LIVE Kingfisher in Watercolor/Colored Pencil Tutorial 12:30pm ET today!

Hi friends! Wow, what a whirlwind week! I have been so busy with the launch of my Craftsy class that I did not get a chance to prepare my live stream project until this morning, here is what we will paint:

Just a heads up, I plan of doing the free live painting classes every Friday at 12:30pm Eastern Time so you can plan on that even if I am late preparing the lesson. I don’t want anyone to miss out on the live chat! If you want to chat live, ask questions and hang out with your crafty friends you can do so on the YouTube watch page. As always you can also watch the live show or the replay in the player below:

This tutorial is sponsored by Jerry’s Artarama!
Supplies:

• Turner Watercolors (or your favorite brand) Yellow Ochre, Permanent Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Phtalo Blue, sap green
• Colored Pencils (waxed based- I used Prismacolor today)
• Watercolor paper
• Mimik brushes #20 flat, #2 round, #6 round
• Other: cotton swab, paper towel, masking tape, pencils, credit card scraper
• Reference photo by Paul Sherman

I can’t wait to hang out and paint with you on YouTube. Please feel free to share this with all of your artsy friends! The more the merrier! Happy crafting!

Stamp School: Colored Pencils & Solvent Tutorial {House Mouse!}

Hi Friends! Today I am going to share a technique that can help you stretch your supplies and this technique work with any wax or oil based colored pencils, even your kid’s Crayola or Prang colored pencils.

I am using the House Mouse stamp Lily Pad Life from Stampendous. These designs are fun to color, my friend Tracey turned me on to these stamps years ago and I am still adding to my collection, I think they are so darling but any stamp that has areas to color will work just as well. Watch the tutorial to see how it’s done!

Video!

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampendous-House Mouse Designs Lily Pad Life
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Medium: Colored Pencils
Blending Solution: Gamsol
Blending Stumps

If you don’t have Gamsol brand solvent you can use odorless mineral spirits (aka paint thinner), goo-gone or baby oil to blend these:) You can also use clear alcohol based markers to blend the pencils but they do not work as well as the other solvents and it can clog the marker. If you have watercolor pencils you can use a water based blender pen, I prefer a water based blending pen (marker) as opposed to a waterbrush because you can control the color better and it leaves the color on the paper rather than washing it away.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links to Hallmark Scrapbook and Blitsy, 2 shops that have good prices and selection of the products we use a lot. When you make a purchase through these links we earn a small commission on the sale but it doesn’t cost you more, in fact, I try to find the best price for you:) Tip: Blitsy takes competitors 40% off  coupons so if you have a big-ticket item to purchase check there first!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

SOHO Colored Pencil Review (and last chance to win…)

Hi friends! I just wanted to remind you that you only have a few hours left to sign up to win a spot in my new Craftsy mixed media class! If you haven’t already entered the giveaway you can here, good luck!

I recently got a set of 72 SOHO colored pencils from Jerrys Artarama. They are artist quality pencils made by Creatacolor specifically for the SOHO line. I tested them out on an adult coloring book, watercolor paper and smooth cardstock. See the results in today’s video!

Pros:

• Pencils are labeled with real artist color names (ie cadmium yellow, sap green) so it makes selecting colors easier and reinforces pigment and color recognition.
• Highly pigmented
• No wax bloom on the papers I tested.
• Affordable compared to other artist quality brands.
• Hexagon barrels won’t roll off your surface.
• The harder lead is stronger and less likely to break when sharpened.
• Open stock is available so you can try out a few color is you are unsure about buying a set and you can replace colors if they get used up or lost.

Cons:

• Drier than other waxier or oiler brands so it will feel chalkier than other brands when colored with. I only mention this as a con because we associate the creamy feeling with media as a plus and some people are put off by the feel of a drier/scratcher media.

I hope you found this review useful, there are so many great products out there that is can be tough to choose and you don’t want to buy a low quality product or something that is identical to something you already have. I think these will work nicely with the colors I have as they are less waxy and I can use my softer pencils over them if I want more richness in color. I recommend trying these on a paper with some tooth but they will work on coloring books and smooth card too. Happy Crafting!

 

LIVE Today! Lily Bouquet Painting Tutorial & How to Fix Painting Problems!

Hi friends! We will have  a free live painting class today at 12:30pm Eastern Time. We will paint this:

As I was painting this picture I hit a few roadblocks, I almost trashed it but then I thought, what a great way to teach about ways to overcome problems and fix them in your paintings and save the picture from lining the bird-cage, LOL!😀 You can watch the lesson live, or the replay in the player below but if you want to chat with your crafty friends or ask me questions as we go be sure to watch on YouTube.

I am not much of a flower arranger or photographer but here are a couple of pics I took of the bouquet we are painting.

Supplies Sponsored by Jerry’s Artarama!

• Turner Watercolors (or whatever you have) Rose red/magenta, Yellow ochre, sap green, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna
• Watercolor paper
• Brushes: 2″ wash, #30 & #8 rounds (or similar sized)
• Colored pencils

Giveaway!!!

I am giving away a spot in my new mixed media class at Craftsy (launching soon!) Click here for a chance to win a spot in the class! If you know of anyone who would like to paint with us live today please share this blog post or video with them, the more the merrier! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

A Quick Colored Pencil Sketch! {Tips & Tricks for a Limited Palette}

Hi friends! You might think that you need a huge set of colored pencils to make a realistic picture. Truth is you can do a lot with a few. I only used 6 pencils in this drawing of a clementine:

All of the supplies I used are in the January Smart Art box. I love the Coloursoft pencils by Derwent, I actually have 36 of them but I limited myself to the set of 12 colors that came in the kit. I will show you how to mix and blend using colored pencils and a colorless blender so you can make the most out of what you’ve got. Smart Art has reserved more of these colored pencil boxes for you guys and you can save 10% if you order one now, they will ship out February 1st. Watch the video for a full tutorial on this picture.

Video!

THE SUPPLIES

•Derwent Coloursoft Pencil Set (12PCS)
•Finetec Blending Pencil
•Kum Long Point Pencil Sharpener
•Maruman Artist Paper Series Book
•Full How-to Project Tutorial
•Educational Pamphlet

Here are the colors I used from the Derwent set of 12 Coloursoft pencils: c300 indigo, c330 blue, c720 white, c040 deep cadmium, c080 bright orange, c610 dark terracotta

I hope you give this a try, keep layering colors until color richness is achieved.  If you want a fun box of art supplies delivered to your home every month check out Smart Art’s monthly subscription boxes, they are a wonderful gift to give yourself! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

Sending “Mice” Wishes!

Hi friends! Oh I do love a good stamp pun, don’t you?

I have to admit I am usually not a big user of cute stamps but I have loved the House Mouse stamps since my friend Tracey introduced me to them years ago, I stamped out a few of hers to color and I was hooked. Before you knew it I had my local stamp store (sadly, no longer in business) special ordering me stamps and one time I hit the mother lode at a yard sale and bought a bunch. Until recently you could only get House Mouse stamps mounted on wood, I have a lot of those and while they are beautiful sitting on my shelf they could be tricky to stamp because they were so detailed. I love that most of their designs are available in unmounted rubber now (and some even in clear sets with sentiments!) because I get the detail of the rubber but I can put them on my curved block (I am using a Mega Mount in my video but the Rock-a-blocks also work well and are much cheaper) and get a perfect impression every time. I have to say I wasted a lot of paper stamping those old wood mounted ones. Tip, if you have the wood mounted House Mouse Stamps you will get a great impression if you lay the stamp rubber side up on your table, ink it up and lay your trimmed cardstock on the rubber and rub the back of the paper. I had to mention that because I have lots of the wood mounted ones and they are too pretty to unmount LOL! Don’t you dare call Hoarders on me!

I will also share some fun coloring tips and tricks in today’s video!

Supplies:

• House Mouse and leaf Stamps from Stampendous
• Zig Real Brush Pens
• Prima Watercolor Pencils
• Colored Pencils (wax based)
• Kraft cardstock
• Waterbrush
• Ranger Archival ink in Sepia

Tips:

1. Use a curved block for better detail (I used the Mega Mount from Impression Obsession, Rock-a-Blocks from Crafters Companion are also good)
2. I used a thin strip of wood from a hand plane to stamp my sentiment on.
3. Experiment layering your coloring media for rich colors!

I hope you learned some cool tips and tricks that you can use on your next card! Please note that links to Hallmark Scrapbook are affiliate links and I earn a small percentage of sales made through the links, you do not pay more by clicking through the links but you help support these free video tutorials. Thanks so much for spending some time with me today and tl next time happy crafting!

Feelin’ HOT, HOT, HOT!

Hi friends! Sorry if you now have that Buster Poindexter song in your head but today’s techniques are just too hot not to share! It all started when I bought a 50 cent buffet warmer at a yard-sale (Yard Sale tip, go at 3pm on a Saturday when everyone wants to get rid of crap.) I did not want to waste 50 cents so I asked them to plug it in for me to make sure it worked LOL! Yes, I am that frugal haha! And it did! I thought having a hot surface would have many uses in the craft room from using friendly plastic to batik or maybe to cuddle up with in February when my unheated craft room plummets into the 40’s…OK  I am being dramatic but I do see 50 degrees many days and it’s too cold to craft. Then I remembered seeing a heated drawing board advertised for colored pencil artists a few years ago but it was hundreds of dollars and I though, well, let’s give it a try with colored pencils!

Not bad for my first try, I used Prismacolor pencils and artstix,

Watch my video experiment!

Then I thought, what about oil pastel?

The cool thing about this is that it is a lot like encaustics! I love it and the pastels will not need fixing because the pigment is left on top and the oily residue seems to seep into the paper. The painting did not feel like it would smear on accident after it was cool. Here is that experiment:

Video!

That was fun, I hope you enjoyed my little experiments and I hope it makes you look at your junk in a new light, who knows, the next thing you find at a yard sale might make for good art! Happy crafting!