Learn to watercolor for free this summer with Giveaways!

I don't know about you but June was a crazy busy month for our family, I hardly had time to turn around let alone to paint/craft! I have no idea what it's like to raise a family sometimes, my kids needed my attention a lot this month. It is with this thought in mind, that I hope to let my kids have some unstructured time (playing with toys, using their imagination) so I can maybe have time to be in the "art room" to create or to practice my painting muscle memory. 

My favorite Artist: Angela Fehr is running a month long challenge to help out her students: hobbyist, professional(wanna be), or Card Crafter (that's me) learn techniques and tips in watercolor through Angela's youtube channel or Here is a playlist of some of her best classes I also have a youtube playlist of tutorials that I thought helped me learn watercolor! Art doesn't have to be expensive, and if you are looking to learn more this is the month to try, July is National Watercolor Month!

Need a good challenge to help you "create" in watercolor?Angela's Prompts are sure to help you feel inspire you for each day of July! I printed it out and have it on my Art Room wall to cross off each day (I like to cross off things from a list...)

To learn more and enter into her challenge each week go here, WITH WEEKLY GIVEAWAYS AND A GRAND PRZE!

watercolor resist for a card (not finished yet).

HERE IS HOW TO GET STARTED:

enter into her challenge by enrolling in the course

 you will need to log in into her class website, and while you are logged in if you haven't yet, enroll in her free Joy of Watercolor Class you should! This is where you learn some simple demonstrations to florals, and landscapes that are explained a bit more than in her YouTube channel.

DON'T forget to enroll in the summer challenge, that way when you are ready to post to the challenge all you have to do is upload a photo to her class website.

 I can't wait to see what you post, I have a bunch of watercolors waiting to be "finished" hopefully I can find some time to do finish them off this month!Good luck at winning some fabulous art materials! 

Distress Oxide with Stencil card

Sympathy cards seem to go fast, I am always in need of an elegant sympathy card. When designing this card I came up with the idea of having a background, foreground middle ground for a simple composition. 

I used a violet distress ink for this card panel, I used Tim Holtz wildflower and dot grid stencil and a stamped sentiment from LawnFawn on Vellum. Here is how I did this card:

I started with an A2 size panel and did a  Variegated Wash with violet Dioxide distress ink. Then once that was dried I used the wildflower stencil and inked it with white ink and then embossed the white ink with white embossing powder.

After that was cool to the touch I took the dot grid stencil and lifted the ink off where I wanted it, I used a light hand to remove the ink, I was paying attention to where I wanted more white space. 

Then I cut a scrap of vellum and stamped with Ranger Archival ink and black heat embossed the sentiment. adhered the vellum to the panel, then adhered the whole panel to an A2 card base. 

I Also did this in a three toned background with Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks and loved the results of that. 

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STOP WHAT YOUR DOING AND BUY THIS BOOK!!!

I was on Amazon and they have my most favorite book on sale for 1.99! The Kindle book price is $1.99

  
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EEEKKK!!! This book changed my life, and I refer back to this book a lot! it's seriously worth your time to read! If you are at all creative or you lost yourself as being a mom, or a dad, and something is really missing in your life, this book is a way to jump start your life again. Seriously It's life changing for the better. I started blogging and watercolor on a regular because of this book, I got my life back and it's full of joy thanks to the help of this book. Julia Cameron is a brilliant Author and it's one of those books that can really help you learn how to use creativity to bless your life and those around you!

Not sure about this book, here are some of my favorite blog posts that the book has inspired me!

If any of my readers have read or "done" this book please let me know! Let me know what your favorite chapter was, or the most challenging thing you had to overcome from "reading" this book?



 
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Acrylic Block stamping Backgrounds

Here is a great tutorial I found to help you make this background, I love how the colors can blend, I used just three distress inks and look at all the different shades and tones I am able to get with this card! 

Follow this tutorial, but I used a whole card panel that I inked up, then once it was dry I was able to adhere a butterfly die from Memory Box, to polish the card I finished the card with wood grain washi tape which helped with the mood of the card I was going for! 

I like going back to basics sometimes, especially when I want the Die Cut to take center stage. And that is my simple design tip, let the art and the elements complement each other, using simple and classic techniques really help make the butterflies look delicate.

I am submitting this card into the Power Poppy June's challenge, for a chance for a $50 gift card to Power Poppy.

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E-A-S-Y Stamping with Watercolor

Stamping and watercolor go well together, add flowers to the mix of it and we got a really good combination I think.

Often times cards don't need a lot of extra stuff, This card is a pretty easy card to create. If you are like me you already had some flowers stamped and cut waiting to be made into something. So if that's the case the card is practically done for you! If not drag out your Sizzix, watercolors, stamps and Dies!

I started with two card panels, one to stamp with watercolors, This is a great tutorial for stamping with watercolors from the Frugal Crafter Or if you are needing a better idea on how to stamp with watercolor (using watercolor pigments instead of ink) Take this class, My readers get a 20% discount With Angela Fehr's Creative Watercolor Class for paper crafters.

For the background I used Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks and then blended the blue, green and yellow with a wet brush, let it dry then took Tim Holtz dot grid stencil and took away some of the pigment to give it some texture.

For the Flowers, I watercolor stamped a flower set from Richard Garay with Kuretake Gansia Tambi watercolors (my favorite watercolors for cards.) Then added the flowers together to get a good arrangement of flowers onto the card, Add some bling to the middle and you are done!

My quick tip for making this card: Since you already have the materials and tools out, make a bunch of flowers at the same time, it will save you time later. I like to stamp and cut out 3-4 sets of extra flowers at a time so I have extras when I need some embellishments but don't want to go through all the work again for just one flower. I keep the color of the flowers fairly open-ended when it comes to it so I don't have a crazy color I am trying to work with. I keep with the pinks and yellows.

Can't you see this card being used for a summer wedding or anniversary?
Happy Creating!

To learn more about watercolor cards take an Online Class with Angela Fehr,  Here is a 20% off coupon for the class. Totally worth the time and money!

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Distress Ink: 3 ways 1 resist stamp

I love when I can have endless options to create with one tool, one stamp, one color, it makes me happy! so when I saw this Penny Black Stamp I had to have it, I knew that I could do a lot of fun things with it. During an afternoon I was able to make about a dozen of cards with this one stamp, I started with stamping and embossing white and black, with about 4 of each color. I like to stamp ahead because I mess up a lot and if I don't' have extra then it's more work in the long run. 

My First card was to watercolor with distress ink, I like the way that the Distress Inks are water-soluble, and they do a great job blending like watercolor.

With an acrylic block, I put some distress ink on, I used Mustard Seed, Worn Lipstick, and Fire Brick Red. With those 3 colors, I was able to get a Vibrant orange. I used a water brush to paint on the ink knowing that I wanted all the colors to blend and chose accordingly to what I thought would work, (not much thinking process with these Analogous colors.)

For the sentiment I used some watercolor paper inked the paper with the red and mustard seed ink and then sprayed the paper and let the colors blend, then I cut out the dovetails and stamped a sentiment, backed it onto black card stock and was done, I did this three more times, (didn't want to have to redo this step if I messed up on down the line.)  I like this card because, with the extra bit of work it took to paint the butterflies, it was really a fun card to create!

This one was a super easy 5 min, card to make (my favorite when you need a fast card.) I used the same colors as above, but really any friendly colors will work together! I inked the embossed card panel, and then inked the card in a diagonal line, then got my spray bottle out and sprayed it and let it dry, that's all, then  I adhered a sentiment I had left over.

 

Monochromatic blending butterfly resist

The last one was also a simple and easy way to make a beautiful card, I made this for a gal that loves all things blueish purple, and I thought that Faded Denim and a darker blue ink (from CTMH) I used a cosmetic sponge to blend the colors to create this background. It was done, I didn' t want to overwork the color. A simple scrap of periwinkle blue paper and a white embossed sentiment worked perfectly to complete the card!

To learn more about watercolor cards take an Online Class with Angela Fehr, (who inspired this card.) Here is a 20% off coupon for the class. Totally worth the time and money!

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Art Journal Autograph book

Before our trip a nice a clean Autograph book

We were blessed to be able to go to Walt Disney World. So for 5 months, I was preparing for this week long dream come true!

Part of this planning was an autograph book. I knew that I wanted something that was personal, and creative. While I was watching an Art Journal class on CreativeBug I knew that I could make an art journal for our trip for autographs, it's a perfect fit for Autograph books!

Here are some of my tips, and How I made it work.

First, you need a good sturdy BOOK, The book I picked out was great until the last day, and it seemed to fall apart. So Get a bound book that can take getting altered. I like the mixed media sketchbooks for that purpose.





I love that art journals have no "rules" as it should be. So be free, when I was creating this journal/autograph book I wasn't thinking too much about the other pages I started in the middle and thought about the mood I wanted, I wanted each page to feel fun and bright and light hearted.

With the mood in mind I found stencils and away I went, I thought about color choices for each stencil and I decided that some pages needed to be simple and others had more saturated pigment than others, I wanted variety and texture on the pages so I used some liquid watercolors in a spray bottle which are super fun to play with!!!!

Other stencils I traced and then colored in the design, and also for some I used a blending technique to blend. Really I just wanted the whole book to feel carefree and bright, so I didn't fuss too much over the "art" of it, I spent most of my thoughts on the negitive parts asking questions like: Is there enough room for an autograph? Does the color work? is the color to saturated, You know all those silly questions you would ask if you were desinging something for someone.

For some non stenciled pages, I picked 3-4 watercolors and used brush strokes to make the page burst with colors, or used a light wash to bring out desing elements.
Not all the pages are showne in this post, I had 22 pages to create on, the perfect amount

Once the pages were painted on, I then had a pile of what I call "recycle art" Art that you don't want to throw away becuase you learned something from it, or you were messing around on some scratch paper and you really like how it turned out... Yep I used them in the book. I cut the art to size and added it to the pages with washi Tape, making it a flap to the page.  A cherished memory happend from my"recyled art" my daughter and I were getting Repunzell's autograph and she didn't want to sign on the flower that I wanted her to autograph on, she was like it's too nice to sign on top of it, that painting deserves to go in a frame, I assured her that it was just a pracitice one, and that she deserves this spot becuase after all my daughter and I love her! It was a special memory that I will cherish.

I chose washi tape that worked with the over all "feel" to match the washi tape to the book I used color theroy to govern my choice, that's all, nothing too fancy about it. If the color worked then it was good to go on.

Next I chose some journaling tags and stickers. I love going to Tuesday Mornings! While I was there in the winter I picked up a pack of cardstock stickers from Basic Grey (one of my all time favorite paper crafting designers) and knew that the stickers would be fun and bright for my addiction, I mean paper craft hoppy. Since I had like 10 sheets of the same stickers I didn't have to feel so stingy with the stickers and used them as accents to the Art Journal Autograph book! The stickers made the whole book look unified when before it looked like an art journal.

What do you think? have you used an art journal as a autograph book before? While we were at Cinderella's Royal Table Jasmin said to me, YOU GOT TO SELL THESE I have never seen anything like this before! So there you go, maybe I will start a new trend, I mean after all mixed media and art journals are so trendy right now, that it makes sense to turn your art journal into an autograph book right?

Got Kid Art?

Kids are a natural artist's so at our house, we try to do fun art,  It's really open-ended, and most activities can be done with simple art materials that you might have already.

Here are some of our favorite things we like to do...

Draw your Favorite Animal, since my kids animal changes daily you could make it into a book, for them!

Color your mood: Pick a color that matches the mood the child is feeling and color with just that, it's that simple, color whatever you want.... we like to use different mediums, like colored pencils, and markers to watercolor.

Paint with watercolor

Scribble Art: Scribble on some paper, then color in the areas with three or four colors. We love watercolor pencils for coloring in, and sharpies for the outlines.

Create a scene with window markers: Yes I love my windows for my children's canvas! it's so fun to see what they can create! and it makes me smile when I see their artwork on my patio door!

Paint or draw a Song: Paint/draw a picture to one of your favorite songs, (we like Gold Fish by Laurie Berkner) Or any classical music. Or A holiday favorite like Jingle Bells

Trace Shapes on paper: Find things to trace and then color it, We love wooden blocks s from Mellisa and Doug

Roll Dice Art Surprise game (it's really unpredictable and entertaining.)

Face Painting, We love Snazaroo's face painting products!

Marshmallow and toothpick sculpture: We like to make buildings and bridges!

Stamp/print with everyday objects you find around the house, make a background for wrapping paper.

Bubble printing.   We love bubble wrap, but blowing bubbles and getting a neat print is so much fun!

Paint with Flowers and leave:, We like to collect leaves, flowers, petals, and acorns, and paint with them as if they were stamps or brushes.

Color with Markers

Create a picture with Shaving Cream, this one is so fun to do, it's a giggle fest! the plus side is your house will smell good, I make them clean up before they do something else. WE LOVE playing on our patio door with shaving cream! It's A blast!

Paint with Q-Tips I keep it simple and let them only have primary colors.

Playdough fun time. I have a tot of fun play dough toys that I have collected at Garages Sales, I even get excited for this one!

Make a collage with pom poms, you can glue pom poms, or use the pom poms as a brush, either way, it's a fun time. To glue the pom poms I use a hot glue gun.

Glue drawing and rubbing, get some school glue, let them make swirls, lines, whatever with the glue, then when it dries, let them do a rubbing or a resist on the glue.

Make a Collage: cut out images from magazines, find objects from nature and stickers, if you are using hard to glue things (pom poms, sequins, buttons leaves,) use contact paper, and then display it on a window.

Create beads with model magic Then the next day you can create a necklace

Draw or paint Nature

Paint Sticks: Got sticks, and paint, why not paint them, here is a post I did on this easy fun activity