Watercolor Adventure with Yupo Paper

While planning my next few paintings, I've had an urge to try something new.  On my shelves, you'll find several really thick art supply catalogs.  Do you remember paging through the JC Penny catalogs in days gone by?  That's the best way I can relate to how I dreamily wander through the pages of the art supply catalogs.  It's my great escape to discover new products and tools, wondering how they can be used to create more art.  I have seen the Yupo sheets before but had never tried painting on this surface before...until recently.  Maybe I just needed a little break and a chance to be more carefree with paint and brushes.  My artistic style at time has been very tight and leaning toward realism a bit.  I get a little nervous at the thought of trying to loosen up and work in a bolder way.

There are artists I really enjoy following a few work on Yupo.  Seeing their work gave me a longing to discover more for myself.  The beautiful effects achieved are just so appealing!  It seemed to me that it could possibly be quite a relaxing experience.

Christmas Tea: Part 3

place card tags for a Christmas tea

Place cards are such a special touch and a few details can make them beautiful.  It takes a little bit of experimentation to come up with a design.  Brown kraft paper tags were my beginning of my idea.  I had the brown twine and the metallic washi tape.  I found the leaves rubber stamp set at a local craft shop, Creative Addictions.  The set is Fossil Leaves by Inkadinkadoo.  If you don't have a craft store near, Amazon sells them for less than $5.00.  The espresso ink pad used is by ColorBox.  I had been given a package of smaller white paper doilies and I wanted to incorporate them in some way.

My Pinterest board for many of the ideas and products I used can be found HERE.

In keeping with the simplistic design, I opted for clear plastic silverware from the dollar store.  At the Christmas Tea, platters of appetizers and desserts (in small portions) are served at each table; plastic silverware would make clean up so much easier.  I've got a silver/gray tablecloth and napkins from last year.  My napkin folded design would be a small rectangle shape with a pocket.  These place cards would be tied around the napkin.

In Publisher software, I created a table 4 columns by 2 rows.  By stretching this table to fit the paper, I adjusted to the size I wanted for my tags.  I edited the table format to have a dotted line outline for easier cutting on the paper cutter.  The names were typed in Landsdowne font, size 55 with placement at the lower portion of the rectangle shaped cell.

I printed a rough draft on plain white copy paper to check the size of the tags.  When I was pleased with the size and design, I printed it on brown card stock.  The tags were cut apart on the paper cutter.  I played with a blank tag to get the angles right; that tag served as a guide to trim the other tags.  With scissors, I clipped the top corners of the tags.  The square blue punch shown is a handy tool to have!  Slip the tag in, press down and the corners are now rounded.

I don't have step by step photos of the process.  I first stamped the tag with the leaves in espresso.  Next, I added the washi tape to the bottom edge.  White paper doilies were trimmed on the paper cutter to create a lacy edge.  I glued it on with a cheap craft brush and tacky glue.  A hole punch finished off the tag.  The brown twine was added and later tied around the napkin.

Note Cards from Palette Mixes Leftover

Watercolor Note Cards

One July Saturday we took a drive to check out the Farmer's Market in Great Falls, Montana.  Years ago we took our two kiddos; they were probably 7 and 8 years old then.  They were not excited.  It just didn't sound like a fun day to them.  We described it to them...farmers bring their produce to sell, along with others selling crafts and baked goods.  They enjoyed themselves once we arrived and they sampled the baked goods and cotton candy.

This recent visit was for a different reason.  We wanted to begin planning for our own booth.  My husband has been building shelves from wood pallets; my daughter and I have been finishing them off with chalk paint and antiquing wax.  We haven't made as much progress as we'd planned.  The days just aren't long enough.  Add to that, the fact is I'm in the art mode...I'd rather go work on watercolor paintings.  While we were exploring the variety of booths with jams and stuffed olives and knit potholders...I began to get excited about my own booth offering my artwork for sale.  I studied the vendors' setups and how they arranged their tables.