Free Watercolor Painting Tutorials: How to paint, Hints, Tips, Techniques

© Susan Harrison-Tustain - Watercolor Painting on 140 Lb hot pressed Arches Watercolor Paper

Free Watercolor Painting Tutorials: How to paint, Hints, Tips, Techniques:

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Another Altered Book

In one of my earlier posts, I shared a picture of an altered book that I am working on, made from an old hardback book found at our local library give away pile.  I covered the front with felt, and did a mini collage on the front.  I then worked at gluing pages together on the inside and painted, colored, glittered, collaged and glued those pages, it's a bit time consuming, but easy and I like that kind of "tedious",  as my husband would say, work.  Then, taking inspiration from a collage workshop I attended, I wondered how it would work with an old children's board book.  It doesn't matter if it's bent or written on or coming apart, glue stick and modge podge handy, not to mention really cool duct tape, and I have to say, it has become a wonderful base for this book.  What's fun,  is that it gives the whole meaning of a scrapbook an altered twist, I love that you can paint, use just about every medium you know in one book.  

What I did was to find an old board book for start, and then glue scrapping paper on top, and just let the ideas kick in.  There's pencil drawing, collage, modge podge and glitter , and that's only the front, I can't wait to get to work on the inside.  

art-e-zine, play with art

art-e-zine, play with art:

What a cool blog I happened to find....it has all sorts of mixed media ideas and projects.....I have to go back and check out a few things before I get back to my newest altered book project!

FaveCraftsBlog.com | A Craft Blog With Projects, Ideas, Tips and More!

FaveCraftsBlog.com | A Craft Blog With Projects, Ideas, Tips and More!:

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Coffee Filter Christmas Tree

Here's a great crafting blog I found while looking for a quick and easy project to share with a small group, tomorrow afternoon.  We only have about an hour, so I needed something fun and quick and easy, and I found lots of ideas here.  Enjoy!

Little Watercolor House

Dreaming of Home

When I began watercoloring, only a few weeks ago, I was given a nice piece of watercolor paper to use, courtesy of our instructor.  Jim started us out using basic and  familiar techniques(I write about this a bit more in my post, Jim Street, Watercolor Workshop), wet on wet, painting a sky,dropping color, dry brushing, and so on, and this house is on the side of the paper where I first began.  I couldn't bear to throw the paper away, so I decided to try to "make" something of it, just to practice.  It is, part of a bigger scene, I started out with a floating head, and added the house to the bottom.

I call it, "Dreaming of Home", I cannot decide if her head is in the clouds, or she's lying on a pillow, which begs the question, where's the rest of her body, or if she has one of those winter coats with the fuzzy hood and the bottom is part of it.  That's remains to be decided, as I go along.  

Creative Chaos, Vintage Girl, Altered Journal

Along side my washer pendants and a new found love for watercolor, I started creating "altered" books and journals, which also,  is painting and collaging, which, when I type it out, makes me realize I do have a lot going on all at once....anyway, how cool is that, altered books,  another form of scrapbooking, but for me, this makes it really personal, to take written pages and transform them into a piece of art be it decorative or other, it is all about you and what makes you turn those pages.

The inside cover, vintage fabric and lace, paint and a hot glue gun

My altered book, cover:  felt, vintage postcard, ribbon, glitter flowers

Washer Wear

My latest "vintage" washer pendant

A few months ago, I saw a picture of a "washer" pendant.  It was pretty and the best part, is making one appeared relatively easy,  few materials required, which, in this instance was exactly what I was looking for, and  little time involved......well, for the most part.

So, I set out by sending my husband, ummm, he had to go anyway, to the hardware store and buy flat, silver washers.  Mike came back with a bag full of the biggest washers they had, and a few hex nuts just in case.  Modge podge handy, some paper and lots of odds and ends from broken jewelry, I started on my pendant.

Mike's bag of washers

Cameo white washer pendant

The technique is simple:

       Pick out your washer(any size will do, depends on how big you want the pendant), and lay it on a piece of scrapbooking paper, or magazine, newspaper print, any type of paper, and trace an outline of the washer onto it.  After tracing, cut the shape out,  including the "donut" hole.  Modge podge the flat side of the washer and put printed side up on top, glue in place and let it sit till it's dry, usually a few hours.  Next, the sky's the limit, you can paint, glue, add stickers, broken jewelry.  If you add something that makes the pendant 3-D, what I do is, I cover the pendant,( after gluing the paper on and it has dried) with something like Glossy Accents, which is a 3-D , clear gloss medium.  Cover the washer with this, then carefully place your "bits" onto it, set aside and let dry completely, usually one day to be sure, after, you have a wonderful pendant, with a glass-like shine and depth to it and ready to be hung on a ribbon or chord or chain, and there you have it.  A wonderful washer pendant.
On a side note, you can Modge Podge some clear, lustre finish over the top if you don't add any extra embellishments over the paper.

How to Approach Watercolor Painting As a Beginner: Step-by-Step Instructions

How to Approach Watercolor Painting As a Beginner: Step-by-Step Instructions:

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As you can see,  by the articles I'm  posting, this blog has become, for now, my personal "how to" library.  I have so many projects I am doing and want to do, and most are those I haven't tried before, watercolor for one..so I hope you find my library helpful and I'll start posting what I'm working on, in the meantime, you can scroll down and on the right corner, you will see my pictures of all the projects I've started... Thanks, and since I'm a beginner, please leave me comments and let me know your thoughts.  claudia

A TIME 4 ART

A TIME 4 ART:

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How to Make Art: MADELINE, The Hand Painted Cloth Doll

How to Make Art: MADELINE, The Hand Painted Cloth Doll:

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Just add Water, Silly.: APR

Just add Water, Silly.: APR:

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