Brilliantly Colored Swooping Watercolor Bird

Today while my husband was engrossed in videogames, I ducked up to my craft room to paint! I've been thinking about ideas for the craftster.org papercrafting challenge (I have to make something that incorportes patterned paper that also hangs), and I thought maybe I'd do a bird mobile type thingie, with patterned paper raindrops coming from the wings.... I'm not sure if I'm actually going to put something like that together before the deadline, though. We'll see.

I sketched out a flying bird of imaginary origins, and then started painting. I loooove warm and bright colors, so I went with a firey motif. After coloring with my watercolors, I used a sharpie pen to do all the black outlining and details you see. I wish I would have gotten some in-progress shots, but meh. Next time.

Then I cut the birdie out and lined the edges black with a brushpen. Here she is flying with my fish friend.

I actually don't think I'll be making that mobile thing, but rather just mounting the bird on a square of scrapbooking paper with some stickyback foam and then framing it. I haven't committed to a particular sheet yet, though. I'm not sure which I like the best, yet. Does anyone have any opinions on which I should go with? I'm sort of partial to the green....

Towhee Birdie ATC

Sooo, I stayed up REALLLY late last night and actually slept in until 10. Ridiculous. I'm just hoping that I can fall asleep at a reasonable hour tonight!! Wish me luck...

Oh boy oh boy! Here we have a little ATC with a spotted towhee bird on it... It's just watercolor and sharpie pen with a sheet music border :) Enjoy, and happiest Tuesday to you.

Resin Bottlecap Fridge Magnets

Aha! I poured a batch of resin bottle caps because I had need of some for a swap or two! I made a set of magnets for my fridge... Here they are holding up an octopus painting that I did for my husband a while back..

Here's a little tip for anyone out there who wants to have a go at making bottle cap stuff: The inside circle picture piece in the bottle cap is precisely the size of a US quarter. Its really helpful when you need to trace something. What I did here was trace a quarter to make little bases out of a cereal box (just like an ATC or inchie base), then papercrafted away. Another thing that is helpful is to hot glue the circle piece in before you pour the resin. Sometimes these can be unexpectantly buoyant in the resin, and it's frustrating when your artwork wants to float up to the top and not be properly covered by the resin....

Here are my favorites. I loooove the funny narwhal, mostly because there was a narwhal in the movie "Elf."

I made more bottle caps that didn't end up becoming magnets, but I'm sure they'll find a place eventually. This shall be my 182nd blogpost, I think, and I'm going to try to do a giveaway every 100th post.... 200 is coming up soon! Maybe I'll do a little variety prize package? :) Stay tuned!