Playing With Watercolors and Paper

I've been having such a good time playing with paper, but feel as if I am neglecting the other love of my creative life - painting. Creating with paper has actually re-inspired me with my painting, and more and more I see how I can combine the two mediums.

On the the Decorative Artists in Canada (DAIC)painting list, they have a wonderful thing called DTCs which is basically a 4x6 trading card for the DAIC members. I have grown to love this exchange, as it allows me to combine paper and painting. The 4x6 cards give me more room than the ATCs and less surface space of the traditional cardstock. My most recent DTC for spring, I decided to use a daffodil line drawing of Richard Bonds and paint using watercolors on canvas.I cut a piece of canvas and glued it onto the 4x6 DTC tempate and applied the line drawing. Then, I took Grumbacher watercolors and applied color.

I let it dry, then applied color to the background and then added some doodles around the boarder, using a black Micron fine point marker....and added a bit details to the flower.

I am very happy with the results, and I have decided that instead of loading up on stamps, I will begin using what I already have over on my paint table ... an abundance of line drawings and patterns from wonderful decorative artists.

I truly believe that the two, paper crafting and decorative art, can co-exist in a truly dynamic creative way.

Mellow Yellow Card

Well, on the Art For The Creative Mind list, our swap for cards was Mellow Yellow. I am not a "pastel person", so the thought of thinking in terms of YELLOW were not easy,LOL.

I don't know how other folks lay out their cards, but I start with the cover, and then for me, it determines the rest.


I don't lay out my colors or anything beforehand, because I don't really know what I am going to do...I like to let the designs of the papers guide me. It took a while to decide what to do to the inside, but I kinda like the idea of giving a little something extra and making things "useful"... so I added some cute tags ready for the recipient to play with.

Organizing Your Scrapbook Supplies

This weekend I tried my hand at making cards. For the past 4 years - yes, FOUR YEARS - I've been "collecting" all the beautiful papers, gadgets, brads, ribbons, inks ... all to make scrapbook pages.

Nope, nada - I didn't like it. I preferred digital photos and didn't like cutting up my pics - even if they were copies. But, I STILL bought the supplies, thinking well...maybe ... maybe I'll try again.

ATCs!!!..I entered a couple of swaps, loved the fact that I could use the scrapbook supplies for the ATCs ... and then this weekend, I spent Sat and Sun just making cards and doing some ATCs.

What fun I had ... and what a mess I made!!LOL


But, I took some old suitcases that I bought from EBAY a couple of years ago, and intended on painting - but found they were perfect for storing all those scrapbooking supplies I've accumulated.


Also, I picked up a wonderful set of chip board boxes - they will be painted one of these days, trust me - and put away the rest of my supplies. These boxes are so nice, and make everything so much easier to store my supplies right out in the open.

That's it for now, hope you got some ideas for storing some of those paper craft supplies you have hidden all around the house!