i’ve never been the kind of girl who has a ton of friends. there was a brief moment in like, seventh grade where i was maybe kind of popular. but not really. it wasn’t a good fit. i’ve just always felt much better when surrounded by a small, close knit group of people who really get me; people who i’m not afraid to be myself around.
i’m currently obsessed with calendar making. i can’t take credit for the idea for this project, or the heavy-lifting portion of printing and cutting the templates – that belongs to the lovely miss ashley who teaches the occasional craft night at the toms flagship store.
for the actual calendar, ashley found a template she liked online, printed them out (2 per sheet, i assume) and cut them out. she then used a perforated paper cutter to perforate a line above the dates so when you’re done with a month, you’ve still got your artwork to keep and hang or send as a postcard, whatever you’d like!
for craft night, she demonstrated a watercolor + sea salt technique: with a good amount of water and a super-saturated color, paint your design on your paper. while the color is still wet, generously apply sea salt over the top. when dry, brush the salt off. this will pull some of the color from the page and leave you with fun, sometimes unexpected patterns.
this was my first attempt, with the colors straight from the palate. i like it! super bright and fun.
my second attempt, i went a little moodier and went crazy with the color mixing. i also loosened up with the brushstrokes.
when i got home, i just couldn’t stop. for this one, i used a technique i vaguely remembered seeing online but couldn’t find the tutorial when i looked for it, so i just went with it anyways. i mixed a dollop of red acrylic paint with a generous amount of red wine in a shallow dish. then i just dunked a wine glass in the mixture, and pressed it on the paper. i had fun with this one – some i got super saturated and left on the paper longer, some i double dunked, some i splattered. i love the randomness of it!
for this last one, i dug out some old pastels and just did a single color per page. i feel like this one has the biggest impact laid out all together like this and i’m totally into it. i wish i had some spray fixative to preserve them, but i don’t so, wamp. i did line them all with parchment paper (couldn’t find the tracing stuff!) before clipping them together, so they shouldn’t get too messy in between months.
and that’s all! i have one left, which i might experiment with wine-cork stamping. follow along on instgram to see if that happens!
when it comes to other people, i like to think i’m a generally pretty patient person. like, more-so than most. when it comes to myself though, it’s a whole other story. if i try something new and am not immediately good at it, i get overwhelmingly frustrated. if i have an idea but can’t execute it the way i envisioned, i give up hope. if i completely change my eating habits and don’t see results instantly, i go back to my old ways. things of this nature are generally not so bueno.
i made this doodle at the request of a co-worker for her new year’s resolution, and after reflecting on it i realized i need to work on my own patience – with myself.
always miss amy 