More Primitive Dolls

I'm still practicing drawing primitive faces. I'm taking Mindy Lacefield's on-line course, Primitive Portraits and this week I've moved on to adding color. Now these girls have really popped. This one below is probably my favorite...I love the pink hair and dress!

Mindy recommends using Peerless watercolors for some of the painting. I've never heard of them before, but they're so fun to use. The watercolor comes on pieces of paper. I ordered the Peerless basic and bonus pack and here's how I organized my watercolors...

I cut the watercolor paper into 1" squares. I created an MS Word document, so that I could glue the color swatches in and printed the names in each square.

 I used a water brush and painted the sample colors next to each square.

There's also a plastic sheet between the pages, so if the paint is wet, it won't mix with the paints on the opposite side. This little folder that I made is 7" x 5"  and so thin, it makes it possible to take it everywhere.

Below are pictures of the progression of one my dolls...

And below are the dolls I painted this week in my 7"x5" sketch book. You'll see a theme to my dolls. I like to add vintage text paper, black and white striped paper and often use this Metro tissue paper that I bought from Mark and Graham.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I think I'll use them to make greeting cards or use them in my art journals. I still have several more lessons to go, but I want to take my time and enjoy the learning...it's been so much fun!

I even convinced my sister, Frances to give it a try...below is her adorable doll she painted. We reduced it by 50% and made cute little versions she can use for tags or cards.

I hope you're enjoying this long three day weekend...I know I am!

Drawing Primitive Faces & Bday Celebration

I'm currently taking an on-line class from Mindy Lacefield - Primitive Portraits. I have limited experience in drawing faces and was pretty nervous taking this course.

Thanks to my friend, Lois, for introducing me to this artist, I love Mindy's work! Here are some of my first drawings of girls. Mindy taught us some techniques for the faces. The dresses were my creative take on doll fashion.

I drew them in my new 5"x7" sketch book. These faces remind me of Joan Walsh Anglund dolls that I used to collect when I was a little girl.

I still have to color these girls with water color, but I was having so much fun just sketching with pencil!

I also want to share some pictures of an amazing bday celebration we had for my sister, Pat.  We tried something new: we all took a cooking class together with Chef Charles Vollmar at his home in Orinda.

 

 

Tuscan Chicken Kale Salad

Couscous 

Crostini with roasted cherry tomatos

We had such a great time and some amazing food. Sorry, I didn't picture the delicious corn and sun dried tomato chowder soup, lavender ice cream, and peach and nectar gratin we had - too busy eating :-).

And on a last note, I just received my complimentary issue of Somerset Apprentice for having my Tim Holtz project published. Yay, first time in this magazine! 

It's always a thrill to see my projects published, thank you so much Stampington for selecting my project. Thank you also to Paula Cheney and Tim Holtz for the opportunity to create for you!

Have a great week everyone!

Homemade Designer Gold Note Cards

I love gold accents in jewelry, belts, scarfs, paper, journals and note cards. Today, I decided to make a set of gold note cards.

I used the following stamps from AHA arts and Claudine Hellmuth Studio and Color Box gold pigment ink.

I cut a piece of white card stock 8 1/2" x 11" in half, so that I ended up with two 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" cards.

I stamped the images on the card stock.

Then I applied some words with gold letter stickers from Meri Meri. I also found these cool Nate Berkus gold scissors and stapler at Target...love them!

How fun and quick these are to make. No need to buy the expensive designer brand when you can make your own. :-)

On a side note, lately I've been busy every day helping my daughter build a kitchen studio in our basement. As you may know, she makes baking videos for her YouTube channel, KawaiiSweetWorld. My basement was full of sample sale items, over flow of craft supplies, lots of xmas, easter & halloween decorations, etc. We cleared over 50% of it. Then my daughter has been busy painting and building out cabinets and shelves every day for the past week. She'll be revealing it on her channel soon. I'll be sure to include a link to it once it's completed.

I hope you're enjoying your summer!

Whimsical Paper Doll Fun

This weekend, my niece and her partner & kids hosted another wonderful family BBQ in their home. It's always so much fun to hang out at their house, be with family and enjoy yummy foods. I just wanted to share with you some highlights of our day.

Of course, the girls had to craft, and we worked on making whimsical paper dolls. These are the dolls I made to bring as samples...

The head is a #1 coin envelope that's stamped with a face and then stuffed with flowers, and the body is made from dictionary paper. The pictures below are the girls working on their paper dolls.

And here are the finished dolls from everyone...they all turned out so cute and so different! I apologize for all the shadows, we only had cell phones to take pictures.

Lana's doll

Diana's doll

Frances's doll

Maryl's dolls

Joanne's doll

Stephanie's doll

My daughter, Rachel, made these amazing mini S'mores Cupcakes..big hit!

Keenan, 10 months old, enjoying the S'mores cupcake

Keenan with his older brother Lennon

Me and the newest edition to the family, Dahlia, who is just 2 months old and so tiny!

Hope you had a good weekend!