Family Business and Gratitude

“I sew a little prayer and a little good wish into every card I make," is what my mom said when I picked up a bunch of watercolor cards yesterday that she’d just sewn for me. And, that, just kind of blew me away, because I know it's true.

   

 As a "solo-preneur" I never know how things are gonna get done and I am really grateful that I can rely on my family for some of the day-to-day tasks that I need to accomplish. No kidding, I've actually asked my dad to help me kit and sort scrapbook paper. 

Lately, my mom has been helping with sewing watercolor card fronts together. And I could not be more grateful to her for help. I just love this image of her hands sewing (can you see the love?)...she's been a seamstress all her life, her work is amazing.  She's sewn window treatments, draperies, and accessories for homes all over the United States and been included in publications and house tours for over 40 years. And even to this day, designers and folks who worked with my mom in the past, tell me they always loved working with her, loved her designs, and often tried to figure out how she created some of her wonderful projects. 

So, I would have never imagined while I was in college, or busy working at my corporate jobs, that at some time in the future, I'd have the opportunity to work directly with my parents, in a business, almost every day. I am grateful for their time, talent and for their years of experience in running their own businesses. Most people don't get this opportunity and I am blessed daily for it, and it never would have happened had I not left the corporate world and ventured out on my own.  

The fact that these watercolor cards are even a class is also somewhat of an accident, it seems a few store owners had seen some of my Color Burst demos and suggested that a watercolor card class would be great...and it is, in this class I get to teach a number of Color Burst stamping and painting techniques, and I'm starting to get enough requests for the class that we're going to have to find a source for the cards...it's not like I can ask my mom to sew thousands of cards every week.  

 

 So until I find the source, we'll keep making the cards by hand, and each one will have a little prayer and a little wish sewn into it, and I am so happy to be able to share these cards with my students, because they really are handmade with love.  And I am so grateful that my journey has brought me home and given me the opportunity to work with my family in ways I never imagined and I could not be happier! 

Til next time, 

Ken

  

Spring Monograms-Moss Gardens

Monograms are everywhere these days, paper monograms, diecut monograms, painted and hand-lettered monograms, even lighted monograms are showing up in craft and decor, on every kind of project imaginable...I had a flash of a wild idea...to create a moss garden monogram.  They look very fresh, very springy and will make a cool Easter gift for my nieces and nephew. They're teens and tweens so it has to have some "cool" factor.

Making this project was a snap.  I got monogram letters from Micheal's, along with a bag of sphagnum moss from the floral department. 



Then painted them with Americana Multi-Surface Satin Paints from DecoArt...I used pastel colors since it's spring. 

I applied two coats of paint to each monogram.

 And, when they were dry, glued Sphagnum moss to the front of each monogram.

They turned out so cool! I had a pack of lichens too, so I added a few lichens, just for visual interest and texture. 

I really love how these turned out!  They're perfect for spring and let you bring a little nature indoors. 

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you'll try this project for yourself because it's fun and it looks great in any room!

Happy Easter, 

Ken

5 Completely Awesome Color Burst Techniques with Ken Oliver

Hey everybody, last week I brought a really fun watercolor product to the market at the Craft and Hobby Association Show in Anaheim California...this product is so different that anything I've ever used to water color before...I really have to share some awesome techniques using Color Burst. 

 You can stencil...

 

You can mono-print (like gelli-plate)

 

You can custom dye ribbon to match your projects...

 

You can create custom flowers, tinted to match your projects, and with the leftover pigment that's on your work surface create really cool water color backgrounds on tags or cardstock!  

 

I am telling you...Color Burst is awesome stuff, and when you start using it your going to say to yourself...the spray is passe!  

I made a quick technique video, to show you how to do every single one of the techniques I just showed you in this blog post...I apologize for the video quality, I am still learning and some of the examples might be a little bit outside the range of view, I hope you'll excuse my video making and just look at how awesome Color Burst is! 

 

Color Burst will ship in late February and is available wholesale through Product Performers...ask your local retailer to order it now, because once you get your hands on it, you won't want to stop!