Trying something new

I've been reading how to paint watercolour books, which I usually read and get grumpy because I could never paint like that. This time I approached the books for inspiration and ideas on technique and thought perhaps I should try a coloured pencil.



I'm pleased with the result, the images are softer and the lines are gentle and so far works well with babies and ballerinas.

A week of wearing

A little pottering project for the week, for no particular reason other than to draw. Spending fifteen minutes each day just sketching what I was wearing. I may continue, I'm not sure yet...

Princess painting and tissue paper flowers

Along with some other gifts that she'd actually asked for, I decided to make my niece one of my little watercolour paintings for her sixth birthday. She is a huge Sleeping Beauty fan and so I sketched and painted her dressed as Princess Aurora with a few little fairy godmothers flitting around the background.



Then to decorate, I was inspired by The Gilded Bee to make some tissue paper flowers. The big pale pink flower is a tissue paper pom pom only smaller and with the petals pulled out in only one direction. The dark pink roses were made from rolled spirals of tissue paper and the leaves were cut from watercolour paper and painted.

Happy Anniversary Card

It's my brother's wedding anniversary today. Eleven years since that hot Saturday when I was their bridesmaid in blue.

I painted a quick card to send our love on their special day. To a couple that enjoy exotic cocktails, the stems of the glasses coincidentally resembling the number 11.


Watercolour and ink

Party games

I had six lists for the party, so that I didn't forget anything; food for kids, food for adults, shopping list, preparation list, order of events and Games.

The Games list featured: Hunt the fishes, What's the time Mr Wolf, Traffic Lights, Pin the Eye on the Alien, Pass Parcel, Whack the piñata and Musical toadstools.

Hunt the fishes. Last year we played Bug Hunt, we drew lots of bugs on stickers and then hid them around the house and garden. The kids then had to run around and find the bugs and stick them in the bug garden.


Bug Stickers

Bug Garden

This year we played the same game, but with finding fishes and sticking them under the sea (I forgot to take a photo).

Stick the eye on the Alien was a variation on last year's Stick the crown on the Princess. I painted a large character and then used white circle stickers for the eyes.


Stick the Eye on the Alien

2009 version, Pin the crown on the Princess

Musical Toadstools is my version of the traditional musical chairs. Last year we played musical spots, which then morphed into musical splats and then toadstools. Using some red craft paper, I drew around some dinner plates to get the shape of a toadstool lid, then with white printer paper cut out stalk shapes and circles for the dots.



The Pink Piñata. We made a piñata for my birthday but this one was definitely superior. The piñata was made with flour, water and newspaper on a balloon and then painted pink, but I think it was the tissue paper fringe gave it the a real Wow factor.

 

We didn't get time to play all the games, as the kids spent a long time playing What's the time Mr Wolf, but they have just been put aside for another occasion.

Monster Party Bags

After I had made the Flower Bags for the girls, I wanted to make some monster style bags for the boys.

Using some orange fabric I put together a couple of drawstring bags. Then using craft foam and embroidery thread I crafted some monster type faces.

The boys at the party were thrilled and my friend told me that she had put the bags away safely so that they can be used again at Halloween.

Colouring sheets for the party

Inspired by suggestions from other blogs about kids parties. I put together a couple of colouring sheets for the Big 4th Birthday party.

Using the same concept as the invitations, there are Monsters and Fairies and a based on the cake a Princess colouring sheet. All three are available as pdfs to print and colour.

Download Monsters pdf
Download Fairy pdf
Download Princess pdf

The colouring table was available for the whole party, for any passing colouring needs. With my empty Nutella jars holding a fresh bunch of crayons.

Eggy Birthday

My Dad is a very health conscious person, also he can't really eat unhealthy (fun) foods. So I decided to paint on his birthday card something he can eat and enjoys eating. I had the choice of porridge, almonds or a boiled egg.