We got tape for Christmas................. lots and lots of cool tape!
Draw a shape on a paper, cover it with tape and cut it out. It's amazing what you can create. Flowers, trees, triangles, and hearts!
You can even make a cyclops-robot-guy!
Blue & Gold Wildflowers
It's winter, but I still have flowers on the brain.......
I discovered this awesome color palette with this painting kind of by accident. It's hard to describe how I choose colors for my paintings, except to say that lots of the time they are totally arbitrary. I wasn't looking at blue and gold flowers as I painted this, I just felt like going with cool colors so this is what happened!
Snowflake Art Tutorial
My son is fortunate to have art class at his new school. I would have been in heaven if my elementary school offered art classes when I was a kid! I was so excited when my son came home with a cool watercolor snowflake project that we had to replicate at home together. So, please note, I didn't invent this idea. I'm just sharing the process. Enjoy!
Snowflake Art Tutorial
Materials:
watercolor paper
white crayon
watercolor paints
paint brushes
salt
Step 1: Use the white crayon to draw snowflakes on the watercolor paper. It's hard to see what you are drawing but you can check your work by holding your paper next to the window.
If you are stuck as to how to draw the snowflake shapes, think pinwheels or flowers. It's easiest to start from a central point and draw lines coming out from the center.
Step 2: Paint watercolors in all kinds of pretty colors over the crayon on the paper. The wax from the crayon resists the watercolor- magically exposing the snowflakes you drew! This part is fun to watch!
Step 3: While the paint is still wet, sprinkle salt on the painting and let it dry. This creates some fun spots and texture, plus leave a slight amount of glitter behind. Bigger salts like Epsom salt, leave bigger more noticeable spots, but you can use table salt too.
Once the paint is dry, brush the salt off and you're done.
Custom Watercolors
Commissions are always good and it's more fun when people ask me to paint a portrait for them!
These cute couples' portraits will make some awesome Christmas gifts this year :)
If you want to try your hand at one of these, I have an Easy Watercolor Portrait Tutorial that you can try. Watercolors take some practice, but aren't as intimidating as they are cracked up to be. Just give it a try!
And here's a fun custom elephant painting I just finished yesterday.......
I keep discovering new ways to combine elephants and hearts
Photos of the Week
My lake is now frozen.............isn't it pretty? I could look at ice crystals all day.
This was the week when everything outside froze and my family came to stay with us in our new house! Exciting stuff!
Even though my life is hectic and stressful right now (I'm getting ready for Endometriosis surgery #3 in a few weeks), I keep finding more proof that I'm in the right place and that is a good feeling.
The kind people around me that reach out and help when I need it make me so aware of a God who cares about me. He's given me the people I need in my life right now and it makes me cry to feel that love, to know that I'm not forgotten. Illness can be a very lonely thing. In my darkest, hardest moments I have cried out "Where are you Lord? How could you let this happen to me? Why don't you help me fix this?" I felt abandoned, but eventually He always finds a way to show me that He is still there and that I'm not alone. Yes, He does let me struggle and I don't always understand that, but I can't deny that He is there and will step in at the right moment. He won't let me fall.
Photos of the Week
Last week, I drove as high up the hill behind my house as I could go at dusk and tried to capture the golden light and the reflections of the mountains in the lake. It was a gorgeous site and a wonderful escape.
Photos of the Week
First Snow!
And a flashback to warmer days- my hubby took this one! He's a man of many talents :)
Painted Leaves- Tribal Design
I'm at it again............. painting leaves is a favorite fall past time.
I picked and dried these weeks ago with my son, then I broke out the acrylic craft paints and invented my own tribal/aztec designs in blues, pinks, and reds.
Now that the leaves are all painted I have to figure out what to do with them.... a garland perhaps? I know I'll come up with something :)
What would you use these for?
Click on the Fall Leaf Art Projects below to get more leafy inspiration:
Photos of the Week
Enjoying the last of the warm fall weather ..........
The light is golden and perfect this time of year- that's what makes fall so ideal for nature photography. I wish I could hold onto it longer, keep it for the middle of January when cabin fever sets in and I need the sun. I guess these photos will have to do!
Photos of the Week
Are you tired of my lake photos yet?
I hope not- cause I got lots more coming your way!
Last week was not my best week ever. Fatigue and pain came back with a vengeance. I'm still trying to figure what the heck to do about it. It takes so long to get in to see a good doctor so at least I have some time to think. Endometriosis is a beast and hysterectomy sure does not cure it. Hysterectomy made it better, much more manageable, but I can tell, the disease is still there.
So, in the mean time, whilst I try to live a normal life, I head over to my lake and breathe in the fresh air and pretend I don't have that nasty disease, that it doesn't exist and that life is still good, which it is. I've spent so much time seeking the good and the happy and that's what I have to keep on doing. Pain is a good teacher. It teaches me what really matters and what really doesn't. So I'm grateful for that :)
In the Works
This painting is done now.......... a 30x44 inch pink feathers watercolor! Pheww! I set a record for the largest watercolor I've ever sold with that one. And since I didn't have an easel or board large enough to attach it to- I had to tape it to my wall :)
My hexagon blanket is going oh so slow. I started it months ago and it will still be some months before it's finished, but it's going to be pretty! I'm working on tutorials and a pattern to go with it- so stay tuned for that this winter.
And.... I brought my bat invasion along with me to my new home. I don't have any pictures hanging up yet so these paper bats are a welcome site on my bare white walls.
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