Spice up the White - Porcelaine Paints With Pebeo

With a little Pebeo Porcelain Paint you can spice up a white mug this xmas as a personal little handmade gift idea.
I myself am not a fan of white mugs, I had to purchase some just for this tutorial! I collect bright coloured funky mugs! So how does one turn a boring old white mug into something fun and personal!

With alphabet stickers of course! and some various colours of the Pebeo Porclaine paints! I grabbed some cheap alpha stickers from the Reject Shop for $2.00

I did my pet name from my husband and also my initials I grabbed a stippling brush and also my palette, poured some of the colours I wanted to use and started bouncing my round stippling brush onto the mug. Super easy and simple!
I completely clean the mugs to make sure there is no residue on the mugs so the paint has a clean surface to work with.
TIP - Apply the stickers to your clothes first before putting onto the mug to allow some of the stickyness to be muted, so when it comes time to remove your alphabets it wont be such a huge pain.

I did test how the stippled dots would look on a spare piece of card before applying to the mug, to make sure I was happy with how it turned out.
This Blog post is also a lesson for you if you get to the end of your project and you hate it...I remade this cup 5 times before I settled on a design, you will see some of the ok attempts! REMEMBER NOTHING IS SET IN STONE UNTIL YOU BAKE IT!

 I used red and white paint and also mixed the two to make a soft pink, I also used a q-tip to add little red polkadots to the design.

Using a pin I removed the stickers, you may need to use some Methylated spirits to sharpen your edges if you so wish! I used a fine brush with the metho to work the edges.

another way you can add colour, is using sponges and bouncing thin washes of colour to your mug.

I used primary colours and a sponge and pounced the sponge onto the mug to give a softer effect...then I decided I wanted to create a cute watermelon inspired mug so started..yet again.

Using the same sponge technique I bounced red and green onto my mug over my alphabet stickers

once I was happy I then used a black pebeo porcelain paint pen, and drew on little sporadic seeds. The lovely little mug now holds my current fave washii tapes on my desk!

If you create a mug design and you aren't in love with it, a paper towel and methylated spirits will remove your work, and you can start again! just because you failed once doesn't mean you've ruined your mug! Like I said nothing is set in stone unless you've baked it.

Let your creations dry for a full 24 hours before baking.
150 degree oven for 25 mins, I turn the oven off and leave the door open for the mugs to cool.
I hand wash all my handmade things just to be on the safe side!

I hope you enjoyed this little quick fun tutorial, and remember everything can be fixed.
seeya next week.
Courtney Diaz

Let's gear up for INKTOBER!

Inktober was created in 2009 by the very talented Mr Jake Parker, in an attempt to  challenge and improve his inking skills and to develop positive drawing habits. Drawing is a learned skill, so you can get better with daily practice and Inktober is a fantastic interactive way to do this!

Since then, Inktober has become a yearly event among all creatives! becoming a global phenomenon. I myself have yet to participate in an Inktober. This will be my first year, but I am excited to get out my pens and inks and truly committing to a daily art practice that will set me up for months to come.

Jake puts the rules on his info page but here they are below.

InkTober rules:

1) Make a drawing in ink (you can do a pencil under-drawing if you want).

2) Post it on your blog (or tumblr, instagram, twitter, facebook, flickr, Pinterest or just pin it on your wall.)

3) Hashtag it with #inktober

4) Repeat

Note: you can do it daily, or go the half-marathon route and post every other day, or just do the 5K and post once a week. What ever you decide, just be consistent with it. INKtober is about growing and improving and forming positive habits, so the more you’re consistent the better.

That's it! Now go make something beautiful.

 
It also doesn't have to be this amazing epic work of art, don't let yourself be intimidated before you even begin! some days my inking will only be small!

Some days I want to work on my brush lettering, because lettering is a huge downfall for me, I want so badly to learn brush script but I don't do enough dedicated practice to it, so Inktober is a way for me to force learn!

So my October blog posts will be what I create with the Schmincke Aerocolour Acrylic Ink as well as some other little drawings I work on using my inky pens.

I hope this inspires you to pick up some ink and get to drawing for the month of October!
Have an awesome day!

Courtney Diaz

Keeping a Colour Bible - A swatch haven

We as artists are true collectors of art supplies, in all various forms and shades. I can honestly tell you Ive gone into a supply store picked several new pencils feeling really pleased with myself coming home and finding out that I already have most of these colours already. This has happened more than I want to admit publicly.

With a little inspiration from the lovely Jane Davenport, I decided it was time I created a common place where I had all my supplies with their corresponding colour codes so that when I skipped into an art supply store I knew exactly what I already had at home! and no doubles were bought unless needed.

I decided to pick a book that was easily transportable so that it would fit into most handbags I carry.

I tried my supplies on different papers till I found how they looked best then used that book. I ruled my pages in a grid format and sorted my supplies into a semi rainbow formation. I then started shading each square along with a colour code. Each brand has their own labeling system and I just used their codes to label my squares.

This has been such a useful thing to do, I haven't even really fully filled my book and I have already used it to help me purchase new colours I don't already have.

I have more markers than I know what to do with, from my vibrant and bright Mepxy markers, to my lush watercolour markers, so this book will become a haven for me and will be used for many years to come.

 

So if you are a complete supply junkie like myself, I highly suggest creating one of these hand little books for your supplies, not only as a colour reference but also to know what you have and what you don't have in way of colour palettes and shades.

I'll see you next week with a tutorial!

Courtney Diaz

Book Week is COMING!

Good Morning!
 As many parents are already aware book week is coming like a freight train at us! where our little ones dress up like characters from the books they love and adore! My niece happens to be one of those kids! She ummed and ahhhed about who she wanted to be and finally picked a book character from a book that she loved, she picked Ruby Redfort.

This character wears a lot of slogan tshirts! so being the awesome aunty that I am, I handed over my stash of Pebeo Fabric Paints and Fabric Markers! So she could create her own costume slogan t-shirt herself!

I wont go into a huge tutorial as the photos my sister in law took are helpful enough! but the supplies are so user friendly that even kids can have an amazing time creating clothing items for themselves!

Other supplies I handed to her was a few sponges to bounce the paint across with ease, and stencils to help make text and images easier! Even though Amy is super creative having stencils to use makes it universally easier to create works of art without having any drawing skills!

She started by colouring in the bottom of the cupcake stencil image with the Fabric Markers - Setaskrib from Pebeo.
Then using a sponge she bounced the yellow fabric Paint for the icing.

Then waiting for that to dry a little, she also used the alphabet stencil to create her character's signature tshirt slogan - Let them eat cake.

 

She used a paintbrush for this step as she needed more precision on the letters! (I'm totally proud of her)
 Once the shirts where dry we heat set both prints with a iron on low heat to make them machine washable. (the red shirt was a practice one to get her confidence up)

Amy is also going to be embellishing the cupcake with some beads to give it a 3d looking quality.


Once her Book Week parade has happened I'll add a snap of her finished outfit at the bottom of the post! but for now here are the two finished shirts she made with absolutely no adult help! I must say they both turned out super!

The Fabric Line from Pebeo is so versatile for adults and kids! This post was to show just how truly user friendly they are! Make some custom shirts for book week if you a stuck for ideas, they are simple, fun and unique thing to do!

To all the kids, have an AMAZING book week parade!
Seeya next week, with some graphic cushion cover ideas!
Courtney

One Pen Can Make a difference - Pebeo Vitrea160 Glass Paint Pen

I seem to collect empty jars, I don't know why, but when we finish with a glass jar, if it has a unique shape or just a generally nice look, I soak the labels off and keep them (total hoarder) The other day I was looking at my paint water jar, so sad and boring, usually holding murky grey water, never really pretty. So I took to it with a single pen.
The Turquoise Vitrea160 Glass Pen. I didn't set out with any pre designed design. But for people who are total beginners and feeling nervous, you could perhaps sketch out some ideas before you boldy go in with a pen!

I shook my pen to get it going (keep lid on when doing this) then pumped the nib down a few times on a palette. Then simply began doodling a design all over my paint water jar.

I did the Jar in sections as I am left handed and didn't want to smudge my work as I went along. I just had fun! I had no idea what I was going to create, but I just drew patterns giving the pen every few minutes a few pumps on my palette to refresh the paint flow.

No plain jar is safe with these pens! I can also see adding tea light candles to some of the winder neck jars to make really lovely light shows! I might even do that for my next post to show you how they look at night!
I hope this very simple use for a single pen can make a colour impact on your life! I think these jars look amazing with all the doodling!

Have a wonderful weekend looking at your old jars in a different light!
Courtney Diaz

Schmincke half pan 36 palette - What comes in it?

Good Morning!
I thought I would do something a little different today give you a little tour of the Schmincke half pan 36 palette! A stunning art supply that I've had the honor of owning.This palette comes to you individually wrapped as you can see below, each half pan is loving secured with a colour label and wrapping, making each half pan a gift. I unwrapped mine one by one, and then cut the colour label and glued it onto a swatch card which you will see soon.

(above photo is the palette before each pan is unwrapped - brush not included also the two half pans in last row are also not included they were extra singles I purchased)

 

The colours you recieve in your set if you decide on the Schmincke half pan 36 palette are as follows:

Half Pan Set of 36 Colors — Contains half pans in 36 colors, including Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Carmine, Ultramarine Finest, Prussian Blue, Phthalo Green, Permanent Green Olive, Yellow Ochre, English Venetian Red, Sepia Brown, Ivory Black, Chrome Orange, Cobalt Green Dark, Naples Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Manganese Violet, Cerulean Blue Tone, Chrome Yellow Deep, Deep Red, Magenta, Indigo, Helio Turquoise, May Green, Translucent Yellow, Translucent Orange, Scarlet Red, Ultramarine Violet, Delft Blue, Mountain Blue, Prussian Green, Olive Green Yellowish, Brilliant Yellow Dark, Madder Brown, Indian Red, and Burnt Umber.

It is a fantastic array of colours! and these watercolours are unlike any I have tried, they are buttery and so richly pigmented. I was literally blown away. (and that isn't easily done these days) You don't need to saturate these in water to activate them. With a whisper of water these colours dance almost instantly!

After I unwrapped them I took a piece of canson watercolour paper and ruled a very uneven colour swatch chart, having the labels of the packaging underneath the watch I did. This way I didn't have to hand write each colour myself. These swatches are ONE BRUSH STROKE. I did not have to go over and over to get this sort of vibrancy they are literally one swipe of my brush onto the cardstock. Like I said these watercolours are like nothing I have ever used!

 When you order the Schmincke half pan 36 palette it comes in this beautiful metal palette case. It has great mixing palettes and the half pants click into place to prevent them from moving with travel.
I loved the case almost as much as the colours. (can you hear my gushing)

 I will leave you now with some close ups of the amazing colours you will get if you decide to invest in this supply. Though the outlay is rather large, these are truly high end watercolours, and I can assure you, you wont be disappointed with them.

I hope this has been informative! and you've had a good look at the colours you will get in the palette! If you have any questions just pop them down below!
Seeya next week
Courtney Diaz

Watercolour Plates and Bowls - Using pebeo Porcelain 150 paints.

The watercolour trend is everywhere and it's making its way off the papers and into our home decor, including our crockery. Today I'm going to show you a really simple way of getting a swirly watercolour design onto your plates and bowls. It's a very chimp proof way, even the hubby had a go with me!

Supplies are Simple :-
White Plate or Bowls
Bowl of Water
Pebeo Porcelain Paint in your choice of colours.
Paintbrush
and optional heat gun (to manipulate the paint)

First of all I mixed two colours together to get the wine coloured purple for our big square plate and small bowl,

As you can see I used the bright red and dark blue paints and mixed till I was happy with the shade of purple.
I then got the big square plate and dabbed a dollop of paint into the corner of the paint with a paint brush.

I then loaded up my brush with a heap of water and started dripping it into the corner of the paint to let it start running down into the blank surface.

then as it runs, you start to slightly tilt the plate to let the watered down paint move around, only tip slightly as you don't want it to just run everywhere that ruins the look (we may have done this a few times before I was happy)

We used a tea towel to prop to dish on its side so that the watered down paint could run back into itself, we then left it to dry a little, then re tilted it, to give depths in the shades of purple so that some swirls were lighter and some dark, then I decided to manipulate the paint with a heat gun to get a more marbled look in some parts.

By using the heat gun I was able to manipulate when and how the layers dried, moving them around to dry in fascinating patterns. I feel this game the best splat like effect overall and continued to do this method with each of the other bowls and platters I had.

 The Result, its beautiful bright and unpredictable watercolour platters and bowls, they are truly stunning in real life, and I can see these being favourited by me when it comes time to serve things. The dark blue bowl will be my daily cereal bowl I can see it already.

I hope you decide to have a go at this really easy tutorial, the results will vary depending on how adventurous you feel! but I can assure you each one will be stunning and each will be uniquely your own creation!

Next month I'm going to create some watercolour inspired napkins, I am a little watercolour obsessed!

Until next time, keep creating!
x Courtney

Lets Get Graphic! - Pebeo Porcelain 150 Black Marker Magic.

Let's be honest, I'm not a fan of white anything, especially when it comes to plates bowls all types of crockery, being an artist I like visual stimulation, and white plates and platters just don't do it for me!
So today I am going to funk them up a little using a single item.

1 Black Pebeo 150 Porcelain Marker (if you want thicker, just use the Pot of Black Pebeo Porcelain Paint and a paintbrush of your choice).

What I first did was head into my Sketchbook and started making patterns and sketching out ideas you could also do this on a piece of paper but I like to collect my thoughts inside my sketchbook.
Once I had a general idea I used a dark 8b pencil to get some form of straight line ( I can never get straight even with a ruler, its been this way all my life!)

I wanted to create visual interest with minimal effort! something that was simple enough that anyone could do this to their own plates and platters. Once you are happy with your design you simply get your Pebeo Porcelain marker and away you go!

 (Tip) I pump the pen off on a paint palette to get the paint flowing nicely.

I am a person who likes the look of imperfect handmade items. I like my stuff to look a little left of center, which is why these bold patterns really make me smile, I know they aren't straight, I know this, and I embrace it and love it!

It's amazing how simple lines, can make such an impact to the white surface. Some of the designs I just free formed, when I made a mistake I got a Q-Tip with some Methylated Spirits on it, and erased what I didn't like. 

Creating patterns on only half of your dish is also a great way to add interest, simple dot pattern made my little plate quite adorable!

I loved how my plates and bowls turned out, I'm going to be using them to put my jewellery on.

 The result of a few lines and a black porcelain pen is some unique and bold statement pieces for your collection! I added a wash of watered down turquoise porcelain paint on the little flower ring bowl to try something a little different, and I love that look as well!

Once you are happy with your designs, let them set for 24 hours then pop them in the oven for 35 minutes at 150 degrees and they are good to go!

In my next post, we are going to be attacking white items again, but creating beautiful watercolour effects on our plates and bowls. Stay tuned for that one!
Enjoy
Courtney Diaz

Signed Sealed Delivered - Mail Art the Easy Way

We live in a very digital world of emails and instagrams, people communication via a phone usually, but I am an old school girl, I adore writing, sending and receiving letters! the ye ole snail mail kind. So today I thought I would share a very quick way to get unique looking envelopes that take literally 10 mins to complete!
Supplies
1. Envelopes  (use thicker ones I tore holes in my basic envelopes that I use for school notes)
2. Schmincke Aerocolor Inks in your favourite colours
3. Some cheap washii tape, the cheaper ones are substandard and you want to be able to remove the tape without damaging your envelope!
4. Brushes - I used the Princeton Artist Brush in various sizes (smaller size for mark making)
5. Mepxy Desgin Marker in Black when I wanted more control than a brush would give.

1. Get your envelopes ready and your washii tape and make 'address lines' lines where you would usually write the address.

Step 2 - Start applying washes of colour using your Schmincke Aerocolor Ink as you can see ink is repelled by the washii tape, don't worry that doesn't matter in the end! The tape is doing it's job perfectly. - I switched envelopes as these one tore! so tip is to use a little higher quality envelopes that office standard. 

step 3 - Mix Colours and have fun! there is no right or wrong way to create your palettes on these envelopes experiment with combinations, mixes and mark making!

Step 4 - Creating details with a small brush is a great way to get some visual interest into your envelopes! I used the Grey acrylic ink and a small brush and went to town adding marks.

When I wanted more control with marks, I switched to the Mepxy Design Marker in black. 

Step 5- When you are happy with your envelopes now comes time to peel off your washi tape address lines.

 This will reveal stark white lines for which you can easily write you penpals address on without it being too hard for the post office to read, whilst still being bright and full of colour!
 I then went in with my old school label maker and just punched out my name to give you an idea that you don't have to even writing your names! you can make funky labels instead!

 I hope this inspires you to create some wonderful bright envelopes to mail off to friends, family and penpals! I'm going to be back in a few days using similar techniques but using project life cards! Stay tuned for that one!

Enjoy have a wonderful mail filled day! 

Courtney Diaz.