Bird Song Box!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are enjoying your summer! My garden is beginning to produce,the gigs at the Fairs for Face Painting are upon us and that's enough rain already!

I made some videos for you today. I had this box and it was calling my name! I haven't shown too much with paper lately so I went looking for my Graphic 45 stash...hope you like what I've done!

ATC Album

Hi Everyone! I hope your summer is going well! It's hot and sunny here most days and my garden is growing! Here is a small project I want to share with you...

                                                   The Thinlit set is called Mixed Media!

Here are the finished photos!

My Haul from the 2015 SDP Conference Trade Show!

Here's what I brought home with me! Thanks to all who participated in the trade show this year...IT's my favorite place to shop!

Here is a little demonstration of a few of the watercolor pencil tricks Kathy Hanson taught me at the General Pencil Booth

Sue Pruett's Brick Flowerpot

This is so much fun and so easy you can do it with your kids!

and the finishing...

Here are some closeup photos. the only thing I used my liner brush for was to add some hard lines under the bricks where the floating wasn't dark enough.

The Delta Ceramcoat colors are:

Georgia Clay

Hammered Iron

Ivory

Lichen Grey

Red Iron Oxide

Terra Cotta

Wedgewood Blue

If you want bees, use Black and Straw

Here are the Traditions paint conversions

Black-Carbon Black

Georgia Clay-2 Vermillion +1 English Red Oxide

Hammered Iron-3 Raw Umber +2 Dark Grey #3 + 2 Medium Beige + 1 Pine Green

Ivory- 6 Warm White + 1 Yellow Deep

Lichen Grey- 1 Medium White + 1 Medium Beige + 1 Medium Grey #6

Red Iron Oxide-2 English Red Oxide +1 Burgundy

Straw-1 Diarylide Yellow + 1 Yellow Oxide + 1 Titanium White

Terra Cotta-2 Burnt Sienna + 1 Indian Yellow +1 Vermillion

Wedgewood Blue- 1 Titanium White +1 Light Grey #8 1 Sapphire Blue

I won the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge Package!

So much fun attending the Happey Scrappers of Greencastle Indiana's annual Crop Out Cancer event. I was also invited to teach a mixed media class which was lots of fun!
I'll include some photos from my class!

My video is about learning to use my new Cricut Explore Air to make some cards with the Artfully Sent cartridge set from the Close to My Heart company...a great door prize I won at the crop. Laugh with me as I struggle with glue, stray dandelions and folding cardstock!

Here are some pictures of the cards:

                                      

During the crop event I haddecided to work on a watercolor design by Nedeen Masters that I had bought a couple of years ago and hadn't got around to painting. I'm not good at watercolor but it was fun to do !
                                                                             

These are pictures from my mixed media class that I taught on Monday at my SDP chapter Indy Decorative Artists, and at the Crop Out Cancer event with the Happy Scrappers.

Playtime!

I had a good time playing today, despite video issues! Please excuse the whine, I got a program to fix that but it kept shutting my computer down!!


I had fun playing with my paints and stamps and stencil today!
One of  the photos below is the one my 8 year old granddaughter did after the videos were finished! She did a beautiful job and she told me how much fun it was  to do!

Here are my photos:

This is the one my granddaughter, Lelah made!

This one I made before the video

This one I made during the video

Face Painting

One of the great things about being creative, being an artist is the myriad mediums in which we can express ourselves.

Face painting is one of the most rewarding mediums. There is instant feedback and gratification when that little face breaks out into a huge smile when you show the mirror!

This is fun, this is fairly easy with practice and proper supplies, this is reaching out to your family, friends and community.

This can also be a good source of income and artistic expression.

My art business partner and friend Donna Harcourt and I have been face painting for nearly 10 years together. We started out using acrylics, Folk Art Enamels to be exact. We quickly learned that there is a better,more sanitary, more skin safe, more responsive product...professional face paint.
We use several brands, Diamond FX, Tag, Artycakes, Global, Mehron and Wolfe brand paints.
These paints are specifically formulated to be hypo-allergenic and safe for young skin. They hold up under hot and humid conditions and perform consistently session after session. Our personal favorite brand is Diamond FX.
There are many online sites to purchase these paints, brushes, sponges, stencils, glitters and tools.
One is Jestpaint.com, another is sillyfarm.com
There are lots and lots of You Tube videos. One of my favorite face paint YouTube artists is Lisa Joy Young.

There are also several FaceBook groups devoted to face painting. There is New Face Painters Help Group   , Midwest Face Painters Group and Butterfly and Fairy Face Painting Forum Group to name a few.

There are many important safety rules to follow. Use clean brushes, change your water often, when using hair clips, use bobby pins or aluminum clips and allow the child/person to take it with them, never reuse. Check for any insect appearances. Always cleanse the face with a new baby wipe for each customer. Use a separate paper towel for each and clean your hands and brushes after each little face. Keep your kit clean, your brushes clean and your tools clean.

It is also helpful to have an effective line management method and picture boards so the children can choose their design before they come to your chair. This speeds things up and keeps the decision making to a manageable level.

Donna and I like to use tall director chairs and booster seats to save on back strain. We stand and the child sits on a level that allows us to paint them without leaning over.
Consider adding this skill to your artistic portfolio!

Here are a few practice photos of our own grandchildren and a few of our previous paintings from other show and fairs. It does not matter how old or young you are. The lady with the dragon was gleeful as she told us that having her face painted was something she had wanted to do all her life! She wore it proudly all day long at the fair!

Please visit our Facebook page Artistic Colors! See us this summer at the Indiana State Fair!