March Background Freebie

Here's March's desktop background free download for you, featuring my birdie from here. Textured paper background from here.

1680 x 1050

1600 x 1200

1280 x 800

iPhone

iPad

I hope you enjoy it!

Inspiration - Michelle Hinebrook

Isn't this painting beautiful? It's the kind of painting that you could look at hundreds of times and see something new each time.

It's by Michelle Hinebrook and you can find it at 20x200.

Merry Monday

Still enjoying the desert. I thought this beautiful cactus was a good place to take a picture of this weeks Merry Monday.

Hope your week starts off excellently!

(The quote is sometimes attributed to different people, but most often credited to Plato.)

AZ Instas

Here's some Instagrams from this week in AZ. It's been nice feeling so much sunshine! 

I hope you have a sunny weekend yourself!

Illustration Friday - Fluid

Here's my painting for this weeks Illustration Friday topic of "fluid." When I thought about the topic I thought it would be a great week to practice capturing flowing water (which I find to be a challenging subject). 

Also who doesn't love a nice cup of tea?

Special thanks to my Dad who took a great pic of it when I couldn't get the scanner here to cooperate.

Worth The Dough - Watercolored Goods

I've been seeing a lot of watercolor inspired products out there lately (yeah!) and thought I'd do a product roundup for you.

sources: bowls, mirror, bedding, vase, dishes, teacup

I think the mirror is pretty epic, as well as the Kate Spade teacup. Which is your favorite?

Inspiration - Color Palette

Howdy! Hope you had a good weekend. I just got back from Monterey last night and am already headed off to Arizona for a little trip. 

I hope to paint some desert scenes while I'm there, so here's some color inspiration from the desert.

Photo credit, Photoshop brush credit

Gotta get packing, have a great day!

Merry Monday

Hey from Monterey. Here's a quick little Merry Monday post for you. 

I hope your long weekend fun (if you get one) is still going strong!

Fly By

Wow the week really flew by didn't it? Here are some of the Instagrams I took this week.

Headed to Monterey for the long weekend, I hope you get some R & R this weekend too!
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Popularity

This is my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday (it's my first one!). The subject was popularity, so I painted a phone ringing off the hook. Hope you like it!

And just for fun, here's the rough sketch I did before hand. 

Inspiration - Patterns

(Sources from top: one, two, three, four)

Here's some pattern inspiration for your Wednesday. I was just choosing patterns I liked and I realized 3/4ths of them had triangles, haha. Makes sense cause geometrics are pretty popular right now.


Photoshop flower brushes from here

Hearts

 (heart texture from here)

I hope it's full of sugar and love!

Merry Monday

I like the idea of posting something cheerful every Monday, so I think "Merry Monday" is going to be a weekly thing. 

This week I went with something romantic since Valentine's Day is tomorrow and all. 

The quote is by Victor Hugo, and I think it's pretty lovely. 

Do you have a favorite love quote?

Ferris Wheel Friday

I'm off to LA this weekend for a wedding, and am staying near the Santa Monica Pier! I'm excited to get some sun and get on the dance floor with some fabulous people.

What are you up to this weekend?

DIY Valentine's Day Wine Labels

(Gingham pattern from Pugly Pixel)

For Valentine's Day I created some wine labels that you can download and print out for the adult Valentine in your life.

Here are some steps and tips in case you need them:

1. Print labels out. They are designed to match up with Avery 5168 3-1/2" x 5" labels if you can find those. If not, you can just use a full 8-1/2" x 11" sheet label and cut them out (which is what I did). If you are a slacker and doing this last last minute I think plain ol' paper and rubber cement would work.

2. Buy some wine. I bought two buck chuck (no one will know! lol) which I happen to like and especially good if you were giving these to the whole office or something. If it's for your sweetie, you might wanna upgrade.

3. If your label is pre-scored, score! Pull off just part of the back and position your label. Smooth out the section that is applied. Unstick the rest of the back. If it's not you just have to be a bit more careful positioning.

4. Smooth out from one side to the other, trying to get rid of any air bubbles that might come up.

5. Gift bottles to your favorite Valentines!

6. You're done! I recommend celebrating with a glass a wine (not from the bottle you just labeled preferably). 

Note: The label size was perfect for the red bottle but the white bottle slanted a bit earlier so I just trimmed part of the top and bottom off of the label.


I made a couple different kinds for the different people in your life.

Download Labels 

 (File is a PDF, but has layers intact if you want to customize in Photoshop) 

I hope you enjoy them! Cheers!

Never Done

Here is the "finished" version of the watercolor I showed you the other day. I say finished with quotes cause there's still stuff that could use more work or fixing, but I'd rather move on to the next thing.

When you do creative things, do you ever feel completely "done" with them?

A bic of inspiration

No, that's not a typo. Artist Sarah Esteje uses an ordinary Bic pen to produce amazing drawings.

(All Images from Sarah Esteje's Site)

So inspiring!

Merry Monday

Here's a little painting I did to make Monday a little more merry.

Hope your Monday is going well also :0)

Watercolored day

Happy Friday! I'm messing around with a watercolor painting today (the last pic) and thought I'd show you a couple other things in my sketchbook.

Is it just me, or do Fridays always seem like a good day to be creative?

Have a great weekend! Hope it's full of seven layer dip and football (if you're into that sorta thing).

Fancy Chair

Say hello to the chair of my dreams!

(Originally seen on Design is Mine, chair is from Anthropologie)

The soft painting-like quality of the photo fabric, the triangle design in the fabric (does anyone know what that's called btw?), every little detail is perfect.

I mean did you see those feet?!

 Too bad it's $3,298.00. Oh well, that's what the dreaming part is for right? 

 

February Freebie

Happy February!

Here's a cheerful desktop background I made for you to download. I hope you like it!

1600 x 1200
1680 x1050
1280 x 800

iPhone

iPad

(I just did basic sizes, but if the correct size for your monitor isn't there email me and I'll make you another one).

Tools: I used these free photoshop watercolor brushes, which includes the paper background. I drew the flower doily frame myself.

(Edited to fix image resolutions)