Hi friends! I decided to see if I could correct a painting I started earlier this week. I was frustrated with the way it was developing and decided to take another run at it, I am pretty happy with how it turned out, in any event, I had nothing to lose experimenting!
Hi friends! This cheerful card is quick to make and will delight anyone on their birthday!
Watch the video to see how!
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Prepare cardstock. Make a 4 ¼” x 5 ½” top fold card. Cut a red panel to 4 ⅛”x 5 ⅜” and a white panel to 4”x 5 ¼” (for stamping.) Also, Cut grass from green cardstock and clouds from a scrap to use as a stencil.
Using an ink brush and a blue inkpad create a cloudy sky with the sky stencil.
Brush green in the grassy area.
Stamp “Happy Birthday” in black on sky area.
Stamp poppies in shades of red and draw in stems and buds.
Adhere stamped panel to red panel and gue down grass die cut then mount on a card base.
It’s good to have some quick and easy ideas for those days you just want to make a card with no hassle. Happy crafting!
It’s been a busy week! I have been super productive filming my next class (Watercolor Landscape Workshop) and it is coming together so nicely! I really think it will take the mystery out of landscape painting and inspire people to paint! I am hoping to launch the class next week, I really think you are going to love it! I hope you are having a great week so far and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! I love corny jokes and puns so when I came across some Darcies stamps at the stamp show this year I had to grab a couple sets!
Then I remembered I had one set at home I got a couple years before that hadn’t even seen ink yet! (It was pre-Konmari, you will have to excuse me LOL!)
I like how the pickle and ketchup sets go so well together.
The puns mix and match well between sets. And they are so fun to color! I used the tri-blend markers but you can use whatever you like!
Watch the video to see how!
Supplies (affiliate links used)
Stamps: I used stamps by Darcies If you like the stamps I used they have dozens of different theme drawn in the same style and they are $8 a set. If you like to color and you like cute kawaii style images I highly recommend them! I used Stay cool,Ketchup Soon set and the Big Dill set
Markers: Crafter’s Companion Spectrum Noir TriBlend. Each marker contains a light, medium and dark version of the color. I used a variety of markers in the project. Each marker is $5 which contains bullet tips of 3 shades: (3 mini markers in one) I used mostly: Dull green, Blue Turquoise, Fair Skin, light yellow, orange, citrus green, lavender, pale pink, bright pink and dark red. *These colors are within the Spectrum Noir coloring system so you might already have them (the colors) in your stash. You can use the refill inks to refill them too simply by pulling out the nib and dripping the ink in.
Hi friends! Today for Sketchbook Sunday I am painting peaches with alcohol markers and colored pencils:
It was so fun to draw! You can find the real-time narrated full lesson to this art in Critique Club where you will also find over 11 hours of real-time drawing/painting lessons from my sketchbook Sunday series in real time and fully narrated lessons. In addition to all of the lessons and creative prompts, you can upload 2 paintings a month for an in-depth critique from me if you want! The goal of this membership is to keep you practicing, motivated and help you grow as an artist. You get all of this for $5 a month and you can end your subscription anytime. I hope to see you in Critique Club!
Before you go a word about markers and supplies in general. I don’t want anyone to think you have to have brush tip markers for this. You don’t. If you have a variety of yellows, orange, pinks, and reds you can do this! Try using the chisel end for the large areas and the bullet tip for the fine areas. the honest truth is that you can create beautiful artwork with either type as long as you spend time learning how to use them. The set of 48 brush tip ohuhu markers I used as part of this illustration and lovely but the brush tip is not going to last as long as the bullet tip on the classic style and they are more expensive per marker and you get a smaller color range. I started off with Bic Mark-its and Prismacolor markers which were bullet and chisel tip markers and I still love those today. It is just what you get used to. If you have a set of markers already I bet they will do you just fine if you play with them and get used to their working abilities. I see a trend of jumping on the newest and greatest supplies without exploring what the stuff we already have can do. I get it, I love to try new supplies but the more I try the more I am convinced that most are equal to what we have already and with markers you really should use up what you have before they dry out. Then try the latest and greatest (or find refills.) I had some cheap Studio 71 markers that were well loved and I was going through them the other day to see what was still inky and what tips were frayed and I found about 10 markers with frayed tips. I almost tossed them but I decided to order some replacement Copic nibs I found on sale and I am going to see if I can repair the markers and I am going to see if I can make my own custom ink. Wish me luck and let me know if you would like to see a video of my experiment (if it works anyway LOL!)
I basically want to say that I don’t want to to feel like you have to have exactly what I am using because the pencils, paper, and markers in your stash are probably pretty darn close, there are only so many ways to make a marker or pencil. Only upgrade when you hit the limit of what you can do with them. And as always happy crafting!
Hi friends! I teamed up with a few of my artsy friends from YouTube and we decided to share out biggest mistakes we have made in our art. Here is my #1 watercolor mistake:
Hi friends, This lovely iris flower can be painted quickly in a relaxed style.
I took many photos last weekend in my sisters garden and thought this would be such a fun flower to paint.
My favorite part of this painting was scraping lines in it with a dip pen. You can use a cut up piece of credit card or toothpick for this as well but the pen was really nice to hold. Watch the video and paint along!
Supplies available at sponsor Jerry’s Artarama! Use coupon code: frugal20FS49 for 20% off $49 + Free Shipping (Excludes: Sale, Super Sale, Egift Cards, Buy It Try It’s and Vendor restricted items. Look for the green coupon eligible icon on the product listing.
Supplies: Turner Watercolors: Rose red, Permanent Lemon, Sap Green, Ultramarine, Yellow Ochre
Dip-style pen (I’d go for the sketching or general purpose set)
I love painting simple flowers like this on greeting cards because it is a fun and easy way to share your art and you will never be without a card when you need one. If you like painting loose style flowers check out my course Watercolor Flower Workshop! You will learn the trick to painting just about any flower type you want by breaking it down to easy strokes and you will learn how to arrange the flowers in gorgeous compositions like wreaths and bouquets! Learn more or enroll here. Til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! After spending all day cleaning, prepping and repainting out the main bathroom (A task I was sure would take 3 hours max, #OptimistProblems) I decided to create a mess, er, I mean batch of cards!
I had been looking forward to using my new Distress Oxide sprays since I bought a bunch at the Heirloom stamp show but I had so many viewers contact me concerned about a warning on the bottle:
When I got the first comment I didn’t think anything of it. There are gratuitoius warnings on all kinds of crafting products because companies want to save money on packaging and absolve themselves of any liability especially when their products are made in China. One big craft company even put the warnings on paper packs! After a few more comments and emails I started to take the threat a little more seriously after all Ranger makes their products in the USA so if they are putting this warning on their products knowing what exactly is going into them I started to get worried. I contacted my friend Rich (Aka The Spin Doctor on YouTube) who is a legit scientist what he thought. *I am hoping he will write a blog post on this and if he does I will link to it. After sharing many scientific citations of the effects of spraying Ti01 (titanium dioxide which is the potentially questionable chemical in this spray) I asked him if it was safer than Bacon (cured meats are a class 2a carcinogen) and he said, yes, it is safer than bacon and alcohol. Essentially the danger could come with breathing in the vapor. The risk of this is low as it is a pump spray and the drop are heavy as opposed to a fine aerosol mist. Obviously, don’t spray it in your face and open a window and if any risk makes you uncomfortable don’t use it. The product conforms to ASTM D-4236 which means that all of the potentially hazardous components of the art product have been clearly labeled on the product packaging. Since there is no CL label and it doesn’t even state what the potentially dangerous chemical is I take it to be safe and the label is only there to satisfy the CA Prop 65 labeling requirements or a potential threat. But, hey, I’m no scientist. I feel comfortable using it and I just wanted to put out what I found for you to determine what you want to do. Ranger says “wear a mask” if you are uncomfortable but Tim Holtz did not wear one when demoing at Creativation so I think I’m OK without one. I think there needs to be some clarity on health warning on art materials. ASTM is the best system so far. I think companies fearful of lawsuits are over warning which is making most of us ignore all of them. What do you think?
OK, enough drama, let’s make cards!
This tutorial is sponsored by Top Flight Stamps! https://topflightstamps.com/ SAVE 10% off your next order with coupon code: thefrugalcrafter10 *USA orders of $50+ ship free!
Shimmer spray *I also used a Dylusions white spray ink but I never had good luck with that color, try flicking on white paint if desired.
The general consensus on youtube was that the stickers were a bit much on these cards. Anyone else out there embellishment challenged? I think I need to start my design with embellishments in mind, otherwise, I get the dreaded “sticker sneeze” on my cards LOL! Ah well, no one ever rejected a card because of an ill-advised sticker. You do you and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! This week I had the chance to try out the new Tri-Blend markers from Crafter’s Companion. They are the newest markers in the Spectrum Noir family.
They feature Hexagon non-roll barrels and bullet tips. Each marker contains 3 smaller markers so you have a light, medium and dark version of the color to make blending simple and easy. You can see my review in the video below.
Fine bullet nibs perfect for stampers or coloring book enthusiasts.
Cons:
The markers have a small inkpad inside them so they will run out of ink much quicker than other markers, especially the light tones which you will use a lot. (note, refill inks available at about $5-$7 but it would refill these minis dozens of times, also the refill ink is not sold many places so you might have to hunt for it.)
Upon further invstigation, not all colors are a perfect match for the Spectrum Noir inks but they are in the middle of a rebranding so hopefully, they are addressing that. This is only an issue if you are reinking them.
With only the bullet nibs it will limit the size of the artwork you can make.
Bottom line, I really enjoyed using these, they were probably the easiest markers for creating blends in small stamped images. I recommend them for rubber stampers who are new to alcohol markers or who love markers and want a travel set. Two thumbs up from me! I hope you found this helpful and til next time happy crafting!
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