Artline Monday - Spring watercolours

I love spring, I love seeing the world bloom with colour again after the wet, grey months of winter and I feel energised and renewed.  I wanted to mark the start of the season in my journal with lots of pretty florals and I had an idea to paint some flowers watercolour style with my Artline paint and chalk markers.

Welcoming spring in my journal

It was a complete experiment but I am happy with how they turned out so I thought I would share with you how I did it step by step in case you wanted to do something similar.  This is a quick and easy way to dip your toe into watercolours without having to buy an expensive palette of paints or a nice craft project for your children over the upcoming Easter holiday! 

The supplies

You will need some watercolour paper or any other kind of paper that can withstand you using water on it, I used my tomoe river notebook because the paper is super strong.  You will also need some poster and/or chalk markers, a paint brush and a waterproof pen like the Artine 853 OHP marker.

Starting the flowers

Use your poster or chalk marker to draw a circle or semicircle for the base of your flower and then go into it with a wet paintbrush to spread the paint out into a flower shape.  You want the paint to be darker at the bottom of the flower and fade as it goes up to the top of the petals.  This doesn't have to be perfect, just spread the paint out until you have a general shape.

Waiting for the paint to dry

Paint as many flowers as you like and then wait for the paint to dry.

Adding details

I used my 853 OHP marker to draw some stems and leaves on my flowers, these details change the paint from looking like blobs of colour and into blooms!  Again these don't have to be perfect, imperfections make the flowers look more interesting anyway.

White highlights

The last step was to add some specks of white paint to the flowers using my Artline 444XF paint marker and then I was finished.

The finished flowers

I think I will try to use my poster and chalk markers for more watercolour art now I know that they work well, the key to it is just adding the water quickly and using the brush before the paint sets on the page.  I am already picturing sunset skies with pink and purple streaks and seascapes, I can't wait to get started!

Please let me know if you give it a go!

Artline Monday - Halloween

Halloween is one of my favourite holidays!  I love all the spooky fun and games and dressing up!  It usually falls right around the half term school break too so I get to spend some extra time at home with my children.  

One tradition we do every year is carving pumpkins together.  I have so many photos of us all elbow deep in pumpkin guts and laughing or being grossed out while we make jack o'lanterns and as well as creating some brilliant looking pumpkins we've also made some really fun memories.

Last year's efforts
L-R eldest daughter's, son's, youngest daughter's

We all have our own way of making our pumpkins, my eldest daughter likes to carve a face freestyle and keeps working until she is happy with it.  My son draws his design on the pumpkin first with a marker pen and then cuts it out.  Last year he did a dinosaur and I think it turned out great!  My youngest daughter lets me draw her a design first and then I help her cut it out, we made the cat pumpkin together last year.

This year she wanted to make a scary lantern so I drew her a face and coloured in the areas she needed to cut out.  I used a yellow paint marker as it was easy for her to see but wasn't so bright that it would stand out if she missed cutting out any bits of it.  We had cut off the top and scooped out the inside before I drew the face so I just gave it a quick wipe with a cloth to dry off the skin and then the pen worked well on such an odd surface.

Pumpkin prep

Jack o'lantern in progress

Scary face

As the paint marker worked so well I thought I would try decorating some pumpkins with a few more Artline markers. 

Pumpkins and Artline pens

I tested some out on the back of one of the pumpkins and these are the pens that showed up best against the orange skin:

• Artline 70 high performance permanent marker
• Artline 900XF silver and gold metallic markers
• Artline erasable chalk marker
• Artline 444XF paint marker
• Artline poster markers

All of these pens gave me good coverage and dried easily without smudging.  Once the inks were dry I tried rubbing my finger over them but they all stayed in place.  They also stood up against pumpkin juice so overall I think they are ideal to decorate your pumpkins with.  

We decided we wanted to make a cute pumpkin with the markers so we looked on Pinterest for inspiration and found some sweet doughnut designs.  I used a bright pink Artline poster marker to paint some icing on the top and when it was dry we added some sprinkles using chalk, paint and poster markers. 

Pumpkin spiced doughnut 

For our last pumpkin we wanted it to be another jack o'lantern but with some decoration too.   I drew a haunted house using my Artline 70 marker and added stripes to any sections that needed to be carved out.  Then I painted the house using my blue poster marker and waited for it to dry.

Haunted house

The next step was to cut out the marked sections (I had already taken the top off and scooped out the inside) and then I added some stars to the sky using my Artline 900XF metallic markers.

Finished pumpkins

All ready for Halloween!

I'm really happy with how they turned out!  We've never drawn or painted on our pumpkins before but I love how colourful they are and they look great during the day too instead of just at night when they are lit.

How do you make your lanterns?  Traditional carving or do you add a splash of colour too?

Get Crafty

The second day of National Stationery Week is Get Crafty so I have spent some time this morning making a little keepsake pocket to go inside my Travellers Notebook!

Get crafty

I like to have lots of pockets and storage spaces in my TN to hold tickets, photos and other bits of memorabilia and it is really easy to add your own.  I used a pink envelope, a Project Life card, some washi tape and stickers to make mine.

I glued the card onto the back of the envelope and then decorated it with the stickers and washi tape.  Then I glued the front of the envelope to the inside of the front cover of my notebook and once it was dry I popped it back into my TN.

Pretty pocket in my TN

It has brightened up the inside of my notebook and given me more room to add journalling tags, washi tape samples and notes etc.

Have you done anything crafty today?

Thanks for stopping by!