Nature Journal

Ellie's Homemade Nature Journal

Ellie and I took an afternoon last week, hiked and searched for treasure, and glued our finds in our nature journals! She loved this activity, especially since there were no "rules." Gluing flowers right on the paper was fine.

We brought along a mason jar with water for paints, watercolors, crayons, and glue. I brought a black, waterproof pen to write in our journals and document our finds.

I had my own spiral-bound watercolor journal, but I didn't have one for Ellie. I made her one by doing a basic bookbinding. I stacked three 9"x12" pieces of watercolor paper on top of each other, then folded them in half. Using the fold as the "spine," I used a tack (though a nail would work better) to make holes in the spine and tie yarn through the holes to hold the "book" together.

Including the cover, there are 12 pages, which ended up being plenty, as Ellie only really finished 2 pages on this one trip. We could make more books for each outing if needed, but this should get us through at least a few more hikes! It was also so nice to just sit in the grass and paint. So relaxing! Therapeutic time for Mommy too!

Five Dandelions

Hi everyone,

I'm excited to unveil the next project I've been working on besides doodle paintings! I've created a beginner-level teaching guide that is now available in our Etsy shop for print purchase (here) or digital download (here)!

This workbook is free when you attend one of our relevant workshops!

Here's an excerpt:

Five Dandelions explores five different ways to capture a dandelion on paper! Brought to you by the artists at ArtSourceVT.com, this tutorial is presented at a beginner level and encourages you to express yourself in a fun, stress-free way that captures your unique style and story.

Which is your favorite dandelion style? Are you a stickler for inking details, or do you like to splash fluffy, yellow paint?

We hope you enjoy exploring some new techniques and learn a little about yourself in the process!

Thanks for drawing with us!
The ArtSourceVT Team

Patio Art

We've lost some of our fun time in the afternoon, with my new work schedule, but there's always time to paint and have a snack outside on the patio. Beautiful day for that! Elle loved having so many rocks and leaves right at her fingertips.

I drew some branches for her, and she ran with it!

Heartsy Artsy

Another page of randomness. I don't know why I'm stuck on these "starbursts," maybe exhaustion or lack of imagination, but I'm enjoying filling them with tangles. I wish I felt that I had a true vision with my artwork, but lately I've just been... playing. But that's a good thing, too, right!?

How To: Here, I used a big, checkerboard-pattern stamp to make a background. I stamped over a heart-shaped Post-It note. I dabbed pink and white paint around the heart shape and used a small paintbrush to pull the paint away from the heart. When I took the heart off, some paint had bled through around the edges, so I let it dry then cleaned it up by painting over it with some white acrilyc paint. It didn't cover it completely, but it was white enough to tangle on. Then I tangled away!

You can find some of my favorite zentangle patterns on my Pinterest board here and, on my mommy blog, I give a little tutorial on how to do this swirly pattern, here.

 Also, this weekend, Auntie Bee (her site here) took us to a great Burlington gallery where she showed and sold some of her artwork! E loved it, especially the poetry reading and the kids' art corner. The other girls were making leaf art and leaf creatures, so E made her own. Note the eyes over the leaves... melt my heart!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

And the art journaling continues! I think it would have been simpler if I had created a cut-out of the Camel's Hump mountain range to paint over. I ended up sketching it with a white crayon, from memory (hmm). It was the only thing in my travel art kit at the time, and I was too lazy to get out of bed to find a pencil. Lesson learned.

The good: The paint wouldn't stick to the wax crayon line.
The bad: Neither would the black ink of my Micron pen. I had to do multiple coats. It's not the worst thing in the world, but I'll have to fine tune some of these steps before selling prints.

The ugly: I don't know how pretty this one will be. Will have to see when I'm done!

Now that I'm feeling more confident, I'm going to start painting these on some nice, watercolor paper and selling them in my shop!

Do you have any favorite mountain ranges in Vermont? I'd love to paint and tangle them!

Acrylic Tangle

I'm really pleased with how this acrylic tangle turned out! Stay tuned, as I make a few to sell in our Etsy shop! I'm hoping to make some Vermont-themed ones soon, too!

To make this one, I made a circle in the middle of the page by dipping the top of a plastic coffee cup in dark-colored paint blobs and stamping it on the page. Then I used a big paintbrush with white acrylic paint and "pulled" the dark paint away from the middle. I had to experiment with adding in more dark paint and pulling it outward until it was just right. Once dry, I made a tangle pattern in the middle.

Nature Art

A fun day creating art with our nature finds! We used construction paper, glitter glue, and Crayola washable paint!