Sketchbook Tour + More

December 1, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Heyyyy, guys! Goodness it’s been far too long since I’ve done a recent art post. I have been sprinkling in a few pictures for CPC and Art Lab and such, I guess, but today I want to do a round-up of (most of) the pictures I’ve drawn in my sketchbook since the last art post, along with miscellaneous other art. I hope you enjoy browsing through the pictures! 😀

My current sketchbook is almost filled with drawings and crinkly painted pages, so I put a new sketchbook on my Christmas list. 😉 Filled up sketchbooks are so satisfying!

Alright, I’m going to go in chronological order because it’s the easiest. XD Just note that I did make a few more drawings than this, but I didn’t want to you every single one or the post would get even more ridiculously long than it is. 😛 Anyway, this first drawing is just a fun, stylized, pen-and-colored-pencil doodle. I rather like the quote.

One night I was bored so I decided to try the three marker challenge (drawing a picture with only three colors) with Sharpies. I like some parts of it, but… well, it’s certainly not my best work, heh heh. Oh dear.

Um, this is a super strange drawing of a mini world on someone’s finger??

Now this drawing I actually like. I drew it from a picture in one of Loren‘s posts which is sadly eluding me. HELP. If anyone knows which one it was, could you tell me please? Thank you muchly. UPDATE: Katie found the post for me! Thank you SO much, Katie. 🙂 Here it is.

I told you I liked the quote… XD I was trying out sketching with a colored pencil instead of a normal pencil and I like how it turned out!

WARNING. VERY CREEPY DRAWING AHEAD. Okay so apparently I have a REALLY hard time drawing deer (at least without a reference). SORRY GUYS. I did draw some better deer, but that will come later on.

*Sigh* Two bad drawings in a row? DON’T WORRY GUYS, IT GETS BETTER THAN THIS, I PROMISE. Anyway, this was a drawing that I tried to do for a CPC story (which you can read here), but it, um, didn’t turn out. But hey, it goes to show that although bad art is inevitable, that doesn’t mean you should give up. ART IS TOO AMAZING TO GIVE UP.

Ahem. Oh yes, I drew this little flurry for an online magazine I contribute to! Some are good and some are bad, but hey, you can tell they’re snowflakes. Does anyone else have a hard time making snowflakes symmetrical?

I like how this looks so far (it’s a vast improvement on some of my other hair drawings), but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. Oh well. 🙂

I really like this little guy, hee hee! Megan and I ordered a shirt for my brother that said “I FROGET” since that’s the punchline to one of his favorite terrible jokes which I cannot remember at the moment. XD There are plenty of online sites where you can design your own t-shirts, so I made the art and Megan did the rest of the designing.

Now we’re getting into some Christmas drawings. (By the way, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT’S DECEMBER?! I CAN FINALLY DO CHRISTMAS STUFF.) These next two I also made for the aforementioned magazine. I used my watercolor brush pens for this one…

And acrylic paints + a white gel pen for this one. I love how the painting turned out!

Here we have a lovely bad quality picture of a NeedtoBreathe quote, also for the magazine…

This is just a random Thanksgiving doodle with my watercolor brush pens again…

A strange-looking hawk I drew using one of my brother’s other shirts as a reference. 😛

And now we’re caught up with my sketchbook! Next we have the “Beyond the Sketchbook” part, a.k.a miscellaneous drawings.

I drew this wrapping paper for our cousins’ birthday because they put these pets on their list (though they obviously knew they wouldn’t get them 😉 ).

Ooh, I really like the next one! I saw a photograph like this on Pinterest (right here) and thought it would be a fun challenge to draw. It was! It turned out a bit streaky, but I’m pretty proud of the lips, which are usually hard for me. XD

I’m pleased with this one too! I drew this for the custom art in my recent giveaway, from photos Gracie gave me. Isn’t Gracie’s cat so pretty? ♥ I love her blue eyes.

This card was for my grandma who was recently in the hospital. I’m happy to say that she’s home now, though, and recovering well! ♥

Megan wanted me to draw this card for one of our friends. We always like to debate about… well, a lot of things, so we gave her a handy reminder of the right way to say and use things. 😛 (Note: the border is scrapbook paper – I didn’t draw that part, heh heh.)

OH, YAY! Next is my favorite of all of these pictures! Probably one of my favorites I’ve ever done, just because it took SO LONG to draw. XD My friend Aria commissioned me to draw a vintage-looking NYC poster from some photos she took while she was there, plus various other details she wanted, like song lyrics from one of her favorite songs for the border.

I believe this is the biggest art project I have ever done, both in size and effort. :O

Aha, here we have the better deer picture. XD I painted this for my Etsy shop, The Color Box Studio, where you can buy the original.

And lastly we have two coloring pages, also in my Etsy shop. I want to start making more of these because they’re fun to use and inexpensive to buy, not to mention you can print them out as many times as you want!

I made this as a custom page, but after she orders it I plan to make it available to everyone (for a lower price). 🙂 You can see the listing here.

And this is the newest addition, and Christmas countdown coloring page! You’re supposed to color an ornament each day. I rather like how it turned out. 🙂

Phew, you did it! Thank you so much for reading this super long post – I hope you enjoyed! Which piece of art was your favorite? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS?

***Allison***

P. S. LOOK, IT’S SNOWING! ON MY BLOG! I love that effect. 🙂 If you’re reading this through email or your Reader, you’ll have to actually visit my blog to see it. 😉

Out to Pasture

November 28, 2017 | Allison

Hello, dears? How goes life? I’ll bet you’re all having so much fun starting school again after Thanksgiving break, am I right? Ha. *sigh*

Anyway, a friend recently brought some of her cows to one of our pastures and they are SO CUTE. So much cuter than the boring ol’ Holstein cows in our barns. XD So the other day Megan and I decided to go do a little photoshoot of them, because how could we not? (Note: I did edit all these pictures (some more than others), which is unusual for me. But the lighting was kind of gray and gross, so they needed touching up. XD)

I shall start with the most adorable of the cows. ♥ We call her Rainbow because that’s the name in her ear tag, but I don’t know what her real name is (or if she has one).

SO ADORABLE! I love her eyes! ♥

Doesn’t she look so sweet?

I was trying to get a picture of her tongue out, and I… sort of did?

This enormous guy is the one bull in the pasture. Don’t worry, we didn’t get trampled on or anything like that; he actually seems pretty calm. But we stayed outside the fence anyway. XD

He is HUGE compared to the cows.

I love all the different variations in color and patterns. 🙂 (AND THE BOKEH in the background.)

Look at the marking on her forehead! ♥

This might be the one my cousin called “Einstein” because of her fuzzy white hair. XD

The spotted sisters. XD (Actually I don’t know that they’re sisters, but it’s, um… prosaic license, heh heh?)

Rainbow again. ♥ Her coloring and big, dark eyes remind me of my rabbit, Lily. XD

And this other random cow who was similar to Rainbow but not as pretty…

“HEY, careful with your words, there, person-with-the-black-clicking-thing. I happen to know my face is beautiful, and that you should really be focusing on ME, not those boring dried weeds.”

“There. Better. Although that fence…”

Sorry, cow, you’ll have to make do with barbed wire in your face. Or you could have just BACKED UP A BIT, ahem?

“*glares* Hmph. All the other cows were crowding around to see what you were doing, so how could I not? Peer pressure is a hard thing, you know. Especially if you’re a cow.”

Mmm, I suppose so. What with stampeding and all that…

“There, finally you’re sounding more reasona- HEY. YOU DID IT AGAIN.”

Well maybe sisters and red plaid shirts are more… shall we say, photogenic than angry cows?

“I AM NOT ANGRY. I mean… On the contrary, I am quite calm. See? NOW GET THAT GREEN STUFF OUT OF MY FACE.”

It’s vetch, my dear bovine. V-E-T-C-H. You know what, I think I’ll just end this conversation right here since you obviously won’t listen to anything I say anyway. Sheesh, cows can be so stubborn…

“WAIT-”

Goodbye.

****************

Heh heh, cow conversations are fun to write. XD I hope you enjoyed reading it and the rest of the post! Which cow or picture was your favorite?

Oh, and before you go, check out the two interviews I did recently! Rebecca did one with me and Buttercup did the other. Both girls’ questions were great and fun to answer, and I think you guys would have fun reading them too. 😉

***Allison***

P. S. I updated my sidebar a bit. What think thee?

More Poems

November 24, 2017November 26, 2017 | Allison

Hey, guys! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving if you live in the U. S. I sure did! Each of our three celebrations was delicious, and it was fun getting together with family. 🙂

Anyway, today I decided to share a few more of my poems, since you guys seemed to enjoy seeing the last ones and I seem to enjoy writing them. 😛 Again, they’re unrhymed poetry because number one, I am NOT very good at putting my thoughts into the boundaries of rhyme, and number two, I like the free, flowing feel of unrhymed poetry. Don’t get me wrong, rhyming poetry is amazing too, I’m just not good at it. XD

Ahem. I shall begin.

********

sky soup

the sky is

a bright bowl turned over,

set upon the earth,

filled with clear blue broth

and floating mashed potato clouds,

peppered with black birds.

{picture via Pinterest}

old one

skin crinkled and wrinkled

like a brown paper bag,

crumpled and creased

year after year,

until it is smoothed out,

soft and mellow from

the crush of Time’s hand,

lined with the paths

that the smiles and tears

left behind.

{picture via Pinterest}

galaxies

my eyes are galaxies

with a star for every time

they didn’t come back

and I was left again –

one star among millions

and yet alone in space.

but each time they left,

I stood up again

and swallowed my tears,

adding more stars

to my galaxies,

hoping that my eyes

would shine bright enough

next time,

that they would see this light

in the darkness

and come back for me again.

raindrops

drumming.

pounding.

whispering.

tapping.

fast free falling.

sticking without glue

to everything they touch,

but only for a time and then

moving on again,

sliding sadly downwards.

weeping

to leave everything behind.

wavering, shivering,

quavering, quivering,

collecting, reflecting,

greens and grays together.

a drop reaches

the edge of the window

and

falls

off.

talking rocks

what if

there is a rock somewhere

that watched as the world was made;

that saw its perfect beauty break

into a thousand sharp thorns;

that carried the footstep

of the first fallen humans –

and the only perfect one –

on its back;

that felt the first drop of blood shed

and will feel the last;

that was thrown at martyrs

and held by kings

look closer at the next pebble

you kick down the road,

and wonder what stories

are locked inside its silent heart.

abandoned house

blank eyes,

a dusty soul,

a cobwebbed heart.

broken teeth,

a dry mouth,

a creaking voice.

but when the breeze passes by

and lifts the tangled weeds

from the old mat in front,

you can hear the old house

still whispering, “welcome.”

orion

what would it be like

to recline among the stars,

held together with twinkling joints,

drinking big dipperfuls of the Milky Way

and conversing with

the man in the moon?

***********

Ahh, that was fun. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed reading those, dears – I’d love to hear which one was your favorite!

Which do you prefer, writing poems or stories? Poems are easier for me (mostly because they don’t have a plot, heh), but stories are fun too. 🙂

***Allison***

Photo by Gansforever Osman #culturainquieta

~Etcetera~

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 | Allison

Guys, I have SO many extra photos. And that happens pretty much all the time. So I decided to make a new little series: these “Etcetera” posts will have random photography as well as recent life, thoughts… etc. XD (kind of like monthly wrap-ups, but different). I hope you enjoy reading them!

Now, where to begin? I have SO much to cover. Aha, Maggie is a good subject to start with.

Maggie

I was trying to take a picture of Maggie’s eye but she kept MOVING. XD I did get this one good one, though:

I also got some other, less close-up shots of her. I just love all of Maggie’s expressions, hee hee. It looks like she’s saying, “Aww, you shouldn’t have,” don’t you think?

Such a pretty pup. ♥

It looks like she’s praying. 😛

Dad just finished combining (harvesting corn) for the year. WOOHOO! Now maybe we can jump in the grain bins…

Mini Sister’s Photoshoot

Speaking of fields, Megan and I (and Maggie) did a little mini photoshoot in the soybean field while it was golden green and brown. Isn’t the lighting AMAZING?

If you guys like my photography/lifestyle posts, you should totally check out Emmaline Figura’s blogs, Lucillian Photography and Crystal Ice Studio! Her photography is AMAZING – she deserves so many more followers!

I love this picture, but it sure took a while to clone out the soybean that so rudely butted in front of Megan’s chin. XD Humph, I shouldn’t have said that. Now you’re all probably inspecting Megan’s chin…

Megan got a few pictures of me but most of them didn’t turn out or I had a weird expression, heh heh. This is probably the best one. Still have a weird expression. XD

Guess what? My younger brother and I were driving to piano lessons today, and when we got there we found that one of my car’s tires was completely flat. O.o But guess what again? My brother changed it himself, while I was having my lesson! I really want to learn stuff like that – I’m much better at art than mechanics. XD

Sunset Bokeh

The sunset did capture well on my camera, but it did make for some neat silhouettes and bokeh!

Singing hymns is one of my favorite things at our church. The congregation sings beautifully, and it’s glorious when we do an a capella verse. ♥ I like singing for things like that, but not enough to take voice lessons or anything. I usually just hum and whistle at home. 🙂

Do you guys have any special plans for Thanksgiving? We’re having three different celebrations because we have a rather large extended family. 😉 Are you traveling? We aren’t – most of our family lives quite close by. But if you are, here’s a tip: salty snacks like chips really take carsickness away. Well, I mean they help if you eat them. They won’t do much good just sitting there by your seat.

Flowers

Dad and the kids always pick out a hanging flower basket for Mom for Mother’s Day, and it lasted all the way into late fall this year! Isn’t it pretty?

Ugh, I have to write a 15-30 page research paper for school. *Long sigh* At least we’re taking this week off for Thanksgiving!

We also have a rose bush (well more like a rose vine) by our door, and it’s a weird mix of knockout-type roses and “real” roses, as we like to call them. There are usually only a few “real” roses a year and this was one of them. ♥

To find the rose you must first get past the thorns. To find the rainbow you must first walk through the storm. Bad things make the good more beautiful. And always remember, my dear, there is beauty even in brokenness.

GUYS. LOOK AT THIS PHOTO! I just pressed the button and the moth behind just happened to fly in at the right moment. I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

Pretty butterflies + pretty zinnias – my photobombing car = a mildly pretty picture.

The Big Apple

We have one very old apple tree that usually produces nothing but food for worms. XD However, this year it actually grew real apples and they were DELICIOUS! I don’t know what kind they were, but they were stupendous. And I found this one extremely large apple – see? (The one on the right is a more normal-size one.)

It weighed 15 OUNCES. ALMOST A POUND.

Golden Garden

These might be some of my favorite pictures ever! I just love the golden lighting so, so much, especially with the golden tones of the flowers. ♥

Sometimes I feel wise and knowledgeable, and then I wonder if that simply means I still have so much to learn. I guess that happens when you’re a teenager, huh? 😛

(Side note: I rather dislike the word “teenager” for some reason. Don’t exactly know why.)

And would you look at all that bokeh? AHHHHH.

This picture seems relaxing, like you can feel the sun and hear the breeze through the willow branches. 🙂 I can sort of remember planting this willow tree, even though it’s quite a good sized tree now – it’s a curly willow so it grew SUPER fast.

This isn’t really a garden, but it’s golden. Even dust is beautiful when the sun shines through it.

I think cameras can make anything beautiful. In fact, here’s a challenge: find three things you think are ugly and try to take a beautiful picture of them.

Etcetera

We also have two black and two English walnut trees in our yard. I strongly dislike the bitter taste of black walnuts, but English walnuts taste great! (They’re the kind you get in stores.) We don’t usually shell these though, because it’s a lot of work for not much result. Have you tried black walnuts?

This is rather random, but I wanted to take a picture of a begonia blossom from my grandmother’s hanging flower pot because I noticed the beautiful, intricate curlicues in the center of the blossoms. I love the little things like this. 🙂

I got a picture of my youngest brother pressure-washing one of the wagons. 🙂 His birthday was today, actually! The frame was supposed to be transparent but it’s showing up black here…? I hope it works once I publish the post, but I’m doubtful.

I like the way shadows look on this barn. 🙂

And now we have come to the end of this post. Wow, Allison, what a moving conclusion. *clap, clap*

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed reading this gathering of orphaned thoughts and photos. 😛 I know it was an enormous post, but I’m only half-sorry because phew, I now have a large chunk of my random photos squared away. XD I don’t think Etcetera posts will usually be this long, though, if I do them in the future. Which category/picture/random thingy was your favorite? Do you think Etcetera posts would make a good series or are they too random and scattered (because I would kind of agree with you on that XD)?

Have a wonderful day, dears, and thanks so much for reading. ♥

***Allison***

CPC #6: ~ e x p e d i t i o n {Part 2} ~

November 18, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

GUYS, THIS IS THE LAST CPC. :O I’ve enjoyed coming up with ideas for this super neat and creative challenge, but I will also be glad to get back to normal posting. 🙂 I hope you like this final entry: the sequel so many of you guys requested to my last CPC post. Here’s a little refresher from the previous story…

And so as they walked slowly back to Aeryn’s house, he gradually pulled their past out of the mist. And the twins, listening with wide eyes, almost wished it had stayed there.

Ready to uncover the secrets of the twins’ past? Okay, let’s do this.

Prompts Used: 2

Photos Submitted: 2

Art Submitted: 5

Total Points: 17

~ e x p e d i t i o n {Part 2} ~

“All this started way far back and a long, long time ago; so far and so long that you have to close your eyes to see the palm trees waving and close your ears to hear the ocean whispering at you.

There now, you see it? That’s my island. It isn’t really mine, but I like to think so, and that’s where the problem is. Everybody likes to think it’s their island.

“As far back as our minds can reach, there were two different kinds of people who lived there and two different kinds of people who wanted it for their own. One was white like you, one was black like me. And they hated each other. If you set your foot on the wrong side of the island, the side where the other folks’ lived, you weren’t gonna come back anytime soon. In fact, you weren’t coming back at all.

“Both people invented all sorts of ways to hurt each other, and the worst way was banishment. They built a rickety ol’ boat whose main feature was its leakiness, then they trussed you with vines, plopped you in that boat and shoved you off to drown, starve, sink, or all of the above. Sometimes, the two sides even banished their own people, particularly if they weren’t strong or looked funny. See, both sides thought maybe if they weeded out all the weak people, they’d finally be strong enough to conquer the other side.

“But sometimes the weak ones were really the strongest and we didn’t even know it. There was this girl…” Terence swallowed hard. “I’m mighty ashamed to tell this part, but I have to. There was this girl who looked the strangest I’ve ever seen. Some of her skin was black and some was white, all splotched and patched together.

Tasha. Perfect! — *via Pinterest* (Not my picture.)

“We hated that girl. I hated that girl. We wanted to banish her, but she was the chief’s daughter and he wouldn’t let us, even though he was always banishing other people. But one day we gave him the slip and sent her off, thinking we’d seen the last of her.”

“But we were wrong. A couple months later, she was back in a better boat, and she had a white girl with her that had one brown eye and one blue.

“And they were friends. Her story is awfully interesting too, but my stomach says there’s no time to tell that one right now.” Terence stopped for a moment on the steep path and panted. “Hey, are we close to your house by any chance? My stomach sure is mad at me.”

“We’re about halfway,” Aeryn said impatiently, “but you haven’t finished the story yet. You didn’t get to the part about us.”

Terence winked at the girls. “Alright, I s’pose a few more minutes without food isn’t gonna make a difference when I’ve managed for two days without it so far.”

Tasha looked horrified, but clamped her mouth shut when Terence began again. “Okay, where was I… oh yeah. When those girls came back, something changed. Their friendship and the fact that Kalea survived shocked my people straight off the wrong path and onto the right one. We realized we would be strongest when we united instead of divided ourselves. And we came up with a plan.

CPC 3 (1280x881) — Very strange, I know. XD

“There’s a legend that the white prince started the scorn of weakness because his sisters were… different, somehow. We don’t know how because the prince’s father was so ashamed of them he made sure to keep them hidden – or perhaps they disappeared or died. It’s anyone’s guess. Anyway, the prince’s first act as ruler was to banish the two white twins of a palace servant because twins were not normal, and in his eyes, bad.”

Tasha’s eyes widened. “Where the twins us?”

Aeryn scowled when Terence nodded ‘yes.’ “We never stood a chance, did we?”

“That’s the sad part – you did, once. The prince used to love you two, and your parents were his close friends or something, even though they were servants. The prince was just a normal boy growing up, but as soon as he became ruler, something happened. No one knows what, but suddenly even the sight of someone different blew his top, and it’s said that your parents had something to do with it.”

“Who were our parents?” Tasha and Aeryn asked together, breathless.

Terence shrugged. “Don’t know. Your whole family and past is kinda covered in mystery. The prince took care to keep it that way. But even so (or maybe because of that), you girls have become a sort of legend on our island. I still can’t believe you girls are alive and that I found you!”

Aeryn looked thoughtful. “Yeah, but how did you find us anyway? Where you looking for us?”

“Well not you, specifically, but for people like you who had been banished and might have survived like Kalea did. We figured if we found some of the people the white prince banished, they would be so grateful that we rescued them, they would join us. See, we need all the help we can get if we’re going to unite the island again. And if you girls joined us… well, maybe you could shock the prince back on track too. If you lead us, my people will follow.”

The twins paled. Leave their beloved island to lead a people they didn’t even know existed, in a place they’d never heard of before? Talk to the very one who had banished them?

Aeryn stopped at a tall tree and said shakily, “Let us… let us think about it for a while. Everything happened to us at once. Our whole world and everything we thought we knew exploded in the space of a few hours, and we’re still reeling. But,” she said, trying to smile, “in the meantime, welcome to our… I mean my home!” Terence stepped leaned back to see the tree house and whistled appreciatively.

The girls jumped.

“How did you make that sound?” Aeryn asked curiously. “The one that sounded like a bird?”

Terence raised his eyebrows. “You mean whistling? Shucks, you girls sure have a lot to learn. But don’t worry, I’ll teach you. Up we go, huh?”

Aeryn climbed nimbly up the rope ladder, but Tasha climbed slowly and shakily. “Hey, don’t worry, Tasha,” Terence called from a few rungs below her. “If you fall, I’ll catch you.” He smiled his easy smile at her and she smiled back shyly. Finally they reached the top, and he whistled again when he opened the rough wooden door.

“This is pretty good for two girls, I have to admit! Say, where’d you get all this stuff? And what’s this?” He pointed to a rusty woven-wire basket on wheels that held a pile of treasures – old tin cans, pretty pebbles and bits of sea glass, and a jumbled mess of other things he’d never seen before.

Tasha beamed proudly. “The sea gave them to us. This thing was one of the things we found on our first expedition. We were so little we could hardly drag it up here.”

She selected a battered up pan from the driftwood shelf and set about preparing some clam soup for Terence, who was running his dark hands over the rusty metal cart. “Wow, I’ve never seen anything like this before. It certainly didn’t come from our island.”

Suddenly his eyes widened and he sucked in a breath. “Wait. I just thought of something. All the sudden everything makes sense. What if the prince banished you because you were from another island, one that he was afraid of? The one that all this stuff came from? Maybe he used your “weakness” as an excuse to banish you. Maybe that wasn’t the real reason.” He put his hands on their shoulders and looked into their eyes. “Tasha, Aeryn… we need to figure out your past. It just might be the key to my people’s future.”

________________________________

Dun-dun-DUNNNN! I know that was a cliffhanger, but you’re going to have to wait to see how it turns out… maybe for a long time. XD While I was brainstorming this story, I got an idea for a whole series! Kalea’s story would probably be the first book, the twins’ story would be the second, and I don’t know about the rest. So maybe one day I’ll write a whole book about the twins and you’ll get to see what happens! Maybe… 😛

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, dears, and thanks for reading!

***Allison***

The Art Lab, Episode 34: Watercolor Art

November 17, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Heyyyyy, guys, and welcome back to Art Lab! Today I’m going to show you three super simple and fun techniques for creating art with watercolors. These ideas are great for art-starters, warm-ups, or even as finished pieces. I used ATCs for my canvas, but you can use whatever paper you like (though watercolor paper works the best, if you have it). Also note that you can use watered-down acrylic paint instead of watercolors if you need too.

Alright, let’s do the easiest (and perhaps most fun) first. 🙂

Technique #1: Magic Islands

I discovered this one by accident and I just LOVE doing it!

1. Lay down some plastic wrap and drop some water in one corner. Dip your wet paintbrush in watercolor and mix it into the water.

2. Load up your brush with the diluted paint and splatter it onto the plastic wrap.

3. Lay a paper of some sort on top and smooth it out, then pick it up (obviously 😛 ).

4. Wait for the paint to dry, then trace around the splotches with pen.

5. And you’re done!

I think this technique looks like islands, don’t you? This would be a fun way to make a map:

Technique #2: Bubble Maze

This technique produces a fun and striking result. The translucence of the watercolor lets you see the colors overlap which makes a really neat effect.

1. Start by painting some dots. Overlap them and attach them to other circles so that the colors bleed into each other.

2. Continue adding dots of different colors until the page is mostly filled.

3. Fill in the white areas with black Sharpie or pen. And you’re done!

Technique #3: Splatter Trees

This is a great way to give the impression of leaves without drawing ever single leaf.

1. Splatter different complementary colors (I used fall colors, but you can use whatever you wish) onto your paper. Try to keep it roughly in a tree shape, but don’t worry if the splatters get a little out of control.

2. After the foliage is dry, use a slightly damp brush and brown paint to add in some branches and a trunk. Don’t draw all the branches the tree has, just a few poking out for effect. 😉

3. Add some grass and a few dots of fall color if you’re doing an autumn tree. And you’re done!

And there you go! Three fun and simple ways to make some watercolor art.

Which technique was your favorite? If you make art inspired by this post, we’d love to see it! Click here to learn how to help us fill our art gallery!

***Allison***

P. S. Hannah and Buttercup have joined the Art Lab team! Thank you so much, girls. ♥ Check out their first posts on the Art Lab blog and drop them a comment! 😀

{Welcome to Our Room}

November 13, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears! How goes life?

Megan and I recently changed our bedroom a bit, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a room update. (You can see my first new room redecorating post here, and second here.) I also wanted to mention a few tips and tricks for making your bedroom fresh and bright and pretty – not that I’m an professional interior designer or anything. XD

Ahem. Let us begin the tour. Won’t you step inside?

Welcome to our room. Please pardon Jinx, our cat. He looks like a black boulder. O.o

Right next to the door we have Megan’s bulletin board filled with random stuff, but mostly pictures and NeedtoBreathe lyrics. XD

(Ugh, sorry for the AWFUL picture quality! This corner doesn’t get much light.) Our small but tiny bookshelf holds on top of it a framed graphic print (made by Megan) and a spiky plant that resembles green onions but is nonetheless cute. The middle shelf is currently missing the KOTLC series because our cousin is borrowing it. 😉

The mantel doesn’t look much different than it has in previous bedroom posts, so…

And now we’re at the dresser. More on that later.

Okay, now for the light garland! I love the string of lights above our bed. ♥ (They’re from Hobby Lobby, by the way.) They aren’t fairy lights, but I think they’re just as pretty. It makes the room so cozy and, well, aesthetic. 😛 Oh, and that’s Megan, listening to Christmas music BEFORE IT’S EVEN THANKSGIVING. *sigh*

Interesting story: Shutterfly had a “101 free 4″X4″ prints” deal (you had to pay for shipping, though), so Megan and I ordered it! :O Megan wanted to hang some of the pictures in between our lights, and while I was a bit skeptical at first, I think it looks lovely now! All of the photos up here are of our bunnies, except one of Megan and one of me. 😉

This is my bed, starring Jinx (again), an elephant I made in sewing class, and a canvas I painted when we first redecorated.

Also starring… a quilt made in sewing class and Megan looking at the iPad.

I wanted to make a picture mosaic with some of the other 101 photos, and I’m rather pleased with how this turned out too! I chose only the cool-colored pictures from our selection so it wouldn’t be too overwhelming.

While we’re here, this is our beloved fuzzy cube. Pretty much the only change in this corner is the (also fuzzy) needle-felted fox I made. He may feature in a later post. 😉

Now for our plants. One day we had a friend over and since we were bored, we decided to name all of our plants. Heh.

First up we have Rapunzel, who is rather hard to get a picture of, but her hair reaches all the way to the floor. Impressive, no? (Also, yes, those are random clay things in the pot.)

On the dresser we have Finley…

And Einstein, a new addition. Don’t you think the name fits perfectly?

Here’s Einstein’s brother, Sylvester.

This is Droopy.

This is not a plant. This is me. Hiiiii! 😀

And then we have our plant rehabilitation center (aka, the spot in front of the window). In the foreground we have Cottontail (it’s a Rabbit’s Foot fern), and then in the background we have Puff the Magic Fern on the left and Miss Crispy on the right. *sigh* I do hope they recover.

And… that’s about it for the room tour! Before we leave, here are my three simple but helpful tips for a fresh, clean look. I hope they help!

My tip-top top tip is to declutter your room. This is seriously the best thing you can do. Go through your stuff – the little knickknacks lying on your dresser, papers poking out from your bed, clothes piled on the floor – and either give away the extra, throw it away, or put it into a nice container, box, or basket so it doesn’t sprawl all over the place. Don’t like cleaning your room? Trust me, this will help. If you don’t have as many things to get out, you won’t have as much to put away!
Okay, that probably wasn’t a very popular tip, huh? XD But you try it and tell me if I’m wrong! Anyway, my next tip is to choose a limited color palette. Our colors are mint green, white, and purple, but mainly mint green (obviously). Keeping your decorations to two or three different colors really helps your room look more fresh, clean, and pretty, especially if you choose light colors.
Which reminds me. Choose a light color scheme. Now, this isn’t necessary of course, but light, bright colors like white, mint, light blue or pink, etc. make your room seem fresher, bigger, and even cleaner! This is important for the wall color, especially. But if you can’t change your wall color, don’t worry, the first two tips will still help a ton, and you can make your decorations are light. 😉

Well, that’s all I have for today! I hope you enjoyed the room tour. 🙂 What was your favorite part of our room? If you’d like to see more details on the parts I didn’t cover, make sure to check out my other room posts (linked at the top of this post).

Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day, dears!

***Allison***

CPC #5: ~ e x p e d i t i o n ~

November 8, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Hey there, my dears! I’m back with another Cameras and Pens Contest challenge! Part of these characters and storyline ideas are from a story I’ve been rolling around in my head for a couple of years. Who knows, maybe I’ll write it sometime. Until then, I hope you enjoy this short story and accompanying illustrations! 🙂

Prompts Used: 3

Art Submitted: 6

Photos Submitted: 3

Total Points: 22

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~ e x p e d i t i o n ~

Aeryn slung her backpack over her shoulder, swept up her long, mocha-brown hair into a loose bun, and headed over to her sister’s house. Her leather moccasins padded silently over the springy path of moss and lush undergrowth that grew up so fast in the island’s rainforest climate. She grabbed a handful of pink berries in passing and chewed them contentedly, humming to herself and wondering if they would find anything interesting on their expedition today. They nearly always found something good after a storm.

She felt the familiar thrill as she raced across the plank-and-vine bridge they had built years ago, smiling as the floor bounced and swayed under her feet and the rough vines slid quickly past her fingers. Had it really been four years since they had built it together?

Related image — Prompt picture. Not mine. (Although I wish it was. XD)

Aeryn wondered for the millionth time how many years before that they had lived on this island, or if they had lived her all their lives. She wondered if the world was just water past this island or if there were more islands somewhere else. The current was too vicious and protective to let them get anywhere out of sight of the shoreline even if they’d wanted to leave.

She sighed as she walked straight up to her sister’s wooden door instead of climbing a rope ladder like there was at her own house. That was one of the reasons she and her sister had decided to live separately: Aeryn loved heights and Tasha despised them. She was about to push open the door when she noticed the yellow pumpkin staring innocently up at her from the step.

“Hey, Tash,” Aeryn said as she stepped inside the airy room. The sunlight filtering through the palm-leaf roof danced across her sister hair – hair the exact same shade as hers.

Tasha looked up from the bag she was filling for the expedition. “Yeah?”

“Why is your pumpkin still here?”

“What are you talking about? I threw it out a long time ago.”

Aeryn shook her head. “Then how come it’s sitting on your step again? And hold on, was the scarecrow like that yesterday?”

Tasha heaved the sack onto her shoulder and peered out the open window. She looked surprised to see the pumpkin sitting there and the scarecrow lying forlornly in the dirt nearby. She shrugged. “Huh. Maybe Terence was in a bad mood or something.”

Aeryn followed her sister out of the house, frowning. “I… don’t think so. How could a toucan knock over that heavy scarecrow? It was probably the wind from the storm last night.They argued about it as they hiked down the hill, under towering trees dripping with moss and vines and ferns, past roaring waterfalls that sprinkled their faces, over twinkling creeks, and around huge green-haired boulders.

DSC_0339 (1280x853) — This picture and the one above are from this post.

When they reached the shore they still hadn’t arrived at a conclusion, but suddenly the argument died on their lips.

“What,” Tasha whispered, “is that?”

Something black and shiny and covered with seaweed sprawled in a heap at the edge of the ocean. Tasha hung back, but Aeryn crept closer and narrowed her eyes, inspecting the thing closely. She chewed her lip and scrunched her nose in concentration. They had never seen anything like this on their expeditions. She flicked off a piece of seaweed and then screeched, scrambling back in terror as the black thing made a shuddering movement.

“Tasha, it’s… alive.”

Tasha’s eyes widened as wide as they could go, which was considerably wide seeing as her eyes were quite large to begin with. “Is it a beached whale?” she asked in a hushed voice.

In answer, the black heap began to move again, slowly and with what looked like great effort. As it unfolded itself, the two sisters could make out a head and a body, arms and legs, and rumpled gray clothes.

And a face. A face like theirs and yet completely different. While the girls both had light brown hair and lightly tanned skin and light periwinkle eyes, everything about the stranger was dark: curly black hair and glistening black-brown skin and black-brown eyes to match.The stranger just stared dazedly at them for a while as if trying to sort something out in his head, and then spoke in a soft but oddly deep voice. A voice like the rich bitter-sweetness of cacao beans, Tasha thought. “I’m not a whale. I’m a boy; Terence.”

The girls blinked and backed away. This was getting way too strange. For one thing, what on earth was a boy? And for another thing, Terence was their pet toucan, not this… whatever it was… this chocolate person.

Terence laughed a raspy but booming laugh, and the girls jumped. “I guess you never heard of boys, huh? Because you… wow you girls must be The Twins.” He stopped and looked awestruck for a moment. “Thirteen years. Thirteen years on this island, all by yourself. And – just look at you! As like as two peas in a pod.” He shook his head in amazement. “I can’t believe it, I sure can’t believe it.”

A hundred thoughts were screaming to be picked up in the girls’ minds. What are twins? We’ve really been here thirteen years? I didn’t even know anyone knew about us. I didn’t even know there was anyone else. Is this Tarence person safe? But finally Aeryn chased down one of the questions, grabbed it by the tail, and forced it out her mouth. “Are you… one of us?”

He smiled, flashing the big, bright white teeth set into his dark face. “Sure am.” He saw them looking him up and down and cleared his throat. “Well, I mean I’m not exactly like you – you’re girls and I’m a boy, you know. See… it’s like with animals. Two different kinds of the same animals, two different kinds of same humans – boys and girls. See?”

When they still looked skeptical, he added, “Well that and my skin is a different color, but that don’t make any difference. Lots of folks are all different colors, but we’re still people, see? We might look a little different on the outside, but our insides be the same colors. Not that I ever checked for certain, you understand.” He flashed another grin and they tried to return it but failed miserably.

Two brilliant butterflies chased each other past his face and his eyebrows jumped. “Oh hey, I know. Okay, so some butterflies gonna be yellow, some gonna be red, others gonna be black, see? But they’re all butterflies just the same, and they’re all downright pretty no matter the color. Make sense? Now, course we’re different from those butterflies, you know, ’cause they don’t even know they’re different colors atall, they don’t even know what colors are, now do they?” He looked at them kindly and they nodded, relaxing at last, understanding at last. “You got me. I knew you would. You’re not scared of me now, huh?”

They smiled a little and shook their heads. Tasha stepped forward just a bit and said shyly, “I’m not scared. I think you’re beautiful. I wish I could have chocolate skin.”

Terence chuckled gratefully. “Naw, you’re skin is good the way it is. I think you’re beautiful too – both of you.” He smiled easily at them, then shook his head in amazement again. “I can’t believe I just been talking to the famous Twins! We all thought you was dead! Aw shucks, I thought I was gonna be dead when that storm come up. That ocean don’t seem to want people to find you, huh? I guess it’s pretty good at keeping secrets. But I’m done with secrets. I’ve had too many for my liking already, so I’ll tell you anything you want to know if you want to hear it. And say, you girls better tell me how you managed to survive all the way out here! But first…” Terence broke off and looked down at himself guiltily. “Do y’all have a place where I could refresh myself? And maybe… get a drink or a bite to eat?”

His eyes gleamed longingly as he spoke the last words and Tasha, the motherly one, could see that he was quite in need of nourishment. Aeryn at last had warmed up to his easy manner and was willing to help him, on the condition he would talk while they walked.

That wasn’t a hard condition for Terence, who routinely also talked while he slept. And so as they walked slowly back to Aeryn’s house, he gradually pulled their past out of the mist. And the twins, listening with wide eyes, almost wished it had stayed there.

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That was rather fun to write. 😀 Did you enjoy this story? What was your favorite piece of art or photo?

Also I know I just posted CPC challenge not too long ago and now here’s another one, so I may or may not just post the next challenge on my CWWC page. (Hmm, perhaps I need to change that title. XD) If you’re interested, I also have the two other challenges I did not post so far on that page as well.

Have a lovely day, lovely people! ♥

***Allison***

P. S. If you’re in the mood for more reading, you should totally check out the latest WordCrafters chapter here! Sarah did an amazing job on it. 😀

A Peek into My Bullet Journal

November 5, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Heyyyy guys!

I’ve been thinking of doing this post for quite a while now, but just haven’t posted, perhaps partly because there are so many other posts like this that I didn’t feel it was necessary. 😛 But I do enjoy looking at BuJo posts, plus it’s fun to see people’s different styles, so here I am!

I just got my second bullet journal the other day and it felt like I knew better how to set it up this time, so I thought it’d be a good time to show you guys.

What is a bullet journal? In brief, it’s a notebook to keep track of pretty much everything – to-do lists, habit trackers, favorite quotes, books to read, cleaning schedules – really whatever you need! They’re really more of a customizable system than a physical notebook. You can lean more about them here.

The hardest part of setting this up was finding a balance between pretty and practical. I love all the gorgeous bullet journal formats I’ve seen on Pinterest, but I also don’t really want to spend twenty minutes a day just on the header/design, you know? But since I’m who I am, I obviously wanted it to be at least a little bit aesthetic. XD

I’m pretty happy with the layout I ended up with. Hopefully it will help you guys too if you’re setting up a bullet journal for the first time! Although just a note: there is no one way to set up a bullet journal. That’s the great thing about these journals – they can be whatever you need them to be!

Oh wait, before I start, I bought this bullet grid journal from Amazon. You can see it here. It’s pretty, cheap, and also pretty cheap. 😛 The grids aren’t very precise (if you flip through the book, the dots move toward the left a little bit), and the paper is pretty thin, but it’s good enough for me. (I know I’m using “pretty” a lot but I don’t know what else to use. Help.) You can make any ol’ notebook into a BuJo, but I really like having the faint dots there to use as guidelines while they’re not as distracting as whole lines.

This is the first really customizable spread, after two pages of inspiration printed in the front of the notebook.

Your key basically helps you keep track of what different icons you use and what they mean. This is helpful for things like to-do lists especially. (Also “migrated” means moved to the next day/month/list/etc.)

Banners are a fun and easy way to spiff up your header. The grid format makes it easy to draw them. I wrote my header in flowy cursive and added a touch of purple colored pencil.

You’ll want to number your pages and write them in your index so you can quickly find whatever you need. That way if you think of a new list or topic you want to add, you can just use the next blank page and write it down in your index.

Of course I needed a pretty hand-lettered quote in here somewhere. XD

Okay, now we’re getting to the main part. Remember my discussion of pretty vs. practical? I decided to spend a little more time making the permanent pages pretty (like lists that will last me the whole time I have this journal), and keep the repetitive pages simple (like my daily entries). The beginning of my journal is mostly permanent lists.

I don’t particularly like this page’s layout, so I would suggest looking up a better one on Pinterest. XD But anyway, I really enjoy having a books-read-tracker so I can look back on how many and what books I’ve read in a month. So far I’ve only read one. Heh heh.

Oh, and since I filled my last journal in about six months, I formatted this to last the same amount of time. So I have six bookshelves for six months.

I use a task box instead of a bullet point so I can see the prayers God answers. ♥

I didn’t have this page in my last journal but I wanted to add it now. This is a pretty simple layout compared to some, but it’s still pretty (at least I think). Not perfect (UGH SMUDGES 😡 ), but nice. I’m planning to write the birthdays in the cupcake wrapper first and then in the icing if I fill that up. You could also write your family’s birthdays in one section and your friends’ in another.

I use this page a lot too, to record all the post ideas I have. (This is an incomplete list, by the way.) I decided to make two columns since I used up my last blogging page way too fast.

This one’s not very important, but it is fun. 🙂 Especially around the holidays. As you can see, I mostly want art stuff. XD

I use this page as a sort of big picture to-do list. It’s currently filled with art projects, although not in this picture. XD

And my last page is Notes. My thoughts/notes/ideas overflowed my allotted one page in my last BuJo, so I came better prepared this time. XD

Before we move on to the next section, I just wanted to say that I think it’s a good idea to keep a few pages blank before you start your daily or monthly section, just in case you want to add more lists later.

Okay, we’re done with the lists. I like to draw a little “cover” for each month. This is one of the parts I had trouble with in my last journal – when I came to the next month, I usually wasn’t ready to sit down and draw an elaborate header for it, so I just kind of scribbled something.

This time, I decided to write each month’s name in simple (fake) calligraphy in one corner so I could fill in the rest of the page later with a picture, or just add a small doodle like I did here.

My my, that “b” got a little out of hand. XD

Alright, now onto the daily section! I personally don’t have a need for a habit tracker or anything broader than a daily journal. I usually write the month, date, and day in cursive first. Then a bullet point and a few sentences to a paragraph about my day (no, I don’t record any secret thoughts or that sort of thing really XD). I also record what post I’ve written if I’ve posted, and my to-do list for the next day, which is my favorite part. 😉 The picture below is from… well October, obviously. Heh.

I find that it really helps me enjoy the day more and stay more focused if I have some goals to look forward to, however small. Sometimes I even just write “Draw” as one of my goals if I can’t think of anything more important. And here’s where I use my key.

13 (1280x889) — I promise my days aren’t *always* that boring. XD

And that’s about it! I hope you enjoyed looking through my bullet journal! Did you find any good ideas or inspiration? Do you have any tips or inspiration for me? Do you have or want a bullet journal?

***Allison***