Archives for January 2023

Inky Play Friday: Let’s get started…

January 27, 2023 by Leave a Comment

Hello and happy Friday! It’s my favorite day of the week. It’s cold but super sunny in my craft room this morning. Just the perfect day to work on a custom order for Belinda’s Crafts and then dive back into this beauty I got for Christmas. It’s a coloring calendar of one of my favorite coloring book artists, Kerby Rosanes. I own several of his coloring books this is one of my favorites. In addition to this calendar, it comes in a regular coloring book format with bonus pages that explain why each of the animals are endangered species. So it’s not just theraputic it’s educational.

I decided one way to ensure I make time to color is this monthly calendar. So each month I am challenging myself to complete each month’s page. I am also challenging myself to use different mediums and different pencils on the pages.

The book says that this is snow leopard and that they are found in the high mountain ranges of Central Asia. Their main threat is the expansion of human settlement. Poaching and climate change also threatens their chance for survival.

I grabbed my Copics and started by basing the sky with them. However, they are bleeding through so I won’t use them again. I will test out my Tombows to see if they can work. It will save me a lot of time and I can simply use my colored pencils over the top for shading.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is taking steps to help the snow leopard thrive again. If you want to learn more about his very important animal, check out what they are doing.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/snow-leopard

Have a lovely weekend my friends!

Filed Under: Belinda, Projects Tagged With: , ,

Tool Time Tuesday: Color Cube in Action

January 24, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Color Cube

Welcome to Tool Time Tuesday. Where I share a new and sometimes old craft tool that I am currently using. Today let’s take a look at The Color Cube by Sarah Renae Clark. She is one of my favorite colorists I follow online and she has come out with this wonderful product that just gives me all the feels.

Let’s rewind and go back several years ago, when I began going on Pinterest to find color combinations for my cardmaking projects. I love anything that can help me quickly create a color pallette for my projects. I often find inspiration from product containers and patterned papers. Then Sarah came up with a digial product called The Color Catalogue and I used it on my iPad. I purchased her digital version to use on the iPad. It would have a picture of something and then pull out the colors to show you compatible color combinations and she also grouped images into categories so I could find stuff even faster.

However, as much as I love technology, I am a tactile person. So when Sarah said she was designing a physical product, my ears perked up and I pre-ordered them immediately. You can buy one or both boxes and they contain hundreds of color printed cards in a variety of themes with the color combinations pulled out on the side. One side has the image and the other side has the hex code so you can also use it for digital projects.

Ok, enough yappin’, I am here to show you how I use it. One thing that can slow me down when I color in my coloring books is committing to a color palette. So I grabbed one of my new coloring books from Christmas and opened up one of the beautiful cubes. By the way, it’s always wonderful when a crafter/artist designs their own products because the quality of the cards and the cubes are impeccable. I have them on my desk and they look like an art.

I selected two cards one for the whales and water and the other for all the other images. Then I held them up to my swatch charts for my Prismacolor pencils and found matches then pulled the pencils.

I only selected one pencil for each color because I am working with a grayscaled image but if I were going to do a lot of shading I would select light and dark compatible pencils for each of the colors.

The final page turned out pretty cool. I don’t think I woud have selected those exact colors but I am glad I used the Color Cube for this one.

I will share more with you as I continue to use them. But if you are interested in getting one, check out her video. It might be on waitlist now but well worth it in my opinion.

Color Cube

Happy crafting!

Filed Under: Belinda, Belinda's Crafts, Projects, Tool Time Tuesday Tagged With: , , ,

InkyPlayFriday: Swatching my new watecolor paint set

January 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment
My new Kuretake watercolor paints

I bought my first set of Kuretake watercolor paints a couple years ago and although I loved them, I didn’t use them often. Back in November, I saw all the buzz about them coming out with a new watercolor set. What I realized is that for a beginner what motivates me to use something is the colors. The first set had more basic colors and as a beginner that doesn’t know how to make my own colors, it was daunting and I didn’t feel motivated to use the old one. Fast forward to December when I saw the color pallette in the new release, I was so excited I pre-ordered them and patiently waited.

I found this great stamp set to use to swatch my paints.

Because this year, I plan on exploring with paints, I have been watching videos and even purchased a couple books to get me started. One video I saw these great stamps to add some fun to swatching my paints. As a big believer in swatching, I swatch all of my coloring supplies. (I’m actually a little behind with all of my recent purchases.) I use my swatch charts of my Copic Markers, Prismacolor and Derwent pencils every time I work on a project. So it is important to me to create a swatch for this paint set to set myself up for success.

Choosing which stamps to use.

This stamp set has really fun stamps to swatch. I plan on trying them all, over the course of the year. This new set has 24 colors and and since I am using this small block watercolor paper pad to create my swatch chart, I think the smaller vertical set of 6 boxes to create my chart.

Laying out the stamps to see if they fit.

What’s the saying “Measure twice cut once.” or something like that. Since I don’t want to waste the paper, I lay out the stamps to see if I can fit them all on the page before commiting to ink and stamping.

All finished stamping.

Eventhough the ink dries fast,I still let it sit for a few minutes before I begin painting. This ink is perfect to use with watercolors.

A little tea while I paint.

I am liking the colors a lot. I definitely can see several that I naturally gravitate to. The computer does not do the colors justice. I am also using a new brush set. This one is pretty nice. Well based on my beginner knowledge, I like the way they feel in my hand.

All finished.

I like seeing the damp papertowel while I work with all the colors blending. I have to let go of my need to clean and enjoy the unexpected with painting.

Done!

There is something so satisfying about looking at completed swatch charts and seeing all the colors. It was especially fun to swatch the darker ones to see what they would look like on paper. Some of them were such a pleasant surprise.

Next I am going to begin reading the book I have and try one of the exercises.

Have a lovely weekend!

Filed Under: Belinda, Belinda's Crafts, Projects Tagged With: , ,

Embrace Unveiling on MLK day

January 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Attending the historic unveiling of The Embrace statue.

I can’t remember when I first heard about the creation of this amazing statue that would be located in Boston, Massachusetts but I remember thinking, I want to be there when they unveil it.

That wish came true on Friday, January 13, just a few days before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I wanted my family to attend for so many reasons so we made it happen. My oldest son took an Uber and met my husband, my youngest son and I in Boston and we walked over to the event. I did not know you had to have tickets to be very close to the unveiling because they had a lot of dignitaries in attendance including MLK III, his wife and daughter. They had music and many motivating speeches by local politicians including the amazing Ayana Pressley. There was so many people from all different backgrounds that were outside the main area that just wanted to celebrate and witness the unveiling. It was a beautiful sight to see.

We will visit the statue again many times in the future to rejoice and reflect. I will share more photos when we visit again and can capture more photos of this amazing statue.

I highly recommend that you take a trip and see this amazing monument in person. It will not disappoint.

Have a lovely day!

Filed Under: Belinda Tagged With: , ,
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