Playing with Watercolour Pencils

I've been relaxing by playing with my STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell watercolour pencils and my STAEDTLER pigment liner. I've had some folks ask how I use my watercolour pencils and thought I would share for those who are interested.

For this bow, I sketched out the basic shape and coloured it in with two blue watercolour pencils, one medium and the other dark. I left the highlighted areas without any colour so they would show the white watercolour paper. Then I took a damp soft round sable brush and blended the colours together.

I sketched a wee girlie too.

Coloured her in the same way.

Blended the colours again with my soft round damp brush.

I added some skin tones and shading.

I let it dry completely.

and outlined the details with my STAEDTLER pigment liner 0.5.

Hope you give it a try too.

Peachy Swiss Dot Tunic Dress with Fimo Buttons

Here's a link to how I made the design on these Fimo buttons. 

I used translucent Fimo effect to seal the colour in and make it permanent.

I found this dotty Swiss to go with them and it reminded me of being a little girl. I made another house dress. 

I really do like making and wearing this Simplicity 3750. I always make it much longer than the pattern so I can wear it as a dress. I also usually add pockets.

I gathered the center of each pocket instead of adding elastic like I've done in the past. This gave me the perfect place to add some decorative buttons. I think I'm going to be making more buttons. I really like the idea of using the extra patterned clay leftover from projects to cut some buttons to put away for future sewing.  

I added a couple buttons to the corners of the square neckline too.

Here's a shot of the back. I like the waist tie very much. I wore this to my bestie's for dinner and after over indulging in some delicious home made potato chips and burgers all I had to do was loosen the bow and there was loads of room for some chick pea choco chip cookies. So delicious! I'll have to steal her recipe to share with you.

I also made some little rosettes or yo yos to add to my shoes. I traced two circles onto the fabric using a drinking glass and cut around them. Then I gathered the edges of the circles with a double strand of thread.

I pulled the threads and flattened the little pouch to make a pinwheel or poof.

Then I sewed one to the outside edge of each shoe with a fimo button in the center.

Voila!

Too matchy?

I can't help it...... There really is no stopping me once I get started.

Tattoo Shoes

I really am having fun with the shoe decorating this month.

You should go and check out the fun at STAEDTLER's Facebook page and see the other designers creations as they come in. It's been a hoot!

I was inspired to make these tattoo shoes because I happened to browse through Jenny Hart's Sublime Stitching book. She has included hundreds of very cool retro transfers. Her blog's pretty sweet too! I modeled my birds from hers and sketched them onto the blank untreated canvas runner with my STAEDTLER pencil.

Then I filled in the shapes with some STAEDTLER Marsgraphic 3000 double ended layout markers.

Sprayed the shoes completely, let them dry and sprayed them again with Scotch Gard fabric protector spray. I let the second coat dry for a couple of hours before the next step.

Last I sat down with my black STAEDTLER fine tip Lumocolor marker and outlined everything. Then I decided to stipple some shading in there too. 

I really really hope you all try altering a pair of shoes for yourselves.

So much fun!!!

Hope you share what happens, we'd LOVE to see!

Fun and Easy Beach Bracelet for Summer Break

This is a fast and easy project for bored summer vacationers. They make a pretty thank you gifts too. 

Products I used to make this project:

STAEDTLER products:

Fimo Effect # 003 or any light soft fimo clay

Fimo jewelry push mold

Karat soft pastel chalks

Fimo varnish

Tools and other supplies:

1 cm thick satin ribbon in colour of your choice

Large toothpick (I used a drink umbrella because I had one)

Spray bottle filled with water

Soft, small round paintbrush

Parchment paper

Gather all the supplies and cover your work surface with a sheet of parchment paper. Start with clean hands when working with light clay. Knead the clay and roll it into a 1 cm thick worm.

Lightly mist the mold with water. This will act as a release agent and help the molded pieces pop out without deforming them. Pull off 1 cm sections of the clay worm and push them into the mold. If there is too much clay sticking out the top just pinch some clay off, squish the clay it back up and remold the piece. Place the toothpick onto the back of the molded piece and cover it with a tiny disc of clay. Blend the edges of the clay covering the toothpick into the back of the molded piece. Tiny fingers are really good at this step!

Un-mold the pieces by gently bending the mold until the pieces pop out. Fix any squished bits and bake the pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet in a preheated 230 degree oven for 20 minutes.

After the pieces have cooled, draw on a clean piece of paper with the colours of chalk you would like to paint with. Dip a soft round paintbrush into the varnish and pick up some of the chalk dust. Use the colour on the brush to paint the pieces.

Let the pieces dry.

String the shapes onto a ribbon and tie with a bow onto a wrist or ankle. Because we used varnish to apply the colour, no topcoat is needed and the colour will be water safe. 

Happy Summer!!!

Octopus Canvas Watercolour Shoes with STAEDTLER

The STAEDTLER design team members were all asked to decorate a pair of canvas runners using STAEDTLER art products. This is what happened to one of my pair.

Products I used to create these shoes:

STAEDTLER products:

Mars Lumograph pencil HB

Mars plastic eraser

Karat Aquarell watercolour crayons

Karat Aquarell watercolour pencils

Lumocolor permanent marker in black fine tip

Scotch Gard Fabric and upholstery protection spray

one pair of canvas shoes

Tools I used:

a selection of paintbrushes from small and soft to medium and coarse 

a spray bottle filled with water

a water bowl

paper towels

First I sketched a design onto the shoes. I tried to mirror the design onto the other shoe without copying it exactly. If I made a pencil mark I didn't like, I simply erased it with my plastic eraser. I stuffed the shoes with tissue paper to give myself a firmer surface to sketch on.

I wet a small soft paintbrush and dragged it across the colour of watercolour crayon I wanted to use. The more colour you pick up the darker the colour will be on the shoe. You might want to start with a light hand. These crayons are packed with pigment.

I sprayed the shoe with water to make it pretty wet and started to watercolour right onto the shoe. If you've never watercoloured before, you should know the paint travels quickly. Work on a wet surface to help the paint move. If the surface is dry you will create more of an acrylic paint effect with rigid lines.

After I filled in the background with a water colour, I wanted to create some detail shading so I dipped the tip of a sharpened  Karat aquarell pencil a little bit darker than my background colour into the water and drew right onto the sneaker. I used a short small stiffer bristle brush to push the pigment where I wanted it and blend it out a bit. This kept my lines crisp beside my octopus and allowed me to blend the pigment out on the background edge.

I began to add colour to the octopus by using a wet brush and picking up colour from the Karat crayons. I added pink, purple and orange shades. I left the highlights without paint so the white canvas would show.

I dipped a white Karat Aquarell pencil in water and used it to reinforce the white highlights of the canvas.

Then I used a deep blue to add depth and shadow around the octopus. I blended out the water edge and kept the edge toward the octopus crisp.

After the shoes dried, I sprayed them with two good coats of Scotch Gard and let them dry completely.  It's important to spray the shoes before you use the permanent marker. The spray will dissolve the marker and it will bleed.

After the sprayed shoes have dried thoroughly,  use the fine tip Lumocolor permanent marker in black to outline and give detail to the design. 

These were a load of fun to make. I think I might have to try another pair!

Hope you give it a try too. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Crafts4joy Made it With Me. The Mushroom Mood Lamp!

I know it's probably not a surprise to you folks that I write instructions for art and craft magazines and product manufacturers. I've been sharing designs and instructions for a few decades now and I'm always so so happy and amazed when I see the work of the folks who I may have helped inspire. I think it's time I share the work of some of these talented artisans with all of you. I'm hoping it will be a regular post here on Make It With Me. I'm certain you will be just as smitten as I am by these charming artists and crafts folk.

Here's our first ever "You Made It With Me" Post!

Featuring:  Annette Swensen of Crafts4joy

Here's the culprit. The Mushroom Mood Light I made for PolymerCafe April 2012. If you missed this edition and want to try this project out, you can still pick up a back copy by following the link.

These are some of the process shots I took for the magazine instructions.

This is what the AMAZING Annette Swensen came up with!!!

Seriously...... how spectacular is this!!!!!

Visit her facebook page Crafts4joy, to see even more of Annette's adorable characters.

Annette Swensen

Crafts4joy

If you'd like to share some of your Make It With Me inspired creations, just send me a note through the contact link in the header at the top of the page.

Thanks so much for sharing Annette. I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Carrot Cake Jam

 It's about time we started some summer canning. I purchased Taste of Home special editions canning magazine and let Maggs choose what recipe we would make first. She chose the Carrot Cake Jam and I'm so glad she did!

We followed the recipe almost perfectly, but Maggs couldn't resist adding some raisins. I think it improved the recipe. We should have used bigger jars.......

After we got the jam made we realized we were out of bread...... so we made that too!

Do you have a favorite canning recipe?

Sandy the Happy Crab, Beachy Trinket Box

I used STAEDTLER's Astrological Artist Mold to make this happy little crab box. The mold is heat and frost resistant and can be used with a heap of different mediums. I chose one of the new STAEDTLER fimo effect sorbet colours.

I think I may have to find some larger cardboard tubes and try this technique out on a bigger scale.

It sure was fun to make and it holds some of my beachy treasures. Teeny starfish and shells form the best vacation ever!

Here's what I used to make this project:

One STAEDTLER Art Mold (I used the Astrological Signs)

One STAEDTLER Push Mold (I used Jewellery)

One 56 g block of STAEDTLER fimo effect clay (I used ice blue quartz #306)

STAEDTLER karat soft pastel chalks 

STAEDTLER fimo gloss varnish

STAEDTLER liquid fimo deco gel

Stampendous golden sand embossing powder

Tools I used to create this Crabby Box:

Empty toilet paper or paper towel roll

Craft blade

Clay roller

Parchment paper

Small soft round paintbrush

Water in a spray bottle

I rolled out the fimo clay to a 1/4cm thick and wrapped strips around the paper tube. A thicker strip is the base of the box and was about 4cm tall. The thinner band is about 2cm tall and will be the lid. Blend the seams where the clay meets by gently rubbing with your fingertips. Make sure all the edges are even and there are no fingerprints. Place the pieces on a parchment lined baking sheet still on the paper tube, and bake in a preheated 230 degree oven for fifteen minutes and allow it to cool before moving on to the next step.

Push the ends of the tube onto a sheet of 1/4 cm thick rolled out clay and use the craft knife to cut the circles out. Place a circle on each end and blend in the edge seams with your fingertips. Bake the piece again for another fifteen minutes and allow it to cool.

Mist some water into your STAEDTLER mold and press in an appropriate amount of clay to fill the mold. The water will act as a release agent. 

Remove the baked clay pieces from the paper tube and place the molded crab (or whatever shape you picked) onto the top of the box. Blend in the edges as before. Bake on parchment paper lined baking sheet in a preheated 230 degree oven for twenty minutes.

Roll out some clay to about 1/8th cm thick and cut a ribbon to go along the inside of the top of the base of the box. Blend in the bottom edge of the ribbon.

Mist some water into the smaller flexible mold and press in small amounts of clay to make the shapes.

Press the shapes onto the box and when you're happy with the positions, bake the piece again for another twenty minutes and allow it to cool.

Paint the fimo liquid onto the piece where you would like the sandy embossing powder to stick. Dust the powder over the wet fimo liquid and re-bake the pieces for ten minutes at 230 degrees.

Rub sme of the STAEDTLER chalks onto a piece of clean paper and dip your soft paintbrush into the glossy varnish. Pick up a small amount of the dusty chalk and paint colour onto the piece. Clean out your brush before you re-dip into the varnish so you don't put colour in the varnish pot. I think this is my new favorite way to add colour to my fimo projects.

I used the same technique to add some watery looking blue to the sand edges.

This was a blast to make and I really am hunting around for some shipping tubes to make a bigger version. I am smitten with the translucent cool watery look this clay has. 

Hope you give it a try too!