Happy Birthday Eliza!

Happy 7th Birthday Eliza!   

I hope all your dreams come true! This post is for YOU! 

And the rest of you are certainly welcome to read along!  💛

I wanted to get a little something in the mail to you for your birthday....and since Valentine's Day is right around the corner...I combined the two. 

I know my envelope didn't get there in time for your actual birthday....but hopefully it will arrive Monday or Tuesday.

(For those of you who might not know....Eliza is my long distance art buddy.) 

A few days ago I played for the first time with these Woody Stabilo 3 in 1 chunky pencils I've had for a while.  

They're a combination of a colored pencil, crayon and watercolor. They're water soluble which means once you color with them...you can blend and push the color around with a paint brush.  

I'm starting where I ended up....because things didn't look so great in the middle....but it worked out just fine.  Art is like that sometimes.  Then I'm going to show you how I made them in case you want to give them a try.

I started with strips of washi tape on a piece of watercolor paper. Washi tape is just fancy paper tape....any kind of masking tape would work. The tape will work as a "resist" and provide a place that will stay white.

Then using the the Woody Pencils....I  drew some hearts and scribbled and mixed the colors as I went along. 

You could do this technique with any kind of paint or markers.  I have given you some neocolor crayons at one time....and because they are water soluble they would work in the same way.

Then using a wet brush...I blended the colors and smoothed out the marks a bit.  I did try and leave a bit of the texture. Then I added some white and gold dots with a paint pen...because I almost always do. 

Next I peeled the tape off.  

Oops...the paper ripped a bit....but that was OK. They are homemade hearts....so don't need to be perfect.  I do want to find the right paper...and tape for this technique because I do like to use it.

I added the writing before I cut them out leaving a little white edge around each heart.

The hearts were inspired by the artwork of Karen Elaine, who I follow on Instagram.  Instagram is a fabulous source for inspiration.

https://www.instagram.com/karenelainecreative/

I added some pretty paper to the envelope and sent it on its way! (For those of you who have been following along I guess I could call this "An Ounce of Love!")

Happy 7th Birthday Eliza!