Autumn Owl

Here is an owl I painted yesterday. I used Mission Gold watercolors on Aqua Bee 140# watercolor paper. I love painting and relaxing following a beginner video from The Frugal Crafter.  This link will take you directly to the video. I always have a blast with Lindsay, even though she doesn't know it. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Tonic Craft Kit 13

The Tonic Craft Kit 13 has just arrived and it is fabulous! Just in time for the holidays and beyond. This kit is designed to craft gift card holders. As you will see it can be used in many other ways as well. We will make 2 cards and an art journal page. Keep reading for the card and art journal page instructions and list of kit contents.

This kit includes:

10 Dies

2 Stamps

2 Sheets of Specialty Papers

1 Sheet of Cardstock

6x6 Paper Pad (December Skies) 

Nuvo Glitter Drops in Dazzling Blue

Nuvo Crystal Drops in Liquid Mercury 

Nuvo Glimmer Paster in Moonstone

Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter in Silver Tinsel

Nuvo Mica Mist in Nebula Blue

(SUPRISE GIFT) Nuvo Glitter Markers in Blue Bliss, Imperial Blue and Silver Mist 

One of the best things about Tonic Craft Kits is the dies. There are 10, that's right, 10 dies in kit 13. You can see all 10 in the photo above. 

I'm sad to say that the Kit contents will no longer come with a secret suprise gift. The gift was supposed to be kept SECRET, but some people ruined it by showing it in blogs and videos. I'm sad to see it go because that was one of the reasons I subscribe to this kit. I will keep purchasing them even though the suprise is gone because it really is worth the money. As you can see above. 

I made a gift card holder and box so you can see how they look. Like I mentioned earlier I will make a couple projects to show versatility. Here's box and holder:

Learning the art of Watercolor

I want to document my watercolor painting journey to keep tabs on how I progress and grow.

While looking into mixed media art I found a lot of artists using watercolors. I never really liked watercolor with all those soft pastels and globs of pigment that was supposed to look like a flower. But, I do enjoy the way pigments move and mingle together. My journey led me to The Frugal Crafter channel by Lindsay Weirich on YouTube. The first video I watched was "Paint a Quick Humming Bird in Watercolors (Quick and Easy)" The beautiful rich colors and a more defined style really caught my eye.

After watching a couple of her videos I decided to try watercolor painting. I was intimidated by the "Humming Bird" video so I chose this one from Lindsay's channel to follow:

The pictures below show my first watercolor and the same one I did a year later. Everyone has to start at somewhere. I admit I was discouraged after the first try but I loved how easy it was to paint with watercolor as in brush, water, paint and paper. No prep work and mixing colors was so much easier than with other mediums. I do have an art background and love color theory but it has been a long time since these skills were used. So, even though I was discouraged by the artwork the actual process inspired me to keep trying. What a difference a year can make, right?

I will be going into more detail as I go but just like my journey in watercolor, you have to start somewhere, right?

From Flat to Fabulous Embellishments

Pictured is 1. Gesso 2. Faber-Castell Texture Gems 3. Faber-Castell Gelatos 4. Sponge 5. Ranger Stickles

Here is a quick tutorial using Faber-Castell, Design Memory Craft, Gelatos and Texture Gems. I also used Ranger Stickles and Gesso. You can use this on any type of embellishment like chipboard, wood (which is what I used here) paper and even metal.

  STEP 1. 

Add Gesso to embellishment. 

STEP 2. 

Rub on the Gelatos in your choice of color. I am using Silver Ice from the Manhattan collection. I just rub it on with my finger.

This is a close up of the Silver Ice Gelatos on the wood embellishment. Love that wood grain look. You could stop here if you like but in this tutorial we are going from flat to fabulous.

 Step 3. 

To add Dimension to your embellishment add the Texture Gems. Faber-Castell has made this easy for us. There is a pointed tip on the bottle of Texture Gems so you just Squeeze and go to add lines or dots to your projects. The Texture Gems remains dimensional when dried creating that wonderful raised effect. I also added Ranger Stickles to make is Sparkle! Now we have Fabulous!

You can see the dimension and sparkle here is this close up.

This example shows that you can do just certain parts of your embellishment and they still look fabulous! This is another one I made in the Metallic Icing Gelatos and Pearl Texture Gems and Diamond Stickles. 

Close up of the Metallic Ice Gelatos and Pearl Texture Gems with Diamond Stickles.

I had lots of fun making this tutorial and hope you will have fun taking your embellishments from Flat to Fabulous

Gift Bag for Niece

I made this purse gift bag for my niece. She requested a make-up compact for her birthday. So naturally, the purse was fitting. The paper is from BasicGrey from the retired collection Candy Shoppe.

Fall Memories Mixed Media Project

This project is one of an on-going series of birds in the different seasons. The project you see here is the first in this series and one of my favorites. I was fascinated by the way Gabrielle Pollacco at Such a Pretty Mess made her tree using a glue gun. The texture and depth you get is amazing, realistic and actually was a very simple application. I used many different types of mediums but most of the color you see is from rubbing Design Memory Crafts Gelatos onto scrapbook paper. (Absolutely LOVE those Gelatos!) Below is a few close ups.

Here is a close up of the metal "Memories" embellishment I used. I added Ranger Stickles in Lime Green and a top coat of Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!. You can also see the gold embossed French Script stamp by Stampin' Up!

In this photo you can see the filigree metal embellishment, some Gold and Clear flatback pearls. These are from my collection of embellishments I've built up over the years of crafting.

Make your own Sunshine...

Sometimes you have to make your own SunShine...(Flowers) so, I did and this is how it turned out.

Overview

Close up

Detail

This journal entry made me fall in love with my white pens. I was having such a hard time with those suckers but somehow they started working right on these flowers. 

My motivation came  from the cloudy, rainy weather and Inspiration came from this beautiful artwork by Pam Coxwell