It is hard to believe we are already in to the month of December! Yet here we are, and for many of us, we have lots of gift wrapping and Christmas parties to attend throughout the next few weeks. Each year I like to take a little extra time wrapping a few gifts to make them look special. Of course, I don’t do this for any of my kids since they open their gifts in 2 seconds. 🙂 One way I like to make a gift look pretty and extra special is to have a handmade looking gift tag on top. So today I am going to show you how to create a few different DIY watercolor gift tags. Here are the materials you will need. (more…)
Hey Everyone! I want to let you all know of an exciting project I have been working on for a little while now. I recently was asked to do a guest post for Dawn Nicole Designs and today it is going live! It is a tutorial for a DIY Watercolor Dahlia and there is even a free printable available! You can grab your free printable here and use it as a coloring page, or print it out on watercolor paper to create your own watercolor.
Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
Now that fall is here and the weather is getting cooler, I thought I would snatch up a few of my marigolds that I have growing in my yard and do some sketches before they are all gone. In this post I want to briefly share the process I go through when working in my sketchbook. Recently I have been experimenting with pen and watercolor. I usually start off by sketching the object, in this case the marigold, with pencil and then go overtop the pencil lines with the pen. I then use my kneaded eraser to remove the pencil marks. For this sketch I wanted to have the flowers right in front of me so that I could see all the details.
Daniel Smith extra fine watercolor paints; Cadmium Red Med. Hue, Hansa Yellow Medium, Cadmium Yellow Light Hue, & Hooker’s Green.
Paper towels, bowl of warm water & a palette for mixing the paint.
I then jump right in to putting the watercolors on the paper. I started these by getting the paper wet with water only (Wet on Wet) and then added the paint.
Here I only have one layer of paint, and as you can see the colors are pretty light.
I added another paint layer here which helps to deepen the colors.
It just didn’t seem complete without some foliage 🙂
What I love about working in my sketchbook is that it is very laid back and fun! It also gives me great ideas for larger pieces I may want to work on in the future. If you haven’t taken out your sketchbook in awhile, make today the day you start again!
Since having children, I have dabbled off and on with art over the past eight years. With the busyness of life, art always seems to end up on the back-burner; but I can’t leave it there for long. Now that I have four young children, I don’t have the time or energy to tackle large pieces like I did in the past. While my favorite medium is oil painting, it is too messy and toxic to have around my young children. Recently, as an alternative, I started exploring watercolor and I love it! Unlike oil painting, watercolor is much harder to control. The paint and water seem to have a mind of their own, doing things I may not have intended, but love in the end. I have found that the more children I have, the more flexible and laid back I have become as a person. That may be why I enjoy watercolor more now than I did in the past. I guess I am not as much of a control freak, so watercolor now seems more fun!
Nowadays I work mainly in my sketchbook, and it has been the perfect creative outlet. I am able to create things that inspire me and experiment with new ideas in a relaxed way. If you enjoy art and don’t have a lot of time to create large pieces, or any pieces for that matter, I would encourage you to consider taking up a simple sketchbook. It is a fun, quick, pressure-free way to let your creativity flow!
Here on My Beautiful Everyday I want to start posting photos that give you a peek inside my sketchbook. Here is what I’ve been working on.
As you can see, I like flowers. Always have. I have been working on combining watercolor with pen. It has a much more relaxed feel to it than what I am used to, but that is what makes it so fun! So relax, go grab a sketchbook and have fun being creative!
I recently celebrated my wedding anniversary and thought that this year I would make my own card for my husband. I love working with watercolors, and wanted to make something special but within one sitting. Of course, my 5 year old daughter wanted to make one as well:) Here are the materials we used.
