Build Me Up

Being skilled in many different mediums sometimes leaves me feeling fractured at times.  It's hard to know what to do and what to further pursue.  I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I can combine many of my talents and passions.

Woodworking and watercolor painting are my two biggest creative passions.  I did this as an homage to them.  I am currently working on expanding and playing more with the pyrography (wood burning) and painting on wood with wood dyes.  I also need to build a frame for my blue jay feather.  I plan on dying the frame as well.  

Once I have honed this skill a bit, I will give some insight on the process.  Since I am still learning and playing with it, I need to figure out what works and what doesn't.  I am currently in the process of doing a butterfly.  I need to get rid of this cold before I can continue on it since I need to sand it down and I don't want to do that when I can barely breathe. 

Paintings By Request

I mentioned earlier this summer that I have been painting much more, mainly because I am finding myself waiting around a lot.  Since I often just need a nudge as to what to paint, I have been asking not just my kids, but other kids near by what I should paint.  Here is a selection of a few this summer.

Maben asked me to paint the rocket ship and alien that is on the side of one of his buckets.

 
One of the kids in Maben's gymnastics class asked me to paint him a sunset.  I love this one. 

Angry birds is always popular in our house.  This is big red bird, also known as Terence.  Did you know that the Angry Birds have names?  Yup, that's how addicted my children are.

This is Lazer Bird from Angry Birds Space.  It's what Chuck (the yellow bird) turned into when he went to space.  

And here is a minion from Despicable Me.  This one is for my husband, he needs some minions.

Make Your Own Washi Tape

I have jumped all over the washi tape craze, but sometimes, the cost is a little much.  On the wish list for my birthday, I asked for white artist tape for the sole purpose of decorating it.  Thanks to my awesome hubby, he got me everything on my wish list.

If you want make your own washi tape, take strips of the artist tape and place it on the wax paper.

For what I wanted to do, I used a mini mister, india ink (or liquid water color) and water.  For the black, I filled my mister up 1/4 of the way with water and added 15 drops of india ink.  I sprayed the tape and let it dry.  As my son Maben would say, "Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!"

India ink is waterproof, so once it's dry, you shouldn't have to worry about it smearing.  For the colored tape, I used liquid water color the same way I did the ink.  I used the liquid water color because it is what I had, but if I wanted it to be more durable, I would have gone out and bought colored india ink.

How gorgeous is this watercolor?  Love it!

I used the tape to attach some photos and feathers to the side of my metal supply cabinet that is in my art/craft room.

Have any of you ever decorated your own washi tape?  Want to try it now?  I can think of a few more ways to decorate some white artist tape.

Markers, stamps, splatter paint, ect.  Hmmm, maybe I need to do another post with all these ideas.

Sharing this over at:
Sugar Bee Crafts: Take-A-Look Tuesday 
Not Just A Housewife: Show Me What Ya Got #130

What I Do While Waiting

This summer has me waiting around, a lot!  I enrolled Maben in swim lessons and both boys are in gymnastics.  This has me sitting around for at least 40 minutes a day.  While, I spend most of my time trying to watch my children in their endeavors, sometimes they have to wait too.  When instruction is given, or another kid is taking their turn, there isn't much for me to do, other than trying to entertain the other child and myself.  I have started bringing a busy bag with me, that contains some busy things for myself too. 

In the past week I have done a few watercolors in my sketchbook and Colton has done a few paintings as well.

The whale was requested by Colton.

I love my travel watercolor set.  You can find it here or at your local Hobby Lobby or other art/craft store.  This has become my go to watercolors since I have been doing most of my painting at the park/pool/gymnastics.  I have fallen in love with the journal too.  I found mind at Hobby Lobby, but you can see it here on Amazon.  The pages are thick, absorb the water well and do not buckle as easily as other watercolor journals. 

My Birthday Wish List

I promised my husband that I would give him a wish list for my birthday.  I figured since most of it will be geared towards my artsy/crafty side, that I should share it here too.

This has to be the coolest pencil sharpener I have seen.  Since I have a hard time finding the little itty bitty ones that I get with pencil kits, this would be a great item to have on my art desk.

Kikkerland Camera Pencil Sharpener

I am a visual person and since I love to take things apart, fix them, assemble stuff, this would be a great look book for myself.

Things Come Apart: A Teardown Manual For Modern Living

Since I am on books right now, this one has caught my eye.  I am trying to get better at hand lettering and what better inspiration than a peek into the sketchbooks of people who are far better at it than I.

Typography Sketchbooks

 

I have been doing a bit of watercolor again.  It really is one of my favorite mediums to work with.  I discovered these great self-watering brushes (load water into the handle and squeeze for a few drops of water) from another artist and they are great!  There are some knock offs that aren't as good as the Koi brand ones.  I have the medium one and it's not quite large enough, so I wouldn't mind having a larger one.

Koi Watercolor Brush, Large

And the last thing that is artsy/crafty that I can think of is a variable temperature control for my soldering iron.  It's a 100 watt soldering iron which is far too hot.  It makes me have to work very quickly and that sometimes causes for a very sloppy look.  This would eliminate that and also allow me to work with a variety of solders, since some are designed for a low temperature.  

Inland MiniPhaser Temperature Control

And last, but definitely not least, I have seen some ideas on making your own washi tape, so I would love some white artist tape that is acid free that I can decorate myself with either pen and ink or watercolor. 

White Artist Tape

Is there anything you think I should add to my birthday wish list?  Anything I missed?  Any new products that I need to try?

Source for all photos: Amazon

Teacher Gifts: Round 3

Whew, third and final round of teacher gifts are complete!  You can put a fork in me, I'm done and ready for summer.

Maben has had three teachers helping him out this year.  The PTA had an awesome book where they asked each teacher to write down their hobbies, favorite stores, etc.  Well, they haven't updated it in a couple years so one of the teachers wasn't in there.  I did know for sure that two of the teachers listed reading as a hobby.  Hmmm...so I started looking for great gifts for people who like to read.  I stumbled across the idea of making homemade bookmarks out of ribbon and charms on pinterest. 

Sold!  I was doing that for all three teachers.  And they turned out amazing and were really easy to make.  Ribbon, ribbon clamps, cute charms and some jump rings.  That was it!

So, you think that's it?  Yeah, I'm a little bit of an over achiever and couldn't leave well enough alone.  Just so they knew exactly what these were for, I crafted a handmade journal for each to place the bookmark inside.

I will have to create a tutorial on how to do those.  They are so easy to do.  Okay, it's on my summer to do list.

I am putting these two gifts together with the Washi Tape Thank You Cards and calling it a day.  I hope Maben's teachers appreciate these as much as I appreciated them this year.

Showing this off at:
Not Just A Housewife: Show Me What Ya Got #122

Throw Paint

I came across this quote and decided to start throwing some paint on watercolor paper.  Which, I then photographed, uploaded, edited and then photoshopped with the quote on it just for you!  Enjoy!

And if you really want to see the kids and I throwing paint around, check out the Jackson Pollock that we did a while ago.  They still love it and it's still hanging in their room!  

Showing this off at:
Sugar Bee Crafts: Take-A-Look Tuesday

Creative Exercise: Monsters

I have been crawling out of a creative funk and it feels GOOOOOOD!  I started with cleaning up and rearranging my craft/art room.  I have set forth a few creative goals.  I also just want to start drawing and painting for no real purpose other than to do it because, it makes me feel relaxed.

Today I decided to do a creative exercise.  I asked Colton what I should draw/paint and he said monsters.  Monsters it is!

I started out with a stack of ATC (Artist trading cards).  They are small pieces of art paper that are 2.5 x 3.5 inches.

I heisted the sticky googly eyes from the kids craft box.  I randomly stuck them on the ATC's.

From here, I took an artist pen and drew my monsters.  The inspiration for each monster was all about the eyes.

I then grabbed my watercolor paints and a few markers and brought my monsters to life with color.

I love all my monsters.  It was so much fun and relaxing to make these little monsters.

Does anyone want a monster?  I am willing to mail out monsters to the first six people who comment.  I will e-mail the first six for their addresses, so please make sure I have an e-mail address to contact you with.

Sharing this over at:
Tatertots and Jello:  Weekend Wrap Up Party 
So I Married A Craft Blogger:  Man Up Link Up XII

It's For the Birds

Since my son took an interest in birds a few years ago, I have in turn also taken a liking to them.  I like to photograph them and the two of them research to find out what kind we found.  I haven't done much with the photographs but decided that I would change that. 

I took a brand new watercolor journal and decided that I would fill it with sketches of birds from the photographs that I have taken.  Both of these were done with watercolor, colored pencil and pen.

This Yellow-rumped warbler is one of Maben's favorites, all because it has a yellow butt and he thinks that is silly.  I have to agree.

I Am A Robot

Hey look!  I found the painting I did.  It was in my car.  This was done for my son Maben.  He loves robots and when I asked him what I should paint, he told me a robot.

Completed with Windsor Newton watercolors and Staedtler ink pens on Aquarelle watercolor paper.

I Love Grandma

I have been playing around with my watercolor sketchbook a lot lately due to a new brush that I discovered.  The Koi watercolor brush, the handle is a tube for water!  It has made playing with watercolors much more portable.  So portable in fact, that I did this while sitting with my two year old at a car dealership.  I realized I haven't given my grandmother any new artwork in a long time.  With Mother's Day right around the corner, what a perfect time for it.

I will be buying a few more, this will save the kids from making huge messes by knocking over the water while painting.  I haven't experienced any leaks with the new brush.  Check it out if you want.  Has anyone else used these brushes before?  Do you love them as much as I do?

Blast From the Past: Stained Glass Man

I have been pretty well immersed in doing stained glass lately.  I wish I could show you more than just 71 pieces of cut glass, but I am still grinding and fitting them.  A very tedious process.  I am working on window...to be revealed at a later date.  But, it did get me thinking of a painting that I did back in college that I called, Stained Glass Man.

My friend Joe is the man in the painting.  We were assigned in our illustration class to paint a silhouette.  I loved that illustration class, each painting that we did were based on a theme that frequents illustrations.  It left much of the creativity up to us. 

The stained glass window behind Joe is from the Crouse College building located at Syracuse University.  Such a beautiful building with an amazing pipe organ located within it.  Even though this was the furthest building for me to get to, I never really minded because of it's beauty.

Source: here

Just a little FYI for everyone, Crouse College housed the first College for Fine Arts in the United States.

Create

Do you have an inspiration board in your studio/crafty area?  I do and it has pictures of family, inspirational places, small pieces of art and now it will have this.

I created this to help remind me to keep creating.  What helps keep you inspired to create?

Splatter Paint and a Bird

Like I said previously, I have deemed this the year of creativity.  I want to push my boundaries and release my mind from the walls I have put up.  I would like to be a little more like Dr. Seuss and whatever I dream of, can exist...at least on paper. 

So, I took some watercolor the other day and put some drips and splatters on a piece of watercolor paper.

Nothing too exciting here.  The lines at the top made me think that I could make an umbrella.  But, there was still something missing.  I figured out what I wanted to put under the umbrella after I captured this beauty at the park yesterday morning.

Once all of it combined in my head, I needed to put it all to paper.  This is what came about and I love it!

I'm Painting Again!

While up in the woods of Vermont over Christmas I brought my new watercolor set (which by the way is totally awesome, thanks hunny) and a new journal of hand made paper that is perfect for watercolor.

I really love these small sets.  They are so portable.  I feel like I could take them just about anywhere.  They also make it through airport security!  Tube paint will not always make it through, because it's technically a liquid.

This is the new watercolor journal I bought myself as a gift for the trip.  Love the thickness of the paper.  I picked this up at Hobby Lobby.  Can't remember the brand because it's not written on the journal, but you can find it in the sketchbook section.  This one is 9.5x6.5 inches.

Here are two of the paintings I did while on vacation.  Both paintings are watercolor with ink overlay.  There is something about being totally disconnected that is inspiring to me.  Maybe it was the slow internet connection that kept me off of Pinterest and Facebook!

The painting above was inspired by a photo I took of a Common Buckeye butterfly.

The painting above was inspired by a photo I took of a Viceroy butterfly that was hanging out on some Queen Anne's Lace. 

Both paintings aren't perfect in my eyes, but after only picking up my watercolors less times than I can count on one hand last year, not a bad starting off point.  I was worried how well I would do tackling the Queen Anne's Lace, but that is my favorite part of the second painting.  I overworked the butterfly in my opinion, but we are our own worst/best critic!