressing 

Paper cutter

Misti stamping tool

Stamping blocks

Adhesive

Foam adhesive 

Focus on Faith: Joy Comes in the Morning by Sara Furr

 Greetings my dear Art Impressions friends!

God gives us so many blessings! Besides the gift of his love, one of his greatest gifts is that of this beautiful world that we live in! His blessings are new everyday. Every morning we wake up to the beauty of the sunrise.

I'm here today to share with you a card inspired by a photograph of a sunrise that I took on our farmstead. I have been wanting to use the stamp set #5129- "He Leads Me", so I "imagined" a covered bridge that would have crossed over the creek next to our barn. This was my inspiration photo..

And this is my Faith Inspired "Joy Comes In The Morning" creation...

As you can tell, this is watercolor, and Sara is NOT a watercolor artist, haha, but I am trying, so bear with me on this, ok? I will be showing my process photos of how I have created this scene.

To start, I stamped my covered bridge and a single tree from the stamp set with a combo of Starry Sky and Soft Suede markers onto a140# cold press watercolor card front.

Then I applied Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, and Cherry Cobbler ink to create my sun. I watered down some Starry Sky and dabbed that in to create some moody blue sky, making sure to leave some bits of white showing. I also added a bit that to the inside of the bridge for shadow.

I then used some post it tape to mask off my sun and added a mixture Basic Black and Chocolate Chip ink to create my skyline silhouette and I added in some slightly watered down Starry Sky for the creek water and some Evening Evergreen for the grass and landscape fading down to the creek, and for the foliage on my tree. I added a bit of brown inside the bridge, roof, tree, and fence posts.

Next, I added in some pine trees, shrubs, and grasses using #5372- WC Mini Foliage Set in Evening Evergreen and Mossy Meadow ink (darker in background and lighter in foreground), and I added some watered down Baked Brown Sugar for the dirt on the road. 

I blended those out a tiny bit with a damp brush, and then added in another tree on the right side and I added a bit of yellow and red to the water to be a reflection of the sunrise. I then added in the the very tops of the shrubs with Starry Sky and repeatedly stamped some little "blue wildflowers" in the grass and on the edge of the creek. Once that was dry I added some sparkle pen "dots" to the flowers for accents. You can't see them in my photo, but you can in real life! Haha. There is also a shimmery dew of sparkle on the water and the objects in the foreground that I was unable to capture, but you can see when tilted in the light.

I then finished by adding the shadows and a bit of color to the covered bridge, and then I stamped the sentiment "Joy comes in the morning", from the #5417-Frameworks Sentiments set in Black Versafine Ink.

I then signed my creation and cut the panel down to 5x3 3/4" and mounted it to a white Postage Stamp die cut, and then popped that up on a piece of Silver Holographic cardstock. I again added funfoam to the back of that panel. I created a 5x7card Base of Soft Succulent cardstock and added a panel of vellum that I embossed with a Pinecones & Berries embossing folder. Before adding my main focal panel, I added a small piece of floral lace so that when the panel is applied the lace is just peeking out of the edge.

For the inside of card I watercolored another sunrise panel and added the sentiments "Jesus", from #5986-Jesus & Joy Dies, and stamped "Light of the world" from the Frameworks Sentiments with Black Versafine ink.

And that finishes my project for today. Here is a list of all the supplies I used:
(All Art Impressions products are linked below)

♡Stamp sets:
#5129-He Leads Me,
#5417- Frameworks Sentiments,
#5372- WC Mini Foliage

♡Dies:
#5986- Jesus & Joy Dies (AI)

Postage Stamp die- (Unity)

♡Inks:
 Stampin' Write markers in: Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry, Daffodil Delight, Evening Evergreen, Mossy Meadow, and Starry Sky.

Black Versafine ink

♡Cardstock:
S.U. Soft Succulent

Your Paper Insider: Ultra White Smooth cardstock 100#,
Glama Natural Clean vellum,
Silver Holographic Diamonds 12pt cover,
Cold press Watercolor card fronts 140#,
Dark Blue Curious Skin 91#

♡ Misc.: 

Double sided tape,
paintbrush, water,
Spellbinders Pine branches & Berries embossing folder,
Gelly Roll Sparkle Pen

Pheeeww, that was a lot, I know! If you are still with me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this! Please know that I truly cherish you!

God's blessings to you all, and I pray you have a very blessed week! I hope you will join me again February 3rd for another Faith Inspired project!

Blessings,

Sara Furr- The Crafty Farm Chick

Ps. If you visit my Instagram page @sarae.furr_thecraftyfarmchick you can see a video of my card up close and in action.

Grow Love by Janet

 Hello Ai fans! I love the work the watercolor team does but I lack the skills to do the beautiful paint work that they do. We all know that Ai has so many fabulous set designed to make watercolor easier but please don't think they can't be also used with other mediums like markers. If you're a watercolor person, you can try pencils and markers too. In other words, there are no limits for the artwork that Ai makes available to us, no matter what our preferred coloring tools. 

Today I've used several products that were designed with watercolor mainly in mind. First, I cut the base that holds the picture I colored using 5902-Mini Scalloped Frame Dies. What's so great about it is that it holds a small scene and has an easel so the frame can be displayed like a piece of art. It makes it a great gift! 

My scene was created with 5378-WC Stone Creek Scene, 5371-WC Barn Set, and 5372-WC Mini Foliage. I used a variety of green markers to color the pastures, crop land, and trees. I used several blue markers for the water and sky. Brown and red was used for the tree trunks and wind mill blades. The Stone Creek Scene is larger than the window of the display so I lightly drew in the window shape over the area I wanted to show and that helped me decide where to put the trees, bushes, grass, windmill, and cows. Then I cut it down to fit inside the card and display the intended scene. 

To finish this display, I stamped the sentiment on a small circle cut with 5726-Nested Circle Die Set. The sentiment is from 5734-Friend Sentiments Set. I attached the sentiment to the frame and decorated it with a twine bow and a small sunflower. I also placed a few gold glitter enamel dots in the lower corner of the frame.

Thanks so much for joining me to see what I created for you today. Please visit the Ai store for the sets I used and all the things you need for your card, journal, and tag making projects. Have a great weekend!

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