Photo of the Week

Greetings! 

I'm back from a trip to Southern Utah and I have a photo to share- yay! I don't get many good shots with my husband's little point-and-shoot camera, but a little photo editing helps.  I'm hoping to get back into photography soon.  I have a feeling I might get a new camera for Christmas ;)

Metallic Pumpkins

I know it's a bit late to be decorating pumpkins, but I bought this gold metallic spray paint and I just had to test it out.  The stuff turned out to be AMAZING! I can't wait to get spray painting some pine cones with it for Christmas!

I bought these mini pumpkins way back at the beginning of October and they are showing no signs of rot yet.  My son and I "decorated" these little guys for Halloween.

Here is the before:

And the after:

I may have to keep these around after Thanksgiving too :)

Crochet Infinity Scarf

 So, I found a great crochet pattern for a scarf using a variation of a shell stitch in Reader’s Digest  “Crochet in No Time”  at my library, but I wanted to change it a little bit.  I made my own variation by joining the ends to make an infinity scarf!  Yea! Just in time for winter too :)

Sketches of the litte guy

Here are a few sketches of the little guy I spend all day with- everyday!   I've been sketching from photos of him to get in some drawing practice and man am I out of practice- yikes!   Back in my college days when I was taking figure drawing classes, this would have been much easier.

I got a little frustrated with this drawing here below.  It is easy for me to draw a person, but it is soooooo hard to actually make the drawing look like them.  This has some resemblance to my son, but there is something about the eyes that makes him look different.  I  admire any artist who can really capture a person as they are. 

Straw Painting Art Tutorial

Well, hello everyone! I hope you are ready for another abstract watercolor tutorial!  I just love doing these.  I think what I like most is (hopefully)  inspiring others and helping them to discover that they can be creative :)



Materials:
Watercolor Paper
Watercolor paints and brush
Straw
Stiff board to tape your paper too (optional)
Masking Tape (optional)

Step 1: If you would like a nice border around your painting, tape your watercolor paper down to a board with masking tape. 
                

Step 2:  Choose your color palette for your painting.
If you aren't quite sure how to go about this you can pick colors that are next to each other on the color wheel.  You could do: yellow, green, blue or red, orange yellow.


Step 3:  Load up your paint brush with some nice water-loaded watercolor paint.  You need the paints to be really runny for the straw technique to work.

Step 4:  Drop some wet watercolor paint onto your paper and blow the paint around with a straw.

  You can drip paint randomly all over your paper or try a more planned technique.  For this painting here, I dripped the paint most heavily at the bottom of the paper and blew it upwards with the straw.  You could also try dripping your paint in the center of the page and blowing it outwards in all directions.  Just experiment and have fun!

Step 5:  Continue to drip more paint onto your paper, alternating colors as you go.  You can drip layers onto other wet drips or wait till the first drips dry.  I did a little of both.  If you drip wet paint into wet paint you can watch the colors mix on the paper!  I find this fascinating!

Step 6.  Keep layering until you are satisfied with the look of your painting, then let it dry completely.  A blow dryer will speed up the process, but be careful.  The air from the blow dryer may move your wet paint around.

Step 7:  Carefully peel off the masking tape from the edges of your painting.  Go slowly- the tape tends to rip the paper if you're not careful.

Sign your painting and enjoy your new abstract artwork!

For another abstract art idea, check out my Abstract Watercolor Tutorial.

Fun with Watercolors

Last week I did a little experimenting with watercolors and straws.... and it was so much fun!

I got the idea when I saw a video on how to use a medium called ecoline, which is basically a liquid watercolor kind of paint.  Since I didn't have any ecoline, I tried out the technique with my watercolors. 

This is a great way to have fun with paint and it's something the kids can do with you!  Stay tuned for the tutorial :)

Easy Infinity Scarf

I found a great tutorial at The Cottage Home a while ago for an infinity scarf.  It only involves cutting two long rectangles of fabric and sewing them together.  Finally- a sewing project a beginner like me can handle!

Everything went smoothly until the end.  I think the tutorial forgets to mention that you need to turn the scarf inside out again in order to sew one of the ends, or maybe I just made it weird.   But I figured it out eventually and I'm starting to get into scarves.....a first for me.

This one is perfect for a novice-scarf-wearer like me because there are only two ways to wear it- not too confusing :)

Simple Ribbon Flower Tutorial

Brrr! The snow is here in Utah. I may be staying indoors and crafting a bit more now.  This is good and bad- I love making stuff, but geez, I miss my sunny fall weather already!

I've been experimenting with my ribbon and have come up with a way to make some super easy flowers!  Keep reading to find out how I made them. 

Materials: small strip of ribbon, thread, needle, and scissors

Step1.  Sew wide up and down stitches along the edge of the length of the ribbon.

Step 2.  Gently pull thread to gather ribbon.

Step 3.  Join both sides of the ribbon

Have fun and try different ribbons!  You can even layer several lengths of ribbon on top of each other to make a puffier flower.

This red lacy one here I may be using for something for Christmas!