Teamwork | My Inky Paws

This last weekend we had a mini crafting retreat with as many of the Inky Paw Posse as could make it. I was playing with a variety of colors but concentrated mostly on what I could utilize in conjunction with the Blackberry Beauty Suite. I got what I wanted and am now ready to embrace these rich fall colors. I needed to take some time to get my color palette adjusted. Normally I lean towards the cool colors of winter and spring. Not your typical winter colors of red and green. I express winter with blues, silver, pinks and purples. These colors flow easily into spring pastels and with them I am in my comfort zone. Fall is difficult for me. It’s hard for me to let go of the colors of growing and promise and succumb to the rich dark earth tones. Even though I know that the wheel turns, I always fight autumn. Admittedly I did start off with some of my comfort colors and worked into the fall colors.

Each of us worked on different projects even though each was working with watercolors. I walked everyone through 2 different technique bases. The first was a more traditional watercolor on watercolor panels using markers, ink spots, ink pads, and re-inkers. Additionally I presented tissue paper watercolor which creates beautiful mounted and embossed panels that really are stunning as standalone art-cards. This process takes several hours, so the entire procedure will have to be a topic for a later blog post. We all went to our (socially distanced) space and let the creative juice flow!

It was great to see how each found a specific technique within the wider genre that spoke to them and explored it. I enjoyed looking over from time to time with admiration as each got comfortable and then started exploring and pushing beyond what I taught. I love that! While I realize my role within the team is as leader I prefer to think of myself as cheerleader and mentor. It excites me when my teammates spread their wings, experiment, and discover.

Heather was working on panels for Christmas Cards and she did some gorgeous work with a variety of reds and greens. I can’t wait to see how she uses these pieces and I’ll get her gallery updated once she gets her cards completed.

Same technique using front & back of the paper

Katie was up for the whole weekend so we got to work together longer. She made some really cute Halloween cards with her vivid watercolors and a couple of retired Halloween stamp sets as well as the current Pansy set. Even my 10 year old nephew, Franklin (camera shy of course), got in on things. He’s very creative and painted some panels that are very super-hero reminiscent.

Cole (adverse to photos also) didn’t join us for this session though I was flipping through the watercolor paper and discovered some nice butterflies he’d stamped and used watercolor pencils on. After consulting with him we decided to spritz them with shimmer paint water and let the colors run. The final cards look very vintage!