Watercolors

I'm going off track a little today and am going to share some other fun creative things I like to do!

I've always admired watercolor painting. I think I love the soft colors and washed out look that can be achieved with watercolors. In a previous post (here) I mentioned I visited my friend Carla and she showed me some little tricks for watercolor painting. 

I really enjoyed my mini lesson with her but as I'm no great 'Picasso' I felt I needed some more instruction! There are plenty of places to go to for this online. One of my faves is Creativebug . You can do a free 2 week trial and then if you like it you can sign up for just $US4.95 a month. They have endless courses for every type of creative activity.

First I watched a half hour live session they did (here) which offered great ideas for creating watercolor tags. I think pages of these exercises will help with controlling the brush and seeing what effects you can achieve. It's important to note I am a complete novice so will be keeping it simple! I don't expect to be painting large lovely artworks to hang on the wall!!!! 

Another great place is You Tube where I found many demonstrations (I'm yet to try them). They all make it look so easy boohoo!!!

Here are a few I really like:

Jay lee Watercolor painting

Wonder Forest by Dana Fox

makoccino 

Jenny Journals

Then you can look down the side bar and see many more suggestions.

To help inspire me I also created a Pinterest board called 'Painted flowers style' as we all know there is a wealth of inspiration to be found there!!!!

And doodling inspiration too which could be used for sweet tags as well!

Of course I couldn't limit myself to just painting I had to make myself a little practise book! I did a free workshop for this with Roben Marie Smith (here). I can't seem to find the link to that mini course but if you sign up to her mailing list every so often she will invite you to join so course or tutorial.

I didn't decorate the front of mine as I love the cover and binding as is. I used the Midori traveller's notebook style of binding with elastic band so I can remove the pages or add more if I want to.

I sewed watercolor postcard paper (as taught by Roben Marie) and also added an envelope so I can store pre-cut tags and pieces of paper in there ready to be painted!!!

 

There's a lot of fun to be had! I hoping to find some more time to play around and improve! I'm looking for to making lots of tags!!!!

Oh last but not least I thought it might be a great exercise to practise mixing colours. I found a great tutorial for this, again on Pinterest (here). I could literally sit and do this all day!

I hope you found this post enjoyeable! If anyone has any other great suggestions for tutorials etc please let me know!

I'm am working on a rather big project and will be sharing some of that soon. When I launch it I will be offering a special discount to those on my list!


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Happenings

I know, I missed a week blogging, my aim is to blog every week but sometimes it's just not possible!! I think I need to plan my blog posts and pre- prepare so that way when times are busy I can still post on time!

A lot has been happening around here! Best of all the weather has cooled so I have more energy to work! We've even pulled out our doonas (duvets) so we can snuggle up at night! Love that!!!

School is back, so the morning school run has begun! 

Lulu decided to do some DIY and decorated her science ring binder. She was totally inspired by Jordan Clark, such a clever young college student. You can see her blog here and should definitely check out her You Tube videos here.

I had a market stall in town last Sunday. That was lovely and fun to see some of my other creative friends, it's great to catch up on what they've been doing over the summer. This lovely handmade market is held once a month in the Vecchia Pescheria (old fishery). The benches are marble and all uneven from centuries of fish selling!

Of course growth chart making is never far off. The last few I've made have been really fun and a challenge as I had to tackle some new theme requests. I was very pleased with the results!

I have a very talented friend Io & bianca (who I've mentioned before) who creates beautiful ceramics.  A visit to her instagram page is a must! Lately she has been painting her ceramics more, they are stunning, and she has started to do little watercolour paintings. I saw Carla at dinner and told her how much I loved her paintings and how much I would love to learn to use watercolours. I find them very intimidating though! We organised to meet a her house which was quite a challenging task with all our kids activities! I went yesterday, even though Carla had a fever, she insisted I pop round for a mini lesson! So kind!

When I arrived we swapped belated birthday gifts. We are always late with our gifts as we always like to give each other something we've created and/or supplies!

I gave Carla a stitched wall decor piece I made for her. She loves white, anything old and bunnies. I gave a sneak peek of this piece in a previous blog post where you can see what inspired me!

From Carla I received so lovely handpainted ceramic hanging decorations, a gorgeous much (to add to my large collection) and a watercolour set - paint brush, paper and watercolours. Such an amazing and thoughtful gift! 

I just loved watching her paint her gorgeous little designs and had a chuckle at my efforts! Mine aren't finished yet, I may or may not post those depending on how they turn out! Here are a couple Carla painted!

What has everyone been up to lately, any creating????

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Wonderful Cathy Trolli!

I commissioned these protraits from Cathy Trolli a wonderful Italian artist. They were a Christmas gift for some very special friends. I have ordered many portraits from Cathy, I just love the way she interprets and captures each child's spirit! The fabulous thing is she works from photos so there's no long session sitting and posing for the portrait! The photos must not have any direct sunlight on them nor strong shadows and can be emailed to Cathy here ( cathymaggio72@hotmail.it ) for a quote! Her prices are very good so don't be afraid to ask!

The latest portraits I commissioned

Framed and in their new home! 

A work in progress by Cathy so you can see how the photo is interpreted and transformed!

You might remember Lulu's stunning portrait!

Silvia and Lisa by Cathy Trolli

Our dear friend Cathy is at it again unveiling this beautiful portrait of our friends Silvia and Lisa. Pop over and visit her Facebook page she creates amazing portraits and is truly able to capture her subjects soul! The great thing she is able to work from photos so long as there is no direct sunlight or shadows on the faces.

Silvia and Lisa

Another portrait

Art E-Classes

I really like the idea of mixed media art works and journals. Recently I took a class with Mati Rose called 'Daring Adventures in Paint'. It was a good way to get me painting. I finished one piece and have many more that are in various stages of progress.

Paintings by Mati Rose

Another artist that Rachel and I have always loved is Susana Tavares. a couple of weeks ago, I purchased her workshop called Paper and Paint. She makes it all look so easy.

Paper and Paint Workshop By Susana Tavares

I recently followed this tutorial on her blog for painting gift tags. I followed her instructions and produced these paintings. They are really little 3" x 3". I was actually amazed that they look ok. I wasn't sure if I could do it!!! They are nowhere near as good as Susana's but I can only keep trying.

Finally I love the work of Mindy Lacefield (Tim's Sally). She has a new 'Soul Bird' class and giveaway which looks really interesting. I am considering this one as well.

Soul Bird Workshop by Mindy Lacefield

Some of my favourite art works are on Pinterest. There is just so much inspiration on there. I purchased a couple of Pam Garrison original paintings and want to start collecting a few more including a Susana Tavares work so that I can start building up a wall of art.

There are so many inspiring artists out there and I hope that I can one day develop my own unique style. I figure that doing classes is a great way to get started and learn some new techniques.

A wonderful portrait of my nephew

I asked my friend Cathy to do a portrait of my nephew and she has finished. her work is amazing and to think she works from a photo. I can't wait until I need to give another gift to someone to order some more portraits from her! To see some more of her work or to contact her you can visit her Facebook page

Bedroom Decorating Inspiration

I am on holidays soon for 3 weeks and I think that I am going to spend some time decorating my bedroom. So I have turned to my Pinterest boards for inspiration.The collages below are made up of images from my boards. They can all be found here and to link to their original sources, just find the image on my boards and click on them.

One thing that Pinterest has been great for, is finding my own style! I know what I like but don't always get it right!! By collecting a range of images over the past year and a half, I am now quite sure that when I renovate my place, I know exactly how I want it to look. 

My bedroom is reasonably large for a unit so there is space not only for normal bedroom furniture but also for a desk and craft area. It will be nice to have my sewing machine, permanently set up and a place to paint when I want to.

 As you can probably tell, I love white and lots of colour plus silver accents and the must have are pops on Neon Pink!! It will definitely be all girly, pretty and pink!! Rach is coming to Australia soon, so I am sure she can help.

Artist Cathy Trolli

Just a quick update - Cathy now has her Facebook page up. She's slowly posting her many beautiful paintings but still has many more to put up. She is so talented and to think these beauties come from photos!

I love this self portrait she did.

  And this one too!!!!

Here's her photo of the painting she did of Lulu. A much better photo than mine!!!!!

A portrait of Lulu

The other day Lulu's friend's Mum, Cathy, brought over the most beautiful gift - a portrait of Lulu!!!! I just love it! Thank you Cathy, you are so talented! I love her technique, she used pencils, watercolours and a little acrylic. I love the way she painted flowers here and there and then went over them with Lulu's hair. The portrait looks exactly like the photo she worked from. I can't wait to frame it and hang it on the wall!

I thought I should mention a little about Cathy, the artist. She is truely talented and does portraits with a difference! She works in an office but I'm encouraging her to follow her passion! She has a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna (lucky her!).

Creative Wednesday!

Whilst I was busy stitching away Lulu (she's 5) decided she wanted to do something creative. I had bought a few little canvases a while ago and asked if she would like to do some painting. Of course she did!! She chose all of her own colours and subject matter. The top piece is a garden with butterflies, snail, bee and ant. Bottom right is a lady in a shop buying a dress and to the left a picnic! Love this one as on the white plates are potatoes, zucchini, bread with chicken and pears! I love the way Lucy always has grand descriptions for her drawings and paintings! Keep up the good work Lulu!

Jamie's Santa Sack

Jamie wanted a new Santa sack with dinosaurs. Chrstmas and dinosaurs don't really go together but if you chuck a Santa hat on top, anything can go with Christmas. I started by painting the calico background with acrylic paints then sewed the dinosaur's, name, lava and coconuts in felt. The back (see photo on flickr) is a fabric that Rach sent me. Jamie loves it. He has already hung it out, ready for Santa to fill.

Dolls House

I finally finished Lucy's dolls house. It's been a bit of a rush job because Lucy has been home sick a lot from school. As it is part of her Christmas present I couldn't work on it whilst she was home. The idea came from mum she wanted to buy her a Le Toy van house but they are very expensive. I happened to find a little wooden cupboard at my art supply shop for 18 euro. can't beat that price!!! My husband's uncle is a cabinet maker so he cut the windows for me and put on the pitched roof. As it turns out it is almost the exact same measurements as the Le Toy Van house mum wanted to buy. I painted the house, glued papers on the wall (not very well in too much of a hurry), made flower boxes, shutters and curtains and then decorated the roof. All in all the overall effect is great we have bought some of the Le Toy van furniture and dolls to go inside. I made the felt could the dolly's sitting on! I am also making some little embroidered felt rugs to put inside. Anyway it's finally wrapped and next to the tree, I tucked it away as best I can. Of course Lucy came home yesterday and said 'what's that mummy a house??'. I mean really how cluey are these kids she's only three years old and already figuring out her presents based on shape!! Scarey! Few more images on flickr