Plein-air Painting

Plein-air painting is an act of painting outside. The weather is perfect so I drove eight miles to my favorite place by the river to do watercolor painting. ~JM

farm house style signs

My friend had a get together and she taught us how to make these fun signs. I even used a drill! It was fun to see all the different designs people picked.

Fabric Squares on Canvas

A simple way to decorate your wall or mantel is placing colorful fabric on a big canvas board.  I used Mod Podge for the adhesive. The end results looks like a vibrant quilt on display! ~JM

Fabric squares, paint brush and Mod Podge.

The finish product brightens the room with vibrant spring colors!

Rice Crispy hedgehogs

I saw this cute idea in a magazine and tried it for a friend's birthday.  My daughter helped and it was fun and easy!

Drawing Upside Down

I learned this drawing technique in a beginners drawing class. To start place a picture you want to draw upside down.  Draw what you see.  This form of  visualization is less intimidating because you are not actually seeing the picture. When finish turn it right side up and you will be amaze that the picture turned out quite good!  Below is a picture I drew using this technique.  ~JM

Picture of a woman carrying laundry on her head. I copied the drawing from an art book.

Charcoal Drawing

The one thing that was missing from my collection of art supplies was charcoal.  I recently purchased a kit that included charcoal pencils, charcoal sticks and a graphite pencil.  I found some great tutorials on YouTube. I drew a crow on a branch and mountain ranges. ~JM

Sand dollars

I love sand dollars!  I think when they are alive, they are so beautiful. I think the skeleton that remains when they die are so special. I found this description on Pinterest and ordered the sand dollars online.  I used candy molds filled with white chocolate that I sprinkled with cinnamon to represent sand. I put these together to share with my coworkers for Easter....I think it's such a neat way to share about Jesus.  The best part is opening up the shell to find the 5 doves!