Free Watercolor Video Tutorial: Eggs & Nest

Hello friends! Today I felt like painting…and sharing…and sharing my love of painting so I decided to make a video showing you how to paint this simple watercolor card:

Anyone can do this, all you need is a piece of watercolor paper (or watercolor greeting card), a round brush (either a #8 brush and a jug or water or a water-brush) and watercolor paints or watercolor crayons. Ready? Here we go!

So, what did you think? Ready to give it a try? I am hoping to bring you more easy watercolor tutorial videos if you want them:)

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Paper Beads!

Howdy folks! Today is day 2 of cross-country training (so I don’t keel over during the parent race with my son’s cross-country team) and tonight I ran with a friend who is in way better shape than me…not that it is any great achievement mind you…but it was great motivation to run with someone who has more stamina. What’s also great motivation, I realized while jogging alone to her house in the dark, is thinking about zombies and scary clowns, yep, I never ran so fast in my life! Why don’t we have streetlights around here anyway?!? Well, I didn’t feel like I needed to throw up after the “run” and we went 1.5 miles alternating brisk walking and jogging so that is something. We are doing it again tomorrow night and I am trying to recruit other moms to join us…they keep saying “no” though…I might have to knock on doors and catch them by surprise I think.

You say you did not stop by to hear my tales of physical endurance? OK then, here are some paper beads I made a week ago. I watched another great tutorial by Ross Barbera on creating rice paper beads. I never would have tried that before because it is so thin and delicate and quite frankly it looks like a lot of work but the tutorial was so intriguing. I sliced up some rice paper, dipped it is future Floor wax and drizzled on regular and metallic watercolors and let dry. Let me just say that Ross’ technique is way nicer than mine but I am impatient (and lazy.) 😀 Then I made earrings:

And a bracelet:

And more earrings and a necklace…

I find the necklace design a little unsettling now that I see it in a photograph. Hmmmm…

Paper beads are fun! I had never tried them with rice paper before but I was inspired by Ross Barbera’s technique so I thought I’d have  a go at it. Gee, running, time consuming paper beads, what’s next? I’m wind and crazy I tell you! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW: Pinata!

Howdy folks! I started training for a race today. My son runs cross country for his school and every year they have a “parent race” and I figure what’s good for the goose is good for the gander so I am going to run it. I have 2 goals:

1. To finish the race and not have a heart attack.
2. Not to come in dead last.

So today instead of walking my dog I jogged the first 3rd of our route, walked a third and jogged the last third. That might sound impressive but our route is 1/2 mile long. The race is 1.62 miles long.  I had to drag my dog the last third of the way because she is more of a leisure breed I think. Come to think of it I probably am too. My ankles hurt and my lungs burned.  Good times. I am trying to recruit other moms of x-country runners to join me because misery loves company I guess. 🙂 I have to say though, a half an hour after the run I felt really good and had lots of energy the rest of the day too so that is worth a little bit of agony I guess…right? Oh, you did not come hear to read about my running? OK then, here is my work desk this week, my twin daughters birthday is this weekend and here is the pinata we began tonight:

You might wonder why we spend so much time making something that is going to be destroyed (I think that when I see the elaborate food some people cook) well, I’ll tell you:

1. It is fun to design and make.
2. It is inexpensive (cardboard and party streamers) and it is nice to save money on the pinata and spend the money on the good fillings!
3. What kid doesn’t love a pinata?
4. It is really fun and freeing to make something that you know is temporary, it is liberating!

I was running low on cardboard and had to get creative with this. I just had some new goodies arrive from Papermart today so I used the box as the belly of the pinata (I filled the box chock-a-block full of candy) then I used a panel of flat cardboard for the nose and tail. I had to scrounge clean cardboard from a pizza box to make the fin and some tapering pieces from the box to the ends but who cares, it will all be covered in crepe paper! Man, I love making pinatas!  If only I could figure out how to put the squiggle over the “a” whenever I spell pinata….

Do you want to see what other craft folk have on their desks today? Well hop over the Julia’s blog The Stamping Ground for more WOYWW fun! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Glitter Cosmos Earrings and Display cards!

Hello Friends! I might as well call this an “inspired by pintrest” project because that is where I got the idea, I had seen lots of glitter resin jewelry being pinned and I really wanted to try it. Here are some of my first pieces:

 

 

Then I got creative! I grabbed my silver, turquoise and purple glitter from Papermart (only 99 cents a tube too!) and some silver dry tempera. Dry tempera is a children’s craft item, you mix the powder with water to make washable paint for kids. I wanted to see if I could color resin with dry tempera and yay! It worked! Best of all it doesn’t add any moisture to the resin so it cures well! I love how it looks like outer space, hence the name “Cosmos Earrings”.

I will also show you how to make the fun mesh window display cards in the video.  This is a great beginner resin project so don’t be scared, give it a try!

I really love wearing my fab new earrings!

You can find all of the fabulous supplies I used and more at Papermart. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

Did you ever wonder…

Did you ever wonder what would happen if you left your 8 year old in your craft room with free rein of the glitter and hot glue gun?

Wonder no more LOL! It was so cute, my twin daughters are turning 9 next weekend and today Lila asked if she could use my glue gun and glitter to make some decorations. What you don’t see in the photo are the elaborate birthday cake with both of their names, the hearts and more peace signs. these are going to look fab at the party next weekend! So I ended up cleaning after all, even I can’t work with THAT much glitter on my table LOL!

I even managed to make a card, I did a little glitter & hot glue combo too! check out the 3 dots at the top, yeah, it is kinda lame after my daughters glitter awesomeness. I also used the hot glue butterfly from yesterdays video.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Honestly, I started to clean but…..

Seriously, I went into my craft room to clean and organize it today but fun projects kept happening! It started when I was trying to wash glitter off my silicone molds and well, if you have ever tried to get glitter off silicone you know. Nothing sticks to silicone except glitter and embossing powder it seems, so to clean it off I covered the mold with hot glue and smashed it down on the most convient scrap of paper (an old book page) but when I lifted it up it was so cool! I had to make something with it…right?

So then I had to pull out some markers, spray ink, paper and envelope templates because you can’t make a card without an envelope right?

What is a girl to do? I know, turn on my video camera (hey it’s still on my table from my last video) and film the madness!

And that is what you call trash to treasure my friends. You’re welcome:) All right, tomorrow I’ll clean, yep, I will clean while the Patriots are on, no distractions…hey, is that glitter over there? I’d better go check, til next time happy crafting!

Give Momma the Glow Sticks and Nobody Gets hurt LOL!

TGIF (Thank Goodness I’m Fabulous!) and you will be too when you make gorgeous beads from glow-stick tubes:

These beads were made from the stiff protective tubes that skinny glow-sticks come in, you know the black tube that keeps the glow-sticks from cracking before they are ready to use. You can use any tube you like though, even drinking straws but they won’t be a rigid as the tubes glow sticks come in. Watch the video to see the process:

It is a pretty easy craft, first you cut a piece of tube the length you want your bead to be, Cover it with paper (I used the painted rice paper scraps leftover from the rice paper earrings I made on Tuesday) and give it a coat of Mod-podge or glue and let it dry:

Then embellish with wire, beads and bead caps. It is a great use for leftovers, you can even wrap scraps of ribbon or pretty string around them! (Great, another excuse to hoard our scraps LOL!)

I hope you enjoyed this project and give it a try yourself. If you have any questions just leave a comment. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

My neck hurts…

…and it’s probably because I wore this heavy necklace the last two days:

Usually when I make a chunky necklace I mix in some acrylic beads to cut down on the weight but I had these gorgeous foil glass beads that I wanted to use and I like the repetition of them all together so I threw caution to the wind. The flower focal drop I made from resin, it was an ugly speckled white because my white paint I colored the resin with did not mix well so I painted it green. I enjoy olive green because it seems to flatter so many skin tones.

I call it elegant steampunk…and heavy…really freaking heavy…

It’s still pretty though, but I think I will only wear it for short amounts of time and not all day again.  That’s all for today! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Video Tutorial: Ric-Rac Roses!

Howdy friends! Do you have spools of ric-rac in your craft room waiting to be used on the perfect project? Well here is that project! After you get the hang of making these you will want to buy ric-rac in bulk so you can make a bunch! I used the large ric-rac trim from Papermart.

I get it in white so I can dye it whatever color I want. The headbands, hair clips and earrings are great craft fair items. I love that the earrings can be glued to post back or clip-on earrings making them a prefect little girl gift!

Ready to make these? Check out the video to see how. Don’t worry if the ric-rack unwinds on you the first couple of times, you will get the hang of it.

I hope you enjoyed this quick craft! Please check out our sponsor, Papermart,  for the materials I used in my video and other great products too! If you have any questions leave a comment and I will get back to you. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!