Painted Fall Leaves Tutorial

Almost all of the leaves have fallen off our trees here.  It's sad, but at the same time, kinda fun! Change isn't all bad, after all.  We've been raking and jumping in the fallen leaves, and I've also come up with a fun, crafty use for them!  This was a simple craft project that my son and I could do together.  So it was a win with the leaves this year!

Painted Fall Leaves Tutorial:

Materials: 

Dried and Pressed Leaves- it takes about two weeks for pressed leaves to dry, so plan ahead!

Acrylic Craft Paints

Paint Brushes

Modge Podge

Wax or Parchment Paper (optional)

Step 1:  Paint designs on one side of your dried leaves.  You do some color-blocking, stripes, chevrons, or whatever you can dream up. 

 Be careful, the dry ones are super brittle.  Let paint dry.  You can paint both sides of your leaves if you want, but I just painted one side for mine.

Step 2:  When paint is fully dry, apply a thick coating of modge podge to one side of your leaves.  Let dry.  You may choose to lay them out to dry on wax or parchment paper so they won't stick to anything. 

Step 3:  After the first modge podge side is dry, apply modge podge to the other sides of the leaves and let dry again.  All done!

You can string them together to make a pretty fall garland to hang on the wall or scatter them on the hearth.  So fun!

Photos of the Week

Another gorgeous week of fall......

I went on a walk every day last week... man that felt good!  I wish we had this kind of weather more often... I would definitely get more exercise if we did :)

Watercolor Paintings with a Blue Frame

I have some new watercolors to share today!  

Ok so the designs are not all new (I've done elephants and birds with heart balloons before), but the colors are new here.  Plus I went to the trouble of photographing some of them in this lovely aqua blue frame.  I love the combination!

Teal Mom and Baby Elephant

Lime Green Elephant

Coral and Pink Bird with Chevron Background

Green Pear

These four watercolors are up for sale now in the Shop too- so just click on the links above the photos to see them.  Plus I'm having a little HALLOWEEN SALE.  Just enter the coupon code:  HALLOWEEN13 at check-out and get 15% off anything in my shop.  The coupon is expires Nov. 1st.

Halloween Craft: Painted Jar Lanterns

Time for some more colorful Halloween decor.......this time in the form of lanterns!

I could have written a tutorial for these, but I figured that the internet is already overloaded with tutorials of this kind :)  You can find a pretty good one HERE.

  All I did here was paint the outside of some recycled food jars with one layer of acrylic craft paint.  Then I painted a design on top of that in black paint or, in the case of the owl jar, scratched through the paint to make a design.   I sealed the paint with a coat of modge podge and that was it... not much to it!

My favorite thing about these (other than their total affordability) is the fact that they are versatile.  They look cool in the day time with no illumination and work great at night with tea light candles inside to make them glow.  Perfect :)

Photos of the Week

We went exploring in the mountains last week!  My husband had a day off of work and it was the perfect time to go.  Hardly anyone else was up there :)

I can honestly say that this was the most perfect, fun fall day I've ever had with my family.  I was feeling pretty good, the weather was gorgeous, and the leaves were golden.  We were all able to relax, enjoy the moment, and just be silly and have fun.  That doesn't happen all too often for our family.  It was a huge blessing.  

I'm so grateful that every once in a while I'm granted a day that is just about perfect.  It rejuvenates me and helps me get through the not-so-perfect days.... and nights when I can't sleep because of pain.  In spite of the trials and pain that I don't understand, I am still blessed to be here on earth.  It's days like this one that remind me that I wouldn't ever want to trade my life for something else.  

Flowers and Sunsets

A couple of old watercolors I forgot to post:

cosmos from my parents' yard .....

and a sunset I made while playing around with paint and ink.  Nothing too fancy, but still fun.  I could use something to remind me of tropical places once in a while :)

Halloween Craft: Bat Invasion

While looking for some fun Halloween ideas I came across these paper bats over at MADE.  Such a cute idea... I had to copy it!  I did put my own twist on it though.... my bats are a bit more colorful :)  

Photos of the Week

I took some time to enjoy the colors around me last week.....

there's beauty, even in the weeds :) 

There are some things I am sad to see changing and some things I have been longing to change for a very very long time.  The weather is changing, but my health is another matter.  It's a long slow process.  Some weeks are great, but last week.... not so much.  More migraines than expected, but I survived. 

Since I can't seem to control the pain, I decided to change something I could control.  I cut almost 7 inches of my hair off, which felt awesome!  I kind of feel like a new woman!  But yet, no matter how much I change externally, I realize that to get through this life well and joyfully, I need to  make changes within.  I need to accept God's plan for me, no matter how different it is from the plan I wanted for myself.  It's an incredibly hard thing to do, but it's worth working at :)

Have a happy week and enjoy life my friends!

New Prints in the Shop

The prints are here......

I just ordered a ton of Giclee Prints for my Shop... getting ready for Christmas.  I now have 17 of my favorite watercolors available in Giclee Print form.  So check them out!

Chevron Print

 Pink Elephant Print

Blue Butterfly Print

Ombre Twig Wall Hanging

Decorating with nature is one of my favorite things..... it's incredibly inexpensive and it challenges me creatively.   I've been collecting twigs from my back yard for quite some time and I finally came up with a fun and colorful project for them!

Just read below for a little tutorial:

Materials:
Twigs
Pliers
Acrylic Craft Paints
Foam Brush
String
Scissors

Step 1:   Cut twigs with pliers to desired length.  They don't all have to be exactly the same length.  I think it looks better if they are a little varied.  Mine are around 13-14 inches long.

Step 2:  Paint twigs with acrylic craft paint and a foam brush.  To create the ombre effect, choose two colors. Paint a few sticks with just one straight color, then mix in a little of the other color for the next twigs. Gradually add more of the second color.  For the last few sticks, paint them with the unmixed second color. Let paint dry.

Step 3:  Cut a string about 5-6 feet long.  Find the middle of the string and tie each side of it to the ends of the  first twig.

Step 4:  Tie the other twigs to the string below the first.  Just make a loop on each side, slide the ends of the twig in, and secure it with a knot.  Pull tight.

Step 5:  When you have tied all the twigs together, make a double knot at the end to hold securely. Then snip off the extra string at the ends.