Yesterday was my birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday! I don’t have anything new to share so I’m sharing this birthday bear painting I made almost eight years ago! It’s pretty cute and now I’m thinking I should add a few more paintings to the series. Any suggestions?

Painted Plant

I wanted to add a plant to my bedside table, but my room is mostly dark and I have two kitties that like to chew on leaves so I decided the plant needed to be fake. After lots of thinking I finally decided not to DIY some faux plant, but to buy one and then paint the leaves because fake plants never look real so why not embrace the fakeness with some very unnatural leaf colors. The leaves are not actually painted, I used oil pastels since I have them easily accessible, which was a pretty good choice because I'll be able to easily wipe off the color and change it when I'm ready.

Not Much Progress

I've barely made any progress on my latest paint by number. I honestly haven't devoted much time to it, but when I finally sat down to paint I was struggling. The lines and numbers are light which is nice for paint coverage, but my old lady eyes cant really see them. I'm trying to locate my headlamp because I think that should help me see what I'm doing... wish me luck!

Another Paint By Numbers

Two years ago I completed a paint by number and my sister got me another one. It is Christmas themed and I originally wanted to complete it last year, but that didn't happen so now my plan is to finish it by December! I forgot how tedious they are and am slightly dreading my tight timeline. I'm not entirely sure how many hours of work this will be. So far I've spent about an hour painting and this is my progress. Wish me luck in completing this on time!

Halloween Suncatcher

Last week I had a virtual craft night with my long distance friends. We all painted these silly Halloween sun catchers; mine is a frog in a pumpkin with a bit of glow in the dark paint on the back. The glowing is not spectacular, the green and orange do not show in the dark which I'm a bit disappointed about. The frog and pumpkin do look pretty good in the daylight though.

Dandelion Watercolor

This is my dandelion. The watercolor painting turned out alright. I added only minor details and am considering adding more with pen what are your thoughts?

Dandelion Watercolor WIP

I started a new watercolor painting, some dandelions. The petals are mostly done and the first layer of the leaves is down. I need to add stems and bracts then some details which might be in pen because I'm not good at painting the details.

Painted Wooden Easter Eggs

My mom and I painted wooden Easter eggs and they turned out cute! The basic egg with the pink stripes is my work and the fun floral egg was painted by my mom. 

Valentine Doodle

I finished my watercolor heart doodle! It turned out nicely and I'm becoming quite fond of doodling over simple watercolor backgrounds so you may be seeing more of them. I'm particularly fond of the arches/waves/curls over the largest heart. Now I need to hang this up or give it to a Valentine.

Doodling Hearts

I had a virtual craft night with my friends last night and started work on another doodle over a watercolor painting. We were doing sort of a valentine theme so I used pink and purple watercolors and have added hearts to the doodle. I think it is looking similar to the other doodle so I need to think of some new designs to add to this one!

Doodling + Watercolor

After putting down some color for my last watercolor painting, I decided to use up all the paint that was on my palette and practiced blending colors a bit. Afterwards, I took a marker and doodled. This was a fun little project and now I have a completely clean palette to use!

Another Watercolor Landscape Work In Progress

I've started work on my first watercolor of the year; I'm trying to actually complete these resolutions! This painting is another landscape, but with flowers. I was too impatient to let this dry before taking a photo and I'm not sure about the detail work. That makes two watercolor landscapes that need details, I better watch some videos to figure out what to do.

2022

It's a new year and the time I share my crafty intentions for the upcoming year! First I'll recap my 2021 resolutions and how awful I was at completing them (starting them too).

My three resolutions for 2021were to complete a paint by number kit, I did this and it turned out very good); practice watercolor by completing 12 paintings, I did this too; and complete my seven works in progress projects. I didn't even touch five of those works in progress and made little progress on the other two. I could say that I was able to complete 2/3 of the projects and if I were to count all 12 paintings and seven WIPs, it comes to roughly the same number, 65% which is a D letter grade. It's a new year and I am not going to dwell on the past, I've got new goals for this year!

My 2022 Crafty Intentions are:

Use My Craft Room Finds

I cleaned my craft room last year and decided to keep a few things with the condition of using them. The three things I kept and need to use are: shrinky-dink type sheets, the book Making Felted Friends by Sue Pearl, and a macramé pamphlet.  

More Watercolor Painting Practice

I want to get better at watercolor painting so I'm repeating last years resolution of painting 12 things, one each month. Maybe by next January I'll feel better about my watercolor skills.

Knitting Projects from My New Book

I got the book Knitting with Disney by Tanis Gray for Christmas and have decided I should knit two of the projects. The yarn for the first of these projects has been ordered and I'll get started knitting later this month!

Finish That Darn Quilt

I started this denim quilt in 2017 and haven't finished cutting out the pieces. This is the project I'm focusing on this month and hope to get it finished in February! I did cut more pieces out last night, so that's a bit of progress.

Christmas Angel Painting

There were some cute Christmas painting kits on clearance at the craft store and I got this Christmas angel. It turned out pretty cute even though the paintbrush that was included in the kit is very low quality. Outlining everything with marker made it look so much better; the wobbly paint strokes are way less noticeable. Isn't she darling?

Watercolor Landscape WIP

I'm two layers into this little watercolor painting and have the colors blocked on the paper. I will be working on it over the week and I will have practice adding details, a thing I'm very bad at. So far I'm enjoying the painting, but the drying time is a bit annoying; I'm adding a bit too much water which isn't helping my patience. Hopefully I continue to like it when it is finished!

Black and White

I'm still doing a bit of watercolor painting, but most are pretty awful and I don't want to share them. Yesterday I made a quick little thing that still isn't very good, but good enough to share. My watercolor practice needs to continue, I think I may need to take a class or follow a plan because what I'm doing now isn't enough to help me improve.

Finished Paint By Number

The paint by number is complete! It turned out so nice, look at that butterfly and those flowers! I'm very proud of my new skill of painting in the lines. Now that I have completed one of my 2021 Crafty Intentions and have been doing my monthly watercolor painting practice, I need to work on the seven in progress projects I wanted to finish this year. How many of them do you think I can complete in two and a half moths?

A Butterfly

My paint by number is so close to being done! The butterfly is now fully painted and I completed a small section of foliage at the top. I'll be spending time today and tomorrow painting so I can share the finished work of art Thursday! I may be painting into the wee hours tonight, but I will finish this week because I am actually ready to move on to another project!

Pink Flower

I'm feeling optimistic that I could finish this paint by number next week! The most exciting progress is the pink flower! It's really coming together and I'm getting very excited!

Halfway

My paint by number is definitely at the halfway point now! My motivation for most crafts is quite low lately so you may be seeing lots more of this butterfly and maybe I will actually finish it in October so I can focus on my other Crafty Intentions for the year!