How I Edit My Drawings for Use as Headers

I'm going to give you the option to use the blank header I made using my 

STAEDTLER Karat aquarell watercolour pencils. 

You can also follow the picmonkey instructions I've given to create some of your own.

It's a fun way to add more of your personal style to your blogs and social media pages.

These, my friends... are my watercolour pencils..... I love them.

The very first thing I do is take a photo or scan the images I want to use into my computer. Once I have them in there, I can start to alter them. I usually crop the images in photoshop and store them in a file on my desktop while I'm working on them.

Once the image is cropped to size I load it into picmonkey by simply selecting the "edit a photo" tab on their homepage. Once the pic is in the workstation, I usually start by fixing the colours. I like to use the neutral picker. Just hit the neutral picker tab and position the little eyedrop tool over something on the pic that should be white. Then click the mouse and the pictures colours will be truer to real life.

The exposure tab will let you adjust how light or dark your picture appears. I play with the slide buttons until I'm happy with the brightness of the image. 

I go back to the colors tab and adjust the saturation and temperature slide buttons until I'm happy with the colour intensity.

Next I move from the editor page to the effects page by clicking on the little chemists bottle, second icon down in the side menu. There are heaps of effects to choose from here and you can play for literally hours experimenting with them. I use the frost option to clean up the edges of my image. My blog has a white background and I use just the plain white to help my image float. You can load your own colour in there and alter things to match your own backgrounds. I frost the edges and use the "original" option in the paint bar to erase the frost that has overlapped the main image.

Next I move to the text page. It's the fourth icon down, a capitol P. I click the add text tab and start writing. After I've written my text I can choose from a huge list of text, colours and transparencies. 

I added different sized text by adding a new text box. Then I changed the size, colour and text style for my subtitle. 

Hope this helps. I get heaps of questions about what photo editors I like to use and how I alter my drawings for use in publications. This, in a nutshell is how I do it.

Stewed Cherries, Puff Pastry and Ice-Cream

We made this for desert tonight and I had to share the process with you. It took minutes to prepare and was one of the most delicious deserts ever!

Puff Pastry Cinnamon Sticks:

President's Choice frozen puff pastry sheets

butter

sugar

cinnamon

parchment paper

I rolled out the thawed puff pastry sheets and brushed them with butter. I sprinkled them liberally with a mix of one cup of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon. I flipped over the sheets and repeated the process. I used a pizza cutter to cut four inch by 3/4 inch strips and twisted them. I laid each strip in rows on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and baked them in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes. You can store any extras in an air tight container.

While the sticks were baking I made the cherries.

Spiced Rum Stewed Cherries:

3 cups of pitted fresh cherries

1/2 cup of spiced rum

1/2 cup of sugar

Put pitted cherries into a saucepan and add rum and sugar. Heat over medium heat until heated through and liquid thickens. Add more rum if needed.

Assembly:

Put four or five cinnamon sticks into a bowl and scoop one scoop of Neapolitan ice-cream in there. Scoop over the warm cherries and enjoy!

Our Version of Scotched Eggs

I love Scotched Eggs. We used to make them all the time when the girls were little and we called them Dinosaur eggs. It was one of my favorite dinners to make because they would help and get so excited.

I wonder if they remember stuff like this. Cooking with the girls when they were young are some of my fondest memories. I know they are both spectacular cooks today and I hope it has something to do with our kitchen play time when they were younger.

Well here goes. 

I made up a batch of our basic meatloaf mix. I flattened about 3/4 of a cup in my palm and covered it with a layer of grated old cheddar cheese.

I plunked a very soft boiled egg that had been carefully peeled in the middle of the meaty cheese sheet and gently wrapped the egg up being careful not to squeeze too hard and pop the egg yolk. It was barely a four minute egg and we lost a couple in the peeling. It's worth the trouble so the eggs don't overcook in the baking process.

After the eggs were sealed up I rolled them in some seasoned bread crumbs mixed with crumbled crisp bacon. I baked them at 375 until done. about twenty minutes I think.

We served them with Brussels sprouts and carrots and mashed potato with dark gravy. It's starting to feel a bit like fall out there this weekend. We didn't mind having the oven on at all. In fact it made it a little bit cozier in the house. I love fall and it's warm rich food. Does your family have any traditional fall favorites? I'd love to hear about them.

Another Watercolour Girl

I've been enjoying my STAEDTLER karat aquarell watercolour pencils a bunch this week. I'm working on sculpting people and it always helps to do a few warm up sketches before I get into each sculpting session.

I love the ease of use and portability of a watercolour pencil and these ones are packed with pigment and have a great soft consistent core. 

I also did this banner as a doodle. I'm going to use it in some of my blog decor. I'll post a tutorial on how to load words right on there with picmonkey. So stay tuned.

Hope you're having a spectacular week!

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!