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Review Your Goals & Write Them Down
It's time to think Goals again. At the start of the year (usually right after New Year’s Day here), goals show up everywhere. Literally plastered on ads, social media, blogs and whispered around any place people gather. But strangely, as January plods on, people talk about their goals less and less. It loses momentum fast. By February, it’s almost non-existent. Why does our enthusiasm disappear so quickly? Or maybe it’s not gone. Maybe we lost sight of our goals because we didn’t write them down. For the last couple of years and ever since hearing that written goals are achieved more frequently than goals that are just thought about ...
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Mother’s Day Message
Mother’s Day is nearing, and if you’re anything like me, you’re thinking of the special women that add depth to your life. They aren’t all your mother, but you think of them on Mother’s Day too. They make life more meaningful and you want to honor them because they honor you. When I enter “show them how special they are” mode, I often think of sending a card. However, I rarely find a card that says it the way I want it said or looks the way I want it to look. Many times, I end up making a card. And you could ...
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How to Use a Calligraphy Alphabet to Practice Lettering
So you found a calligraphy alphabet, and now you want to learn how to make those beautiful letters to add a personal touch to those cards you send out to clients, friends, and family. But where do you start? Here are three different ways to use a calligraphy alphabet to learn more about lettering.
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Happy Easter!
Enjoy your Easter, Everyone!
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Watercolor Trillium Tutorial – Blow Painting with a Straw
One of the first flowers I think of in spring is the Trillium. I enjoy looking for their unique sets of three leaves during hikes in the woods near our home. I keep an eye out for other three-leaved plants, too (poison ivy), but with less thrill when sighted. Trillium bloom in white, yellow or burgundy, but it’s rare that I actually get to see one blooming. Today, I’ll show you one of the watercolor techniques that we talked about last week on a calligraphy drawn trillium. You could use any of the techniques for this project, but I decided to try the blown paint watercolor technique for this tutorial.
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Watercolor Techniques
Watercolor techniques give you freedom to explore and mix, to watch and join in, to dream and create. Last week, we talked about giving ourselves permission to play. Watercolor techniques are the playground of learning to paint with watercolors. Are you ready to play? Today, I want to show you several of my favorite techniques to help you start playing with watercolors. Beyond that … you can build your own set of monkey bars.
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How to be More Creative – Allowed to Play
How to be More Creative is part of a series of blog posts and projects that focus on giving ourselves permission to be creative. Today you have permission to play. Yes, you heard me right. You are allowed to play. When I was a child, I loved creative things: music, art, writing, and even a little acting. As I was learning though, it seemed as though everyone taught me the rules, but no one taught me how to explore the creative world beyond them. And it never really occurred to me to simply play around with my creative interests.
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Easy Calligraphy with a Pencil
Does easy calligraphy exist? Is there an easy way to learn the art of calligraphy and lettering? Where should you start if you are a beginner and want to learn more about hand lettering and calligraphy but don’t have a lot of resources to invest in another hobby? You’re in luck! Beginning to learn lettering and calligraphy doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. You can learn some easy calligraphy using only a pencil and paper.
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Allowed to be a Beginner
Most of the time, I spend my life learning all that I can to be the best I can be in whatever I’m doing … life, work, art, home. Perfect would be awesome, but I’m not a computer, so I’m striving for excellence instead of perfection. I want to give life my best effort, and I have high expectations. I like to see myself as learning … improving myself and my skills, but I also like to be good at what I do.
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Letter Z and Zinnia
We’ve reached the last letter, letter Z, the end of the alphabet study (unless I decide to do it again at a later point with lowercase letters). What a time of learning and exploring letters, watercolor, and ink! I’ve enjoyed it, and I hope you have too. Letter Z proved itself as another terrible letter to use for watercolor and ink. And I refuse to use zebra. I have decided to stay away from the usual Z. The end of the alphabet is filled with difficult letters. Letters X, Y, and Z all together. When the study is finished, I’m sure I’ll see options for letter Z all over the…
