Howdy friends! Here is a card you can make for Fathers Day or a birthday for a handy man in your life:
It is fun and easy and will help you get more use out of the supplies you own. Watch the video to see how:
The stamps I used were from Technique Tuesday but you can use any tool stamps or use clip art. I used embossing folders for the backgrounds but feel free to use stamps. Take the ideas and fly with it! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hello Friends! Firstly I want to wish all the moms out there a very happy mother’s day. I spent the afternoon with my mom and sister and it was wonderful. Our kids played outside all afternoon and my brother-in-law grilled a yummy dinner! It was in the 70’s and sunny and I think I might have gotten a bit of a tan! I hope your day was great as well. Since mothers day was this week I had the children in my library craft class make these for their moms:
We painted with Folk Art Enamels on 4″ glazed white tiles from the home improvement store. There are other nice oven bake paints on the market such as Pebeo and Lefranc & Bougouis but Folk art Enamels are half the price and easier to find, I think you can even get them at Wal*Mart. This is a beginner acrylic tutorial. You can paint any of these designs with regular acrylic paints on any surface you want and it will be lovely. I recommend using an enamel for glass or ceramic though and only paint areas of your ceramic that will not come in contact with food. For instance you can paint the outside of a coffee mug below the rim where you sip but not the inside of the mug. Get my drift? Now, grab a brush and let’s paint!
That was pretty easy eh? If you are wondering what my dog was barking at during the video there was a neighbors cat in the woods behind my house, he visits often and is very interested in the chickens. I do not think he can harm them since the chickens are as big as he is but he drives my dog nuts! In case you were wondering below are a list of the colors I used in the tutorial. They came in a kit. I would prefer more vivid basic colors so I would mix a variety of shades (I think I will pick up some primaries the next time I am at the store) but these colors do coordinate well together.
The colors I am using are:
#4001 Wicker white
#4032 Licorice
#4026 Midnight
#4029 Violet Pansy
#4019 Fresh Foliage
#4022 Thicket
#4007 Berry Wine
#4015 Yellow Ocher
#4016 School Bus
#4013 Coffee Bean
#4014 Burnt Sienna
After the coasters were dry I put felt pads on the bottom so they would not scratch the furniture. Remember to let your ceramics dry for 21 days or dry 24 hours and bake at 350F or 177C (in your home oven) for 30 minutes to fully cure the enamel. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hello friends! I am really enjoying my art journal! Today I am going to show you how I made this two page spread and it only took 20 minutes!
Many of you have written and asked how to keep your journal pages flat especially when covering a page with paper and collage. The first part of the video is on that and I will show you my favorite paste for flat pages and I think all crafters should have a jar of it on hand. I’ll show you what it is and how to use it!
The second half of the video will be painting cherry blossoms with india ink. It is a free and easy approach. You can use watercolors if you do not have ink, even children’s watercolor paints will be fine.
Now, on to the video!
I decided to add a few marks to define the blossoms with a black Micron Pen after I looked at it a bit. typically I don’t use black in my paintings but it really enhances the feel of the quote I think. I want to thank Oriental Trading for giving me the Dr PH Martins India Ink, Canson XL Mixed Media Journal and Micron Pens I used today. Thanks so much for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy friends! It’s hard to believe that summer is right around the corner! Today I’m going to show you how to whip up this nautical inspired bracelet using 2mm rat-tail cord from Papermart:
It has gold anchors one one side and silver on the other so it will match whatever you are wearing. In this video I’ll show you how to make it:
How easy was that? I love that you can have two designs going on the same bracelet. The tiles I stamped on as well as the stamp are from ArtNeko.
Don’t be limited to this design, you can stamp whatever you like on the tiles, why not make one for every season? You get enough rat-tail cord on a spool to make hundreds of bracelets! I wore my bracelet all day today and it was light and comfortable. It is also a great gift for people who have a metal allergy.
I hope you have a great weekend Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! Sometimes it is a mishap that becomes the springboard of a great idea! Such was the case when I knocked my bottles of powdered mica eye-shadow off the shelf for the umpteenth time, this time the bottom popped off the container and let loose gobs of gold mica on my floor. I was shocked at how much product was crammed in the little pots. The pot of powdered eye-shadow are spill proof (not break-proof though!) and I figured for a buck there was a chintzy amount in there, boy was I wrong! As I scooped up the precious powder from the floor I wondered if I could make paint with it and turns out I can! Boy, was I lucky I just vacuumed before the spill so I was able to salvage most of it. On any other day it would have been mica powder,dog-hair and perler bead soup! Watch the video to see how I made my paint:
The acrylic version of the paint is very durable. I painted some tiles and the paint stuck well and was opaque. I painted on some paper yesterday, then today I bent and creased the paper to see if the paint would crack or flake off and it did not! It is great stuff and the metallic watercolor rivals twinkling H2Os! I bet you could also add watercolor to the powders for more intensely colored sparkly shades too!
What is Gum Arabic and where do you buy it? It is the binder in watercolor paints. You can get it at an art supply store with watercolor mediums. Watercolorists use it to increase gloss and transparency in their paintings.
What can I use instead of gum arabic? If you want it to be water-soluble you can try clear washable glue (the kind for kids) or equal parts white glue and vinegar. Make sure if you ware making the watercolor version that you let the paint dry out before capping so it won’t mold.
What can I use in place of Mod-Podge if making acrylic paint? Gel medium, white PVA glue, acrylic sealer/varnish, Future floor Wax (it’s called Pledge now). Make sure if you are making the acrylic version you only make up what you are going to use immediately or store in an airtight container so it won’t dry out.
If you have any other questions you can leave them below. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy friends! Another week, another Ask a Crafter! Lorraine is in the craft room with me today and I have to give her credit, she did not zone out when I mentioned the words “color theory”, then again after today’s episode I am the last person to scold someone about staying on track. Without further ado, here is this weeks AAC:
I just wanted to reiterate that if you asked a question last week and it was not answered please look for a reply to your comment either on the YouTube watch page or the blog post, whereever you left it. I do answer all of the questions, just not all on the show. If you have a question for next weeks show, such as “how do you give a chicken a bath?” just leave it in the comments! Thanks so much for watching and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy friends! First of all and want to thank everyone who purchased a Bow Making Jig, they have been selling as fast as my hubby can make them. So of course I want to make sure that if you bought one you have more cool ways to use it. This idea came from my mom:
Cool huh? Now, if you are handy there is no reason you can’t drill holes in wood and stick some dowels in them, that is totally cool but if you don’t want to you can purchase one of our hardwood jigs here. You also get two sets of box making templates with it (I throw these in to offset the cost of shipping.) If you ordered a jig before I offered the free box templates just send me an email at artstudiosofbangor@yahoo.com with your order number and I will email the templates out to you. I always hate it when I buy something and then it goes on sale or there is a better offer so I want to make it good for everyone who ordered. I’ll be posting a cool necklace made on the jig in a few days too, it is really a fun useful tool. Well, that is enough shameless selling for one night! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hello Friends! Today we are going to paint a coastal landscape with one brush and four colors of watercolor paint. This is a beginner tutorial, I explain mixing color, using a wax resist, composition, drawing, lifting colors (why some colors lift and some do not) and lots of ways to use a 1″ flat angular brush or a 1″ flat wash brush.
Supplies: 140# rough watercolor paper, 1″ flat or angular synthetic brush, watercolor paint (ultramarine blue, burnt sienna, yellow ocher, sap green) wax, cut up credit card, stiff oil painting brush, paper towel. I sketched the design with Graphatint watercolor pencils but you can use a regular pencil if you wish. It makes no difference, I used the watercolor pencils so I could draw darkly so it would show up on video without leaving dark lines when I paint.
Do you think you could paint this? I know you can, I believe in you! Thanks so much for spending part of your day with me and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! People seem to have a tough time drawing faces but it is quite easy if you know a few tricks. Here is a journal page I made yesterday:
I constantly need to remind myself of that when I am obsessing over something that I did or said or was said to me. It is also a very useful quote when dealing with tween girl drama! Good ole’ Eleanor Roosevelt, keepin’ it real since 1884 LOL! Now on to the super easy face drawing tutorial:
I hope you try this, charcoal, conte’ crayon and pastel are great for this as you can smudge away any mistakes, You can use hairspray (the cheapest stuff is best like Aqua Net aerosol) to set the drawing before adding more media as well. Have fun with it. Faces are so expressive and art journaling is about expression so naturally they go hand in hand…or face as the case may be. I hope you enjoyed this bonus art journal project this week and til next time happy crafting!
