Fall Tree Art Fun

The weather has been absolutely miserable here for the last week so we've been bringing the outdoors in and we tried making some of the fall trees I saw over at the artist woman using watercolors, acrylic paint, straws and pointillism :)

Remember a couple of days ago I had mentioned I was going to let the kids blow paint through straws and cross my fingers that it didn't end up splattered all over the walls? Well it all turned out good and boy was it fun!! If you take some regular acrylic paint and thin it out with tap water to a runny ink like consistency you can actually drop it onto your paper in a blob and blow it all across your page to create tree trunk forms :)It's really cool to watch it streak along and branch off in different directions. The key we found to nice smooth branches was to make sure that we didn't drag our straw along through the paint as we blew. This made the shapes thicker and more blobby. And of course try not to drool through the straw as you blow LOL.

After we let our tree trunks dry we randomly dotted fall colors using q-tips to our branches creating fun fall colors :)

They're going to look great hanging on the wall when they're all dry :)

What fall art projects have you been doing?
Hugs,
Rosina

Painting & Knitting

Underneath the tablecloth on my kitchen table is a permanent patch of butcher's paper securely taped down. Why you might ask? So that when the painting bug strikes my children which is quite often this mama can just whip off the cloth and and let them go wild without worrying about how I'm going to fix water marks and paint stains *grin*.

I seriously love this stuff! And it's pretty much indestructible :) If you have never used it there is one side made of brown craft paper which makes great wrapping paper that you can stamp and draw on and on the other side it has a water proof waxy coating that you can spill on, paint on, get marker all over and wash it all up with soap and water when you're finished :)

Today they were painting the backgrounds for a fun fall tree picture that will have them blowing paint through a straw tomorrow to make free form tree trunks and then we'll add colorful leaves using our pencil eraser ends. I just hope we can keep the paint from blowing out of the straws and onto the walls! Maybe we should to some practice breathing through the straws before I actually hand over the paint LOL.

While they happily painted away I pulled out my yarn swift and a couple of skeins of a pretty mauve colored cotton/linen blend of yarn that I've had put away for a rainy day :)

I think I've found the perfect project for it but you'll have to wait until tomorrow's yarn along post to learn more about it *grin*. Gotta love ravelry and free patterns!

Hugs,
Rosina

Marie Claire Idées

I have been thoroughly enjoying my new December 2009 copy of the Marie Claire Idées Magazine :) Good thing I can pick out familiar words and fumble my way through the text since it's all in French and I am not exactly anywhere near fluent in French! No need to read it though, the photos more than make up for the lack of understanding.

I purchased it from a lady in France and when I picked it up on Friday the envelope had this amazing collection of dolls on a special postage stamp set affixed to it. LOVE it!!

The stamp set is just as much fun as the magazine with it's thread work around the edges and embroidered flower heart between the dolls. Beautiful :) I must keep it for sure *grin*.

Oh my! The most amazing places to visit while in France. The architecture and history of it is amazing. I am definitely going to have to include some of these stops in our itinerary for our trip to France!! My mom and I are planning a trip to Paris and I can't wait. Anyone know of some 'must see' shops that we shouldn't miss? I'd love to know :)

I just love this pretty pink crocheted tea cozy. It's adorable! Tucked within the pages of this issue is 'sugar fairy' heaven :)

I could take a hundred different photos to share with you but I might run out of space *grin*. Many different dinner settings and some amazing recipes to try are still waiting for me to drool over. Not to worry though. When I run out of pages to admire I only have to wait a little while longer for the January issue that is en route straight from France to captivate my imagination some more!

~ Rosina

His Masterpiece is Complete!

My son started this painting of his dad's tug boat and some of the other company tugs a little over a month ago and since then there has been an empty hook in our family room awaiting its arrival. Well the day has finally come and his dad is so proud of it :)

It just happened that today hubby was going to be stopping in at the wharf to refuel his tug and get supplies so K got to show him the completed painting :)



Above is the original pencil drawing he made from a photo. In a couple of weeks our town is hosting its annual Garden Tour and quite often some of the homes will display quilts or artistic works done by locals and we are going to exhibit K's paintings in my mom's garden as she is part of the tour *grin*.

He has studied Frida Kahlo, Leonardo Da vinci, Henri Matisse, & Dr. Suess so far, copying some of their most famous paintings and learning about their lives. I think it will be fun for him since he's only 10 and to be able to share some of his new found knowledge about the arts will be great. Plus you know those older ladies will just love it! LOL.

~ Rosina

My Budding Artist

My son is crazy about drawing and painting and since last September he has been going once a week to the 4 Cats Art Academy where they get to experiment with all sorts of different medias while learning about different artists and drawing/painting techniques. He loves it!

For Christmas we got him a bunch of canvases so that he could paint whenever he felt the urge to do so and his most recent one is a copy of a photo we took of his dad's tug boat at the wharf flanked by other tug boats. I may be biased but I think his pencil drawn copy of it is amazing!!

This afternoon he started to paint it and as it happened this week in his art class he learned about blending colors to make it look like the different shades of water. It was perfect timing to help him with the reflecton portion of his painting. I can't wait to see his progress tomorrow :)

~ Rosina