Blog
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Lettering Supplies for Beginners – Pens, Paper and Ink
Here we are in a new year. Already! I know. It feels early, but as I settle into 2020, the ideas and plans for the year stop swirling inside my head and start landing on paper. And I feel ready. Maybe you feel the same way, ready to tackle the year and move lettering from your head to paper. Maybe you're refreshed from the holidays and ready to face the newness of 2020 with all its dreams and ambitions too. If one of your dreams is to step into calligraphy and lettering this year, this is the post for you. Today, I’ll walk you through the lettering supplies you need…
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New Year 2020
This year was dedicated to the word Permission. So it’s appropriate for me to end the year by giving myself permission to rest. I don’t know about you, but the end of the year feels like a hurricane of activity. Our holidays seem to last for a couple of weeks. We travel several hours to make it to a couple of gatherings which include several overnight stays. We have a quiet Christmas, but also invite a guest or three to pop in throughout the day. The kids are home from school (a different and welcome kind of crazy). And there’s the year-end wrap up for The Painted Pen … In…
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Splatter Wrapping Paper with Christmas Phrases
Here we are just a couple of weeks before Christmas. Can you believe it?! Wasn’t it just summer vacation? Nope! It’s time to find wrapping paper and cover all of those carefully chosen gifts. I love this time of year. It’s an excuse for this careful spender to lavish a few gifts on her kiddos and family. Wrapping them makes them a little extra special too. I can’t say I get bored with the usual wrapping paper, but in recent years, it’s been fun to experiment with different ways of wrapping. For example, when I’ve finished wrapping most of the gifts, I take the snibbles that don’t fit any other…
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Watercolor Supplies for Beginners
You have an interest in learning to paint with watercolors, but when you look at the art stores online or in person, you find yourself getting lost in the sheer volume of options. What do you need to begin? You don’t want the watercolor set in the kids craft area, but the professional sets feel like a huge commitment. And why are there so many different brands? How different can they possibly be? Today, I’ll give you a list of basic watercolor supplies to set you up as you begin experimenting, and I’ll try to separate the needs from the wants. You can start dabbling with watercolor and have good…
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Thanksgiving Drawings for Name Cards
With Thanksgiving fast approaching (gasp … next week!), I know that some of you are getting ready for time with family and friends. Decorations, recipes, and little ways to make gatherings special are dancing through your heads. Today I have a tutorial to help those ideas turn into action. We’ll take some Thanksgiving drawings and add watercolor to make name cards for your food celebrations.
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Acorn Drawing
Today is a good day for an acorn drawing ... with a smattering of watercolor, of course! Fall is a bittersweet time of year. The growing season, the warm season slowly ends. And although I'm almost ready to hibernate by then, it still means the long, dark winter looms. We say goodbye to the color and warmth and hello to the cold, bland, endless months. Both seasons have their good points. Fall has its colors and smells like honey. It tastes like apple pie and pumpkin lattes. Winter has its cozy sweaters, warm fires, and promise of spring. I must say, though, I am particularly fond of fall. So, while…
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Maple Leaf Drawing
This time of year inspires me to draw leaves, maple leaf drawings, oak leaves, birch, poplar, sumac. Their shapes and colors enthrall me, and I find myself stopping to pick them up (or jump on the really crunchy ones) on my runs and as I walk to the mailbox. One of my favorite trees is a maple tree in town. Its colors range from red (almost pink actually) through orange, yellow and green … all at the same time. Sometimes on the same leaf. Amazing. As I world around me is painted, I’m inspired to paint and draw as well. So I came up with a quick and easy maple…
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Comparing Yourself to Others – Allowed to be Content with Your Style
Have you ever struggled with comparing yourself to others? For years, I thought the comparison fight was just part of life, something I had to deal with and get over. And in a way, it is. But as I began to pay attention to my wrestle with comparison, I realized its impact ran deeper. It took me down a path that led to a shutdown of my creative energy. And it ended up being more about how I see myself than about the ruler I hold up to others. Comparison leads to discouragement and the feeling that we don't or can't measure up. These feelings then block our ability to…
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Pumpkin Drawing with a Flourish
Fall reminds me of pumpkins and pumpkin drawing. It feels like fall at our house. Sure, there’s a touch of summer lingering, but fall is in the air. The mornings are colder, fall sports have started and the fields around us are starting to show their harvest colors. And I’ve picked my pumpkins for the year. The ones growing in my garden (the ones we eat), not the ones I decorate with. There’s just something about fall that I love to draw and paint. Maybe it’s my way of holding on to the color before the dull browns of winter set in. Or maybe I just enjoy this season and…
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Give Up Too Soon – Allowed to Push Through Hard Things
I have been blessed with a fair bit of stick-at-em (pure stubbornness), to the point of hanging on a little too long. But I still face with the temptation to give up. I do give up on some things sometimes. With creativity and doing something you love, the temptation to give up can become more than a simple frustration. It has a tendency to eat away at your resolve and dissolve your stick-at-em. When you put in the time and give the energy but the results are still slim … and the journey lasts much longer than you anticipated ... you may face a very real desire to toss it…
