Ode to November and a Gift for You by Gennette Houghton

Hello and Welcome to Watercolor Weekend!  Fall is my favorite time of year, the
sunlight is golden and the air is crisp. For my first card I printed off one of
my favorite poems called November on 90lb watercolor paper. Unfortunately, I
waited until after I made my card to do a little digging.  I wanted to know where this poem originated
from, to learn some history on the poem and the person who wrote it.  Come to find out Clyde Watson is not the
author of this poem, even though you will find her name attached to it all over
the internet, but it was actually penned by Elizabeth Coatsworth who was born
in 1893. So just know that the actual author on this is incorrect. 

After printing the poem, I cut my piece down to an A2
size, and started choosing what stamps I wanted to use to depict this
poem.  I started with the bucket from
6055 Water of Life Set in N79 and stamped off once. Not knowing exactly how
this was going to go, I wanted my lines to be fairly light so they wouldn’t
compete with the printed poem and used N79 for each stamp and stamped them all
off once.  I then chose 5270 Columns Set
for the lamp post. I used 5129 He Leads Me Set for the fence, masking off part
of the lamp post first. Wanting something more on the right side I went with
5388 Rugged Tree Set.  

Since my lines
were already pretty light I didn’t worry about pulling color out. Starting with
the bucket I added a mixture of 565 and 969 to get that old weathered wood
look, for contrast I used 879 on the bands and handle. I wanted to create the
look of ice in the bucket so I started with 526 lightly adding just a hint of
565 for a shadow along the edge of the ice. 
I then added 969 to the tree.  For
the lamp post I start with a mix of 565 and 969 to get some of the shadow areas
in, and I love using a combination of 027 and 373, adding each color in
separately in different areas creating an almost patina effect. For the lantern
part I started with 055 for the base color, adding in 025 to deepen the area
leaving the middle alone, and 026 was added along the edges.  For the fence I started again with a mix of
565 and 969 adding in more 565 for deeper shadows. Being that the fence goes
into the poem I wanted to keep this light. 
A mix of 027 and 177 was used on the ground and a mix of 526 and 249
(yes, 249, lightly) for the sky.  5826 WC
Large Tree Set 2 has a grass stamp that is my absolute favorite to use for
nature scenes. I used 228 with a couple of spots with 027 to give the look of
grass that is starting to fade and dry out around the bucket, post, and tree. I
then decided I actually wanted the grass to be a little taller by the tree so I
used the grass that is included in the Water of Life Set and used the same
colors.  A branch from 4964 WC Branches
set in 879 was used to create a vine along the fence being careful not to stamp
across the lamp post, I ended up masking with post-it tape just to be
safe.  I then used 3 Twintones for the
berries, 25 Red, 76 Carrot Orange, and 04 Chrome Yellow.  I used some Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof
White to add some flowers by the tree. I recently bought some Winsor and Newton
Iridescent Medium to try out. It reminds me of Wink of Stella, its silver based
and can be used to mix in with your colors. I thought this would be a good
choice to try to create frost. Like Wink of Stella, the light has to hit it
just right to see it, so I didn’t really get what I was hoping for.

For my 2^nd project I decided to turn the 5902
Mini Scalloped Frame into a gift tag.  

I
die cut paper from 5940 Journal Cover Paper Pack Plaid, and then with the
largest oval included in the set I created an opening on the front panel. I
then took some light blue solid cardstock and cut it down to 2 11/16 by 3 3/16,
centered that behind the original oval opening and traced with a pencil. I took
the next size down oval and centered that in the outline and die cut it.  I glued this to the inside behind the opening
to create a frame. I then did the same thing with a piece of watercolor paper
and used the traced outline as a guide for my scene.  

5467 Snowmen Set was stamped in N49 after
stamping off once.  For the hat I used
N15, and 526 was used on the band, shading the sides and leaving a highlight in
the middle. A black micron was used on the eyes and mouth. I started creating
contours of the snowman’s body with N52 and then darkened the more shaded areas
with 565, mainly focusing under the hat and scarf.  I started by shading the scarf with 565 first
and then added 526 to create a plaid pattern. 
N15 was used on the buttons of the snowman.  993 and 933 was used on the carrot nose.  I used a mix of 526 and 565 for the sky before
adding in the branches from 4964 WC Branches set in 879.  Bleed Proof White was used to create the snow
on the hat, branches and ground, shading with 565 to give it texture and
dimension.  I then glued the watercolor
piece to the framed area, and then glued the 2 halves together.  I used the sentiment from 5566 Christmas
Sentiment Set in VersaFine Clair Twilight, added an eyelet and ribbon to finish
off the tag.  Thank you for joining me
today, and I hope you enjoyed my projects! Until next time,
Create….Share….Inspire!