Hi There,
Well, my new acrylic paints have arrived but I thought I'd play around a bit more with the watercolors before setting them aside again.

The funny thing about it was that I just couldn't get comfortable with watercolors when they were all I had to work with but now that the other paints have arrived and I don't have to make them work. I'm suddenly enjoying them. Perhaps having other choices takes the pressure off.

I thought I'd show this one both before and after I'd done by outlining and detail work.

I thought I'd also take some time to decorate the edges of some envelopes for my mail as well.

I also did some fun edgings on the greeting cards to speed things up next time I'm answering mail. When this much of the work is done ahead of time all I have to do is dash of something fun on the front of the card to finish things up.

In addition to the watercolor painting I'm also continuing to design and paint Swedish dala horses which you can read about in my other blog.
dalahorsesbyjulia.blogspot.com

Projects and thoughts on what's next

Here's a view of that last horse from above so that you can see the designs on the top and the back.

Here are a few cards I made today from the supplies I was given recently. They were fun and seemed to work out really well.

After finishing that I went back to crocheting another pot holder which sadly is the only present I can give my hubby this year.

Starting any business is a hard and slow process with a lot of lean times. It helps us to keep going to know how many people are really wanting us to succeed, we'd hate to let them down.

On the bright side, having some new potholders made baking a few holiday cookies more fun.

New Red Dala Horse

This one is a bit more traditional in style than most of the horses that I've been designing lately. There's a good reason for that. This one's for my Dad who's really proud of his Swedish heritage.

A lot of the strokes are still not coming easily to me but I'm sure I'll improve with practice.

Big Eagle ornament step by step

1.Carve, sand and base coat your wooden ornament

                                     2.Paint a simple sky in blue and white

 3.Begin painting your trees in which ever technique you prefer.

 a. the dark green goes on first!

4. Add highlights in a lighter green

       5.Double load a liner brush with brown and white to add peeks of the tree trunks

               6. Follow a photo and do your best to add an eagle. (I'm just figuring out how to do it myself but as soon as I can teach myself I'll do my best to show you.)

Project Update with box and horses

 I've been working on this project for  several months but as you can see, I've got a long way to go before this box is filled.

We decided that it will go to my one of my sister in laws as a wedding gift. She always has the biggest, most amazing Christmas trees and can always use a few more ornaments.
Well, I'm about ready to start painting some of the white horses. I's hard to tell just looking at it but I'm pretty sure that I can get one dozen ornaments into this box so this week I'll be halfway there.
The fun thing is all the good energy going into these by the friend that cut the wood pieces, my husband and I who carved and sanded the horses and of course every thing I put into painting them. I'm hoping they'll bring her good luck.

Painted Horse Designs

Working out some of your designs on paper or with your computer can save a lot of time and help you avoid making mistakes in your painting.

Still horsing around

1. I liked the look of that top horse so I decided to see how it would look in different colors.

2. It's always good to get your pencils out and try new things.

3. I added more color and will try this one on a few products in my store.

4. Eventually I'll paint this design on one of my wooden horses.

Project Updates

We're back to work carving and sanding wooden horses to paint. A friend is looking for some information for me on more traditional ways to paint Dala horses. It will be interesting to see how that influences me when I get ready to paint them.

I painted the edges of that dot painting so that it could be hung in the living room and be up out of the way around here.

I'm continuing to design products with my drawings and paintings on them and yes, I've even gone back to cleaning and organizing the house.

I'm considering doing portraits in colored pencil to see how that goes for me. Perhaps changing media and techniques will help change my perspective on the whole process.

Having that page on my lace vest turn up after all these years has made me consider dusting off my sewing machine and starting a few fabric projects.

As always "my hobbies have hobbies"

Progress Report

 I continue to work on those Dala horse ornaments in between other projects.

 I made this hat to use up some odd bits of yarns. I actually got about half of it done while waiting in line at one of the local food programs this morning. It made the time pass quickly and gave a few of us something to talk about besides the state of the economy or hard times. I finished a pot holder too but forgot to get a picture of that for you.

 I've actually gotten more done on these red horses but haven't shot pictures of that too.

I knit these slippers on the knitting machine tonight. My holiday gift to the family is to make sure they have something warm so I'm packing a big bag of things to take along when we get together for Thanksgiving dinner.

Horse of a different color

As I sort through things in the studio there were a couple of Swedish Dala horses dropped off by a friend years ago which finally got my attention. I decided to take a more traditional approach on the red one and " play "a bit with the orange one which probably won't surprise him a bit. I just finished the red one yeaterday and it's already got a home but as you can see I'm likely to be working on that orange one for quite a while yet, Thanks Ron. Yes, Karen that cigar box is up next. No real plan for it yet probably just a few flowers and leaves here and there where the varnish is thin and a clear coat over the top. That poor chair to the left needs some attention too. I keep changing my mind and it's had several incarnations already...but it's been fun !