Happy New Year!

Hi friends! As I reflect on this year I am happy. I hope you are as well. Are you making any resolutions or goals? I am doing my year-end art studio “defrag” (I’ll go into that in the video) and reorganizing and moving stuff around. I like to put my hands on all of my supplies and see what I have forgotten about and what I likely will not use. I actually came across a stack of 15 small dry-erase boards and erasers (why!?!) so I am giving those to a friend who owns a Montessori school probably with some other supplies that are age appropriate if I come across them. Oh, the wonderful surprises we find lurking in your art and craft rooms LOL! I hope no matter how you choose to ring in the new year you do so safely. We are going to have pizza and a movie at home. I read a quote that I want to share with you, my friends, on this New Year’s Eve:

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go. They merely determine where you start.” —Nido Qubein

May you have a happy and healthy New Year! Now on to the last Sat chat of 2022!

Stuff:

• Cherry painting is up now in Critique Club! For just $5 a month you get access to all past tutorials (with 2 new ones added every month!) Monthly creative prompts to get the creative juices flowing and the ability to upload your original art for feedback from me! Artists of all levels are welcome and we’d love to have you as part of the club!
• SALE!!! My Watercolor Glass Class is for you! Save 40% today by clicking the special discount link (Use coupon code GLASS40OFF if the discount doesn’t appear automatically) *Offer good for 40% off the one-time purchase of the class or the 1st payment on a payment plan. This class is lifetime access so you can buy it on sale and do it when you have the time!
• The awesome mug my sister gave me! Maine Monsta Mug by Studio 207 She doesn’t have any items listed right now but you can contact her via her ETSY shop.
• There are lots of affordable options for pastel drawers on Amazon
• the plastic storage and metallic dishes are from Harbor Freight. You can find them on Amazon too
• The stained glass kit is from Michaels, I’ll do a video when I make it!

Be safe out there! Happy crafting!

Fix it with Mixed Media!

Hi friends! I hope you had a nice holiday weekend if you celebrate. We got to visit with both sides of the family and it was so nice. There were some wild wind and rain storms that took out power and internet for a couple of days but luckily we have a generator so we were able to keep my basement art studio from flooding too badly. It’s becoming a tradition to have a power outage on Christmas, I think it’s Mother Nature’s way of telling us to relax. Anyway, I was actually painting this when the lights went out:

It can be a good thing to take a break in the middle of a painting because when you come back to it you will have a fresh perspective. If you would like to paint along with a real-time tutorial of this lesson you can find it now in Critique Club. For $5 a month you get access to all past Critique Club tutorials (there are 96!) as well as 2 new ones added every month along with a monthly creative prompt. You can even upload your art for feedback from me. All artists or any level are welcome to join, we’d love to have you part of the club!

Supplies (Affiliate links used)

• Watercolors (Utrecht review coming soon!)
• Derwent Lightfast pencils
• Black Pan Pastel
• Brush & Pencil Titanium white and touch-up texture
• Hot press watercolor paper
• Pencil
• Pencil Sharpener

Since we were painting glass today, and it is so much fun to paint AND I haven’t put this class on sale in forever I decided to offer you 40% off my Watercolor Glass Class! This class has lifetime access so you can buy it on sale and take it when you have the time! Click the discount link or use the coupon code GLASS40OFF if the discount doesn’t appear automatically. *Offer good for 40% off the one-time purchase of the class or the 1st payment on a payment plan.

I hope you enjoyed today’s video and I hope I will see you in a class soon! Thank you for your support and til next time happy crafting!

Let’s paint a Candy Cane with Watercolor Pencils and Watercolor! Full relaxing tutorial!

Hi friends! I saw a beautiful reference photo on Instagram by Dennis Pfeil Artworks, he hosts the #foodpaintchallenge where artists can create a painting from his weekly reference photo and share it. I thought that was just the thing I felt like doing, so I did!

I hope you will paint along with me. This video is step-by-step and in real-time. Feel free to share it with your friends and all paint along together!

Supplies (affiliate links used)

• Watercolor paper: Paul Rubens sparkle paper, hot press, roughly 5″x7″
• Derwent Watercolor pencils (36 set) Amazon or Blick
• Utrecht watercolors
• Bleed proof white: Blick or Amazon
• White gel pen
• *My craft amo brushes and a #1 round (only a few sets left!)

I hope you are having a lovely holiday season. I have some wrapping and a little more crafting to do before the weekend but I actually feel like I have enough time to enjoy it, knock on wood! Happy crafting!

These are SO Cool!!! The best color palette tool I have ever seen

Hi friends! Today I am super excited to share a super awesome tool called The Color Cube & Color Catalog. It was designed by Sarah Renae Clark to help adult coloring book enthusiasts pick color schemes but the uses go so much further than that! Painters, cardmakers, scrapbookers, quilters, and designers can use this tool to brainstorm new color ideas and plan new projects! I also love that I can draw a card at random and sketch it for a bit of relief from art block or a fun warm-up to a painting session. See it in today’s video.

I really appreciate the massive amount of work that went into the Color Cubes, Color Catalog, and Color Companion which tells you what colors match across a variety of colored pencils and marker brands. It’s mind-boggling. I just wish I knew about it sooner so I could have ordered cubes for Christmas gifts. What do you think? How would you use these?

Time for Oil Pastels!

Hi friends! Today I have a still life in oil pastels. I used a beautiful reference image from The Color Cube/The Color Catalog.

A real-time version of this Lemon tart oil pastel tutorial can be found in Critique Club. For $5 a month you get access to 95 long, in-depth, and real-time art tutorials! You also get monthly prompts and the ability to upload your original artwork for feedback from me. Click here to learn more or enroll today!

Supplies (Affiliate links used)

• Oil pastels: Hard-Pentel: Blick or Amazon
• Soft-Sennelier: Blick or Amazon
• Good all-around budget medium pastel: Arrtx, Paul Rubens, or Mungyo
• I used oil painting paper but I don’t recommend for oil pastel. The Canson XL sand grain dry mixed media paper is better and more affordable
• Prismacolor pencils Blick or Amazon
• Gamsol
• Brushes

I hope you enjoyed this project and til next time happy crafting!

Sat Chat 12/17/22

Hi friends! What are you up to today? I am ticking things off my Christmas to-do list. I have done most of my wrapping so I can see what I still need to get. I made a list so hopefully, I can grab those last few things in one trip to town this week. I hope you have a relaxing or productive weekend depending on what you need right now. December can be hectic so be sure to take care of yourself and each other. Now, here is Sat Chat, I am feeling 100% better after my cold last weekend!

Stuff I mentioned:

• The Color Cube/The Color Catalog I was talking about. *I’ll have an overview of it on Monday if you are curious about what I am talking about.
• A real-time version of the lemon tart oil pastel tutorial can be found in Critique Club

That’s all for today! Happy crafting!

2 Prismacolor Pencil Colors Are Being Discontinued (Here are Substitutes!)

Hi friends, I found out this week that Prismacolor discontinued two of their light purples Lilac PC956 and Lavender PC934 due to pigment availability. They will eventually come out with new light purple colors to replace these I’m told. The colors because discontinued because the pigment used to make them was no longer available. In the meantime, I wanted to find a substitute for these colors that were available in open stock as well as being soft and blendable and I have found two reasonable facsimiles.

• Dupe for Lavender PC934 is Arteza Lilac
• Dupe for Lilac PC956 is Cezanne Periwinkle #027 On Amazon or at Jerry’s Artarama

In the meantime, the 150 sets of Prismacolor pencils will have an extra white and colorless blender in place of the lilac and lavender pencils and the smaller sets will sub out other colors. I think it is funny that none of the new pastel sets had matches for these. 1 I hope this helps someone mourning the loss of these colors. Happy crafting!

Mediocre cards your family with love! Batch making 74 Christmas Cards

Hi friends! How’s your December going? I am stunned at how fast the last few months have flown by! My girls just got home from college for winter break and I am getting hit with the realization that there is a lot to do before Christmas! I got my cards done tho! That’s something! If you want some company while you do your holiday prep or some ideas for using the supplies you have on hand to make some cards then play the video and have a crafty visit. I’ll bring eggnog!

Supplies: Most of the supplies I am using are old and discontinued but the design can be adapted to what you have on hand. Don’t worry about having the latest or greatest, just have fun and create from the heart! I’ll try to find similar items if a product is discontinued. Affiliate links used.

• Rhinestones and applicator (Mr. Pen) It’s new and cheap and works awesome! It’s the only new product in this video LOL!
• Stamps (I used Inkadinkado but they are out of business and I can’t find these sets) These Tim Holtz Collage stamps would work well tho.
• This cheap set has sentiments and postmarks
• Impression Obsession has a lot of nice background stamps: I used their flourish CAC stamp *It’s a nice basic design and I’ve used it on many projects
• Curved stamp block: https://shrsl.com/3tzy0
• Glitter cardstock
• White smooth cardstock for stamping
• Heavy cardstock for card bases
• Versafine Clair stamping ink
• Holographic embossing powder
• Bakers twine
• Eyelash yarn

Do you have any of the moldy oldie supplies that I used today? It’s fun to look through our stash and create something using what we already have. It also makes you feel thrifty and lord knows we have a lot of other things to spend money on these days. Happy crafting!

Grungy Gears

Hi friends! When I posted this on Instagram I had many requests for a tutorial.

I didn’t feel like it was “done” but I also didn’t feel like finishing it. I was backing up videos and noticed these clips for making the “background” and decided that I would show that process because if I haven’t finished it by now I probably won’t ever. I do think this technique is great for backgrounds on paintings, decor, and cards so I still think it is useful. I hope you enjoy it!

Supplies (Affiliate links used)

• Gear stencils (the large ones I used) *If making cards you might want a smaller stencil like this.
• Mixed media paper 9″x12”
• Distress oxide spray ink *I don’t think the airbrush was useful in this project, the spray inks are fine.
• Derwent graphitint pan paints
• Derwent metallic pan paints and on Blick
• Black India ink
• Derwent Drawing pencils
• Gouache

I hope you enjoyed this project. Me, I feel like I am coming down with something. I have a cough, sore through and walking the dog wiped me out this morning. I tested negative for Covid thankfully as I taught a class at the library last night and I wouldn’t have wanted to be a silent spreader. I hope you have a lovely day and til next time happy crafting!