Category: Projects

A New Year

It’s a new year, and I’ve been busy painting. Painting the bedroom. Painting with watercolors and gouache. Painting goals and plans with big, loose brush strokes. We’re in this big new house, and my dreams have been scaled to match.

I want that book deal I’m chasing. I want to make our home beautiful and personal. I want our family to grow, and along with it, the amount of love in this house. I want to grow as an artist, even if it just means drawing and painting with the kids.

I’m not one for resolutions, but I am excited for the new year, and I’m looking forward to sharing it all with you. Let’s do this, 2014!

January 1, 2014
Watercolor Painting Inspiration

I went to Michael’s a few days ago to pick up some Christmas picks to spruce up a so-so garland on the stairs. (I was going for simple and tasteful, but pro tip: what’s left of the 70% off Christmas decorations, a week or so before the holiday, is probably not going to be simple and tasteful.) While I was there, I picked up a pad of watercolor paper and a $5 palette of paint.

I used to paint and draw throughout high school, and I liked doing architectural renderings in college. And of course I had my whole stationery business, which was a combination of my illustrations and graphic design. I haven’t done much drawing or painting lately though, aside from the tote bag illustrations and layout that I did for West Elm a couple of months ago. I miss making art for its own sake! I figured that having some paint and paper on hand was a good start, at least.

Then Patricia Zapata posted this inspiring video yesterday, on Facebook.

• Fawn and Flora ~ work in progress from Oana Befort on Vimeo.

I watched it, and then I started sketching. I’m not concerning myself with original compositions at this point; I’m drawing flowers and floral arrangements that I’ve pinned. I’m not making anything to sell, or creating free desktop wallpaper downloads. I’m doing this because I miss it, and drawing, coloring, and painting (whether with crayons, pencils, markers, or paint) is fun.

Even when I fancied myself an artist as a teenager, I didn’t work with watercolors much. Thankfully, Oana Befort, the artist from the video above, wrote last year about her favorite art supplies.

• Oana Befort’s Art Supplies

I’m going to play around with my cheapie watercolor set as a beginner/hobbyist, but that Schmincke set looks intriguing, doesn’t it? I found myself rewatching and pausing the beginning of that video to see what brand she was using, and it looks like that’s the one.

Little tubes of watercolor always catch my eye too. The colors are so beautiful.

• Eva Juliet’s Watercolor Palette

* Update * Here’s my first attempt. Not a bad way to spend a little time this morning! The one on the left was first, and it got a bit muddied up. The one on the right, I like better. And once I got started, I kept on going.

December 18, 2013
DIY Wood Slice Holiday Party Invitations
These are special invitations — ones that you might make for a handful of close friends. They’ll either need to be hand-delivered or mailed in a small box, but the impact they’ll have is worth the extra effort. Similar to my DIY wood Valentines earlier in the year, the painted wood slice can be reused by the recipient as a photo/note holder through the rest of the year.

Supplies
- Wood Slices (mine were approximately 4″ in diameter)
- ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape
- Acrylic Craft Paint (I used gold, pearly gold, and white)
- Paintbrush
- White/All-Purpose Glue
- Mini Clothespins
- Invitations (purchased, printed, or handwritten)
Instructions
- Begin by taping off a section of your wood slice to be painted. I sectioned off about a third of each circle and filled in with gold paint. If your tape is wide (like mine), you can rip it down the middle, since only one straight side is needed. Be sure to press down firmly to keep paint from getting under.
- Acrylic craft paint dries quickly, and you’ll be ready to peel off your tape and start on another section in as little as 20 minutes.
- I tore my tape down the center again, then used the straight sides to make skinny stripes. I made sure to overlap one or both of the other colors with each stripe.
- The mini clothespins can be attached with a thin layer of white glue. Let them dry, then clip your invitation to each wood slice and you’re done.
This would be such a delightful invitation to receive! And long after the party is over, the recipient could reuse the wood slice to display photos, notes, or holiday cards.

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape, but all words and opinions are my own.
December 4, 2013
A New Video Series with Painting Tips

I’m so eager to get some paint on the walls of the new house. I’m fine with taking my time to make decorating decisions, to place everything and unpack all of the boxes… but come on. I want to pick up a paint brush already! Eleanor’s room is on the docket and I’ll share her color choices later today, but first I have some how-to videos to share that might be helpful for those of you about to paint.

Lindsay Ballard of Makely Home writes for Glidden on My Colortopia (as do I), and they put together a video series of helpful painting tips. The trickiest thing, I think, is to cut in without using painter’s tape.

I’ve tried to explain a lot of this before in writing, but a video is much easier to learn from! There are tips for using painter’s tape in Lindsay’s series too, along with prepping, cleaning up, painting trim, and more. You can check out all of the videos right here, on YouTube.

I have been sponsored by Glidden® brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

October 9, 2013
Photography Classes in Chicago

This post is sponsored by Bing.

Earlier this year, I wrote that I wanted to take a photography class, and that Bing was working with me to help ‘Bing it to Life.’ I searched for and found a few photography classes in Chicago, and then chose one with help in part from Bing’s social search functions, and also from the comments on this post.

The class I chose was Intermediate Digital Photography at Chicago Photography Center, taught by Arnold Klein (who took these fun photos of me). I enjoyed it, but when I had signed up, I waffled between choosing an intermediate or an advanced class. Turns out I probably should have gone for the advanced one. The intermediate lessons were a good review for what I’d already learned elsewhere, but I didn’t pick up a lot of new information. I want to stress that this had nothing to do with the teacher though! Arnold was great, but to give you a sense of the class level, many people were continuing from the Fundamentals class and had just picked up a camera two months prior.

I decided to take another class after the Intermediate one wrapped up. I could have gone into the advanced class the next time around, but instead chose Studio Portrait Lighting. It was at the same location, taught by Nolan Wells.

I learned so much! Rembrandt lighting, soft boxes, spots, grids, umbrellas, distance ratios, strobes, continuous lighting… the works. And while it was focused on traditional portrait lighting, the lessons have been applicable to my everyday photos too. If you’re interested in learning more about photography and light, I’d definitely recommend the class. It was 21 hours of instruction time, plus another 10 or so of in-studio assignments, but if you can commit for the seven weeks, it’s worth it.

I’d taken online photography classes. I’d taken two-hour workshops and an all-day video class. I’d read books and learned as much as I could on my own, but the in-person classes have been the most beneficial. Thanks, Bing, for helping make this happen.

July 24, 2013
Wood Doors, White Trim

I left the doors unpainted in the front entryway. (Thanks for your feedback.)

The door between the living room and the stairway shows its age a little (it’s original to the house, so 100+ years old), but I think it has character. We, or a future owner, could paint or refinish it someday.

And with that… hooray! All of the trim in the house has been painted — upstairs, downstairs, and in the basement! Happy dance time. I can finally cross that one off my list.

May 15, 2013