All posts tagged: paint

kawaii snacks.

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I took a kawaii snacks gouache workshop with Yay! It’s Vica! I love painting with gouache, but I’ve not been so great at including it as an everyday life activity. So I signed myself up for a gouache workshop to get some designated gouache time on the calendar. And I convinced my God-sister to join, too, so we could spend some creative fun times together. Vica, designer of some of the cutest illustrations ever, walked us through gouache techniques and step-by-step tutorials of how to create her style of kawaii snacks. This was a nice review of gouache but I also wish we spent more time painting snacks because, OMG, look how cute! I felt so successful at this workshop because my paintings resembled Vica’s samples. We learned how to paint different bread snacks with animal features like toast cat and burger bear. Something new to me was the addition of colored pencil – in brown! I’m obsessed! What cute snacks should I attempt next? Share below. You can paint cute snacks, too! Supply list*: …

crafty ladies reunite.

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My meet ups with my crafty lady crew have been on hiatus since Galentine’s Day, but we recently reunited on the interwebs. One of us got a laser cutter so she created and shipped wood initial painting kits to all the crafty ladies. Yes, she even picked paint palettes and filled tiny paint pots for us, and made instructions! (We fancy.) I looked forward to the meet up all week and was excited to spend some creative time together with my friends, but then I was extra surprised and excited to find that our crafty ladies reunion turned into a surprise crafty bebe shower for me! So sweet! They even got Hubby in on it and he sneakily picked up snacks and presents that my friends prepared for the night in. We played games (guess the baby and a very creative scavenger hunt – we had to find some handmade items and the oldest thing in our fridge), chatted, snacked, and I loved seeing everyone’s decorated space. I spy some Feed the Fish co goodies! …

gouache.

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I’ve been so curious about gouache paint, but hadn’t come across a short workshop until recently. How do you use it? Is it watercolor or is it acrylic? How do you even pronounce gouache? I had so many questions. Lucky for me, Cleo Papanikolas (painter, author, and illustrator!) taught a three-hour gouache techniques class at Handcraft Studio School. (This was my first class in the ‘new’ studio!) Also lucky for me, the class focused on paining flowers and I’m all about nature painting! Our stations were filled with Cleo’s painting diagrams, little floral bouquets, a paint palette, water, a selection of papers to test, brushes, a fan to help dry our paintings, and a water spray bottle to rehydrate our paints as needed. Also, her business card is a travel-sized paint palette; there’s paint on the inside and it comes with a brush – so clever, so cute! Cleo walked us through different gouache (like squash!) techniques and we dove in. We used Miya brand gouache paints, which she says are the best ‘cheap’ paints …

craftmaster part two. 

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In my last post I took a stroll down craftmaster memory lane and shared some snaps from the July Sunday Crafternoon at Modern Mouse. Now let’s take a look at August’s event: Bubble Art! As usual, fans got to vote for their favorite DIY. It was between bubble art, framed pin cushions, and jewelry dishes. Watercolor bubbles won! We set everyone up in “testing” stations so that bubbles wouldn’t float from one art piece to the other. I had blue, red, yellow and white paint and crafters got to mixing! Look at all these vibrant colors. Pop the bubbles when they are floating and get splatter. Let the bubbles sit and get circles. The longer the bubbles sit, the darker the color. Here is some work from our awesome artists! Halfway through we got extra fancy and started using stencils. I made this piece for Modern Mouse! I might be a wee bit obsessed with bubble art now. And that’s a wrap with our guest Craftmaster duties. Next month, Resident Craftmaster Niki Baker of Foreignspell …

watercolor workshop.

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I recently attended a workshop with Alessa of Life After Breakfast on a mini-US workshop tour. Even before the workshop began all of us were going ga-ga over our art supplies for the evening. Pouches full of glorious brushes, vibrant pigments, and oh, this nifty & informative watercolor pamphlet! We used Dr. Ph. Martin’s watercolor paints. The colors were so vivid. We started with a lesson in paper types and brush techniques. For many of us, it was our first introduction to watercolor and lettering. Here is my first take on a watercolor alphabet. Notice how I drew guidelines and then completely ignored them. We spent most of the class lettering and then dabbled a tiny bit in gold leafing towards the end. The gold leaf pretty much ruined my piece, but let’s just say I meant to put the leaf there. Oh, and I got two ‘likes’ in our class vote. (Oh hey…) Here are some student works from the class. And here is a piece that our instructor created during her live demos at each table. Since this workshop, I’ve …

mystery cups.

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I had been wanting to paint these lil cups for a while now, but it took me a while to figure out where to buy them. (I finally found them via Darby Smart.) Also, I didn’t know what they were called for the longest time. (They are called “bell cups.”) And now the next mystery — What are these things anyway? What are they made out of? The internets can’t seem to explain them. My friends think they are made of dried citrus fruit; I’m going to go with that. Now, let’s craft! Here’s what they look like blank. You can also purchase them with stems on. That makes me think that they are a dried flower pod of some sort. I grabbed some bright acrylics and started with painting the bottom half of each bell cup with a foam brush. I painted on two layers, drying in between. Next, with a regular flat paintbrush, I painted on some simple dots, sprinkles, and a line. Let the paint dry completely. That’s it! I’ve seen these bell cups used for …

erin’s errands.

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I got off work a little early today so I was able to run a few errands. These errands were far from being chores though. They were more like crafty adventures. My first stop was Urban Ore Ecopark which sells eco-friendly salvaged goods. From doors to dishes and books to baskets, you can come in for one thing and leave with much more. Make sure to look in nooks and crannies for something unexpected. I came in today for some craft supplies. I’m planning a dreamcatcher workshop and got a tip from a crafty friend that she saw a box of metal hoops here. She gave me specifics on how to find them in the store. And, just as she described, I found them in a box tucked away at the bottom of a shelf that you had to carefully navigate to so furniture wouldn’t stab you. The things we do for crafts. There must have been over 200 hoops in there. I selected 42 and paid just $3 plus tax! A steal if you ask …

gallery art.

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I was recently asked to contribute to an art installation collaboration for a local art gallery. What?! I know, so official. I only had one night to think about my contribution so I decided to just show up and let art happen when I got to the studio to create my piece. The installation was to be a collaboration of Bay Area artists to showcase “Oakland.” Eighteen artists were invited to design foam boards to be installed on a metal structure that rotated the boards. Artists Nick Dong and Corrie Messinger were the masterminds behind the piece and we were invited to Nick’s Oakland studio to create. Walking into a legit art studio was the cheese balls (and I love cheese balls!). Lots of space and natural light, all the art supplies and tools you could ever need…amazing. The piece I created is called Fly. It started with a sketch. I was inspired by a butterfly and wanted to incorporate the whimsy of their wings. I went back and forth with colors and feelings. After all, people were going to have …

carving and stamping.

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If you follow me on Pinterest then you’ve probably noticed my craft wish list includes carving stamps and block printing. Well, I finally did it! I got myself a carving block and carving tool, brought out the fabrics and paints that were waiting a long time to be used, and my friend and I met up for a crafternoon over the long weekend. We took inspiration from food and nature, and a pair of my favorite earrings by local artist Feistyelle. After drawing our designs on paper, we pressed the carving blocks on the images to transfer the sketches onto the blocks. The Speedball brand carving blocks we used were soft and easy to cut – perfect for us newbies! The carving tool had interchangeable blades that could be used to cut various curves and edges. Carving out the image took a while, but the process was super satisfying – kind of like the satisfaction you get from picking a scab. Yea… Look at that concentration! With my shape, I was going for leaf with polkadots (because that’s totally normal), but …

printmaking in action.

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I took my first printmaking class last week. It made my brain hurt, but I also learned that if you just let things happen you can create some unique pieces! The lovely Suzi Garner taught the workshop at Sticky Art Lab, where I sometimes volunteer and teach craft demos. We suited up with aprons, had a quick tutorial and off we went to create and experiment. The concept of “printing the negative” was a hard idea to grasp. There were many a confused face, but by the end of it all we had an idea of how this printing business worked and were pleased with our final pieces. Here’s my piece after three runs through the press. I punched out hearts from cardstock and the octopus was a template courtesy of Suzi. The frizzy blobs were made using torn pieces of textured paper. I started with a light yellow, followed by a coral hue, and finished off with a seafoamy color. I personally loved mixing the colors. We used Akua soy based pain which felt greasy, but washed …