The Gold at the End of Your Rainbow - Easy DIY St. Patrick's Day Postcards

I tell you what - there are times when I look at the things I make and wonder why I am a childless 28 year old coming up with crafts that would obviously be better suited for children.  (For the record, I am not planning on or hoping to have children anytime soon!)  I suppose one could make the subconscious biological clock argument, but in any case, I spent an afternoon this weekend making these watercolor St. Patrick's Day postcards - complete with a chocolate coin favor.  :)  (I very much enjoy including a small favor along with a simple card sentiment!)

I thought they were fun, and yes, if you have kids this would be something easy for them to make.  I think the picture is pretty self explanatory, but in the vein of all DIY blog posts, my instructions are below!  

Materials:

• I used the Avery 4-per-sheet textured postcards that I have blogged about before - you can get them on Amazon.  They make your life so much easier, and are great with watercolor paints!  
• Watercolor paints
• Chocolate Coins (I got mine at our local Cost Plus World Market.)

Instructions:

Take your postcards (or regular paper), and paint a rainbow on each.  I put one of the coins in the bottom corner when I was doing this so I could see how the rainbow would turn out.  You can probably paint your rainbow any way you like!

I waited until AFTER I had painted the watercolor rainbows (and they had dried completely) before actually printing the "You're the Gold at the End of My Rainbow!" sentiment on them.  This is because the printer ink and bleed a little bit when you paint watercolors over them.  It turned out much better this way!

I used regular tape to tape the chocolate coins in the bottom corner of the cards.  Boom!  You can write on the back to give out and/or mail them to others.  I thought they were a fun way to wish someone Happy St. Patrick's Day, along with a sweet treat!  Enjoy - don't get pinched today!  

A Day of Watercolor

Hello folks!  So I had my much anticipated watercolor painting class this weekend.  It was a full day of watercolor - from 10am to 4pm, complete with a break for lunch.  For those of you who are in the Seattle area, I took it through Classes and Workshops at the University of Washington.  I feel like I learned plenty of great techniques, although the real skill is only going to come through practice.  I am going to share some of my paintings from the class, even though… let's be honest… they aren't very good.  LOL!  Still, I had fun, and that's all that matters!

Practicing shapes - that green "thing" in the middle started out as a tomato, and my teacher recommended I turn it into a leaf...!  It's still not the best leaf, but I'm going with it.  Apparently watercolor painting is all about working with what you've got, since you don't really have control over what the wet paints will do on the paper.

More shapes - this tomato turned out a little better.  Obviously, I have more work to do on my fruits…  ;)  I attempted to turn a blue blob into a flower… but I think it looks more like a spaceship now, so that's what I'm telling people.

A sunset… painting landscapes are my favorite.  The "dry brush" technique to paint water is used here, as was a blended wash for the sunset.

Drawing palm tree's are kind of my old standby sketch, so I had to attempt one in watercolor…!  I tried another blended wash for the sand, and a technique for the sky where you paint a wash, then use a paper towel to "blend" clouds in the sky.  If you use the back of your brush (the pointy end), you can draw fine detail that is a shade darker - I did this for the palm tree leaves.  I didn't have time to paint coconuts into the palm tree!

A mountain scene…I tried to paint the sides of the mountains with a yellow to imply the rays of sun, but it turned out a little wonky.  We didn't have the color black in our kits, so I had to make do with blues for the mountains.

There you have it!  A few people in my class were natural artists and painted these amazing things right off the bat.  My pictures look a bit like something a 5-10 year old would make, but I'm hoping to improve over time…!

Thank you for looking at my little practice paintings.  Is there anything you are currently working to improve upon?  Please share!  

Give This Watercolor Desk Calendar a Dry Run

You might say I have been bit into watercolors lately.  In fact, my last DIY project posted on here was ANOTHER watercolor calendar for your fridge or office.  I'm not sure what it is about me and calendars, but I really like useful DIY projects, and who doesn't use calendars on a very regular basis?  These were also SUPER easy - I was able to finish a whole 2014 set in less than 30 minutes using regular store-bought watercolor paints from the drugstore.

Note as of August 2015:  I have a 2016 Watercolor Desk Calendar for sale in my Etsy shop, if you would rather not spend the time making your own!  Each calendar is sold with a mini wooden easel for display.  

MATERIALS 

• Watercolor paints
• Paintbrush 
• Calendar Template -  click here to download! (2014)
• 2015 Calendar template
• 2016 Calendar template 
• I did not create 2017/2018 templates.  Sorry!  #life
• 2019 Calendar template
• Paper (I used Avery 4-per-sheet textured postcards to make it really easy, and it's good quality paper for watercolors.  You can get these here from Amazon.  Regular 8x10 paper will also work - you can simply cut the calendars accordingly.  :)

INSTRUCTIONS

Print out the calendar template, and cut your calendar pages out.  Take your brush and lightly wet the watercolor paints - this is important, as using a brush that is too wet will soak your paper with water, making it bubble up.  This is not attractive for your finished project!  Streak some color over your calendar in whatever manner you please - I used some different approaches for each calendar.

Diagonal strokes...

Vertical strokes...

Horizontal strokes…

Regardless of what strokes I used, I thought each calendar turned out pretty good!  Like I said, this is super easy, right?  Even a novice watercolor painter can do it!  Hopefully after my watercolor class I will no longer be a novice, but we shall see!

I have been inspired to re-do my cubicle space at work, and I thought these new desk calendars would look really elegant on the wall in my cube.  Hopefully I'm right!

My big challenge for DIY projects is to make sure the final outcome doesn't look "too DIY", if you know what I mean.  It's the difference between "Wow, you made that?" to "Oh, you made that didn't you?"  What DIYer wants to be asked that question!  Anyway, hope this is inspiring to some people - let me know if the calendar template I've posted is helpful (above) - I'm hoping it saves you some time if you try to make your own!  :)

Water you waiting for? Paint yourself a calendar!

There is something so carefree about watercolor painting.  Each piece seems like the artist whipped out their brush on a whim, splashed a few colors on the page, and suddenly a piece of art materialized.  "Look!  A beautiful sunset!"  For that reason, I have often been caught in the trap of attempting to paint with watercolors, and I am usually disappointed with the results.  (I actually just signed up for a Watercolor Class that is in a few weeks, so be prepared for some additional watercolor projects in the future…!)  However, I saw this project on Pinterest, and thought it looked so easy and elegant that I had to try it.  Plus, wouldn't a calendar of these make a lovely gift?

Materials:
Watercolor paints (I used the cheap ones you can get at the drugstore!)
Watercolor paper (Also from the drugstore)
Pencil
Circle stencil (I used a small circular votive)

Instructions:
1.  Trace 5 rows of overlapping circles onto your watercolor paper.  (I combined Sat/Sun in one circle at the end of the row, so I did 6 circles across.)  Use LIGHT pencil markings, as this will make your life easier later on!

2.  Once you have all of your circles done, pencil in the dates, and start filling the circles with your 4 chosen watercolors.

3.  Once your circles are all filled in, wait for the paint to dry completely.  Next, use an eraser to erase any pencil marks that are still showing.  (My marks were pretty dark, so this step was difficult for me!)  Finally, use a sharpie to mark the dates over the circles, and paint the name of the month down the side of your page.  COMPLETE!

In all it's glory on my fridge - my new February fridge calendar! 

While I like how this turned out, I think if I make more I will leave off the names of the days at the top - just having the numbered circles would probably make things look a little more elegant.  The cheap paints I used are also probably why it didn't turn out quite as artistic as my inspiration (below).  Hopefully it doesn't look too much like something I did with my children over the weekend, if I had any.  (Who cares, adults can do arts and crafts, too!)  :)

Inspiration:  Momfluential.net