Koi pond on a tiny canvas

Here we go! My husband sort of challenged me with asking about painting on a tiny canvas. I told him painting tiny is just as hard as painting big and will take almost the same amount of time if you are doing detail.

So I picked up a couple 4x4 inch canvases and I was inspired by Cinnamon Cooney a fantastic artist who has been so generous posting acrylic painting tutorials on Youtube for free!

One of the things I love about acrylic is that it drys really fast. But I also hate that it dries so fast! Especially when it is a tiny canvas and there isn't as much paint on it to stay wet any time at all. Didn't help that it was 93 degrees today.

Hope you have a great day and remember to do something creative!
SB

What did the Fox say?

Here's my newest painting- I'll even show you the 2 versions. Yeah two versions. So I was following along with  and her How to Paint an Fox  painting class on Youtube and be bopped along and got it done. 

The next morning I looked at it and decided that I had made the space above the eyes and below the ears too short and took action that evening. 

I could have stopped at the first one but I knew I'd never hang it on the wall. By reworking it and following my inner sense of what needed to be done for this painting I ended up with a painting that actually looks finished to my eye and  I'm pretty darn proud of it now. :) 

Thanks for looking!
Remember to Do Something Creative today!

He's looking at me.....

I just took time for myself and had a painting evening!

I found an awesome Youtube Artist - @artsherpa Cinnamon Cooney Hart Party. She has this great energy and loves life and creativity and is willing to share it all with us for free! How great is that?!

I'm looking forward to more creative fun with Cinnamon!\

So here's my Big Eye Owl--She did her's on a 16x20 inch canvas but I only had a 9x12 so I had to modify the proportions but I think mine came out pretty well. What do you think?

I just have to varnish it but I'm letting it cure for a few days first. Thanks for stopping by. Let me know you came by. remember to do something creative every day!

Well...I may just start this up again...

Hi there! Well...it has been a while since I last posted and even though I have been doing creative stuff the Blogging just wasn't top of my list as far a fun things go.

I'm starting to do more online creative play with other like minded individuals-- hey there #KraaftShaack folks!  Gelli Plate printmaking and Acrylic painting mixed media art have been the focus lately so here's a peek at what I have been doing!

The tomatoes are a heritage variety that I don't even know the name of. These are the first tomatoes of the season from my garden. They were painted on a background that I made using a Gelli Arts printing plate, acrylic paint and stencils for texture. To paint the actual tomatoes I used Uni Posca Acrylic paint pens and then did my final details and shadows with Liquitex Basics acrylic paints.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. The Uni Posca Pens are interesting. They are really acrylic paint in a pen that you can draw with. The colors do blend, but you have to clean the tips when you go from a dark color and switch to a lighter color.

I decided that after doing as much as I could with the pens (the top photo), I needed more smoothness in the colors and some shadows on the background that were more transparent(the bottom photo).

I need to work more on doing the reflected highlights but the perspective and general shapes were pretty good.

I'm so excited that my husband has decided to try out drawing and painting too. Some of his art may make it in to the blog from time to time too.

So this is still going to be a random project blog for now and I don't promise any regularity in the blogs but I hope that when I do post it will be either fun or educational or maybe even both!

Until later! Get out there and do something creative!

My Little Monster!

Yeah! I got a real little monster done tonight from Stacy Trock’s “Design Your Own Monsters” class over on Craftsy- the pattern for this little guy is in the class materials. I had fun. I decided to skip Mr. Toothy’s dental work and give him a spiffy little hairdo! It was all done with a size D hook and really soft fingering/light DK weight yarn. The hairdo was the body yarn with a soft eyelash yarn carried with it. This was done by making loops of chain stitches by stitching 7 or 8 chain stitches then attaching the free end to the base of the chain and moving over a few stitches and making another loop of chain stitches until his hair was what I was hoping it to look like. :)

This was so fun! I am going to have to find homes for all my cuties at some point. I may be making a stop by the women’s shelter to drop some off at some point for the children that end up there with their moms. Never hurts to have a softy to cuddle.

Gluten Free Doughnuts!

Yummy, soft cake buttermilk doughnut holes or counter top baker Doughnuts!

I have been using the following recipe–It’s a modification of the Betty Crocker Donut holes recipe from the old BC cookbook.

I have made it both as a baked doughnut in my Nostalgic Baker that my son got me for Christmas and as deep fried doughnut holes.

1 C Better Batter AP GF Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp fine kosher sea salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg (ground–I use fresh grated in mine)
1/4 C sugar
–Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl with a whisk
Then add
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 TB canola oil
1/2 C plus up to 2 TB Buttermilk (more is used when making baked)
Mix until smooth.

Heat oil to 350 degrees use a 1 TB cookie scoop to drop doughnut holes in to oil–cook until golden brown. Mine will actually roll over by themselves. They usually are done in about 3 minutes (give or take) use a metal slotted spoon or a spyder to lift out the cooked doughnuts and drain on paper towel. These are yummy rolled in powder sugar or cinnamon sugar or dipped in a vanilla glaze.

Or Baked–in oven 350 degrees (follow directions that came with your doughnut pan)
Counter top baker–follow directions that came with your baker.

My family LOVES these doughnuts any way that I cook them. Cheers!
Making food is creative right??