Wednesday, 3 February 2010

Watercolour Flower Cards

Watercolour Flowers


This gerbera wasn't easy. But these fishies were! 




These himalayan poppies weren't too hard.


These bluebells weren't bad either.



This little wild rose was easy, it took about fifteen minutes.



These poppies were nice to do, too.



Irises are hard stuff, but can be fun if you're ambitious, like me!



I don't normally use pen round the edges, but I like how this one turned out.



Sweet peas are nice to do, too. They're a bit fiddly to draw, but you can do it!



I completed this camellia recently. It's one of the best I've done this year. 



Here's one of a rose from my garden. Cute!



Wondering if you could do something like these?
Go on, give it a try!

If you're a beginner, I would suggest trying the fishies. I just sat and watched and drew my own fish. Make sure you're using good quality watercolour paper (I use the WHSmith stuff, not too expensive but very good), paint, and invest in proper brushes. They're not very expensive, either. Draw the outline in a light pencil, don't press hard!  Take your time and perfect your drawing as the better the drawing is, the better the painting will be. Then, paint the fish. Use more colour than you think as watercolour dries lighter.How I painted them was to do orange round their edges, making sure I didn't touch the pencil line. I then quickly washed my brush in clean water and teased the colour down. When it had dried, I used a brown colour to paint in the little details with a fine brush. To do the water, thoroughly wet the paper and drop blobs of light blue in. Admire your work! 




If you want to try flowers,  always start by drawing the middle. Then, do the petals, leaves, and stalks.You can use the same techniques as you did for the fishies. If you want to put pen round the edges like I did with one of the pink roses, buy a proper pen from an artist's shop.



See you soon!

Monday, 1 February 2010

Giveaway!

Hello.
I made a slight change to the giveaway. :D


That got you worried didn't it?!
Because I love giving and only four people entered, and I knew them all apart from one, I couldn't bear to choose just one.
So, everyone who entered (Charlotte J, Caitlin, Elspeth, and Kelsey) are getting prizes!
One of you will receive the exact set, and the others will receive similar sets to the one I showed.
Charlotte and Caitlin, I'll give you yours the next time I see you. Elspeth and Kelsey, your ones have been posted already. :)


I hope you have fun with your prizes, girlies!

See you soon!

Friday, 29 January 2010

Stitched Cards

Here's another quick and easy project to do.



All you do is find some card or thick handmade paper and sew some thinner paper to it. It is much better to do it on a sewing machine, but if you're brave you could try hand-stitching it. You could even use a pencil to mark where you want to go and do a fancy design, or 'write' Happy Birthday on it.




Then, have a photo shoot with your cards. Good props (background items) are necessary!



See you soon!

Oh, and check back on Monday to see who the winners are of the giveaway!

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Mini Felt Bag Tutorial

Want to enter a giveaway? Scroll down to the previous post to see what's up for grabs!

Want something easy to make, but really cute?
Try this.





A cute little felt bag, and a great alternative to the felt phone holders I made here. These felt bags can hold your phone and a few other little things. :)

Step One

Cut your felt to the size you would like it to be. The way I did it is to use one continual piece of felt, so bear in mind that you will want it a lot longer than it is wide.




Step Two


Fold the piece of felt roughly in thirds as shown below.




Step Three


Work out where the middle of the turned-over piece is. Pin your favourite ribbon onto it and then stitch in place. Don't cut the ribbon ends off yet!






Step Four


Next, pin the sides, starting from the bottom to reduce lumps and bumps. Sew in place. Ok, now you can cut the ribbon edges! It just finishes it off nicer if you delay cutting.










Step Five


Find the cute snap fasteners that you inherited from a great aunt or grandma or someone. Work out where you want to position them, and sew them on.










They remind me of roses!





Step Six


This is optional, but you could sew a button on to hide the stitching like I did. I used a button with four holes, and matched them up with the four holes of the snap on fastener and sewed it on using the fastener as guide holes.  This isn't as hard as I thought it would be, and really finishes it off.



Step Seven


Enjoy your super cute bag!



Sorry Paddington didn't appear today, he was old and needed a wash to freshen up. He should be up soon, though!


See you on Friday!