Color Burst: Painted Butterfly

I sat down to work on some projects for upcoming classes...and I accidentally painted this. it was just a simple butterfly that I was watercolor doodling.  

I added some Speedball Ink with a fine detail brush and it really started to come alive for me.  I literally just "scribbled" with the ink and the brush around my watercolored butterfly.

I have to be honest, I completely and totally "lifted" the technique from my artist friend Dakri Sinclair. She's my neighbor and we had a little paint date recently.  I picked up a few tricks. 

Dakri and I go way back...when I was just out of high school, I worked for her mother, Angie Sinclair, who was also an artist, a creator, a writer, a dreamer and a genius...in fact my experience with Dakri's mom, Angie, has in many ways been my inspiration as I've started on my own "solo-preneur" journey this year. I am over the moon that Dakri and I have been able to reconnect after all these years.   

I was completely mesmerized as I watched her paint this piece.

Dakri's finished piece is just amazing!  If you'd like to see a little more of what she does, click on the link here to visit her etsy shop.  Her style is magical!

As I scribbled with the ink and fine detailed brush, I realized that my little 5"x5" butterfly painting would make a great card.  

I added a layer of cardstock behind it, popped on a couple of sequins, and called it done! To me, this card is fresh, simple, and if you've used Color Burst, you are gonna want to try this! 

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you've found some inspiration that will help you along on your creative journey! 

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

Creating Beautiful Bezels with ICE Resin by Susan Lenart Kazmer

A couple years ago, I discovered ICE Resin, a product developed by Susan Lenart Kazmer...she is one of the most inspiring artists I've ever met.  If you're not familiar with her work, click on the link above to view her amazing work.    

Susan worked with Spellbinders to develop a line of bezels and pendants...and I became very familiar with the products. I got to teach and demonstrate the products, literally around the world at trade shows and art events...here's a flashback from the blog archives where you can see some of the places and people I met...Creating Beautiful Bezels with Spellbinders Media Mixage...for me, it was an incredible experience to work with the products and to share them with other artists and crafters.  I'd not created any jewelry peices for years...so it was a nice reintroduction to jewelry making. 

And, over time as I worked with the products, I discovered a few techniques and tricks of my own when working with ICE Resin.  For example, the resin in the photo above is tinted with artists pastels...the resin looks like Lapis...it's a cool technique that I love to share in the workshops I teach today.

And, over time, as I have moved on and done other things, artistically and professionally, I still get asked to teach ICE Resin workshops...I absolutely love getting to share the techniques with students who attend.  The student work is always very inspiring.  Very often we create memory pieces...I ask students to bring family photos and personal letters and we set out to preserve family memories by creating pendants and bezels with those treasure images.  

During the course of the workshops, I often end up with some beautiful pieces that I've created with the students as examples and instructional pieces...I've started adding them to my etsy shop,          Ken Oliver Crafts. They're often too beautiful not to share.   

I'm still teaching ICE Resin workshops and in fact, I have a workshop on October 24th in my hometown.  The event is called ICE at the Edge, You can click on the link...or click on the ICE at the Edge banner at the side of this page for more details.  The event will be smaller and more intimate than many of the workshops I teach, and we're going to be in the most beautiful venue...our classroom over looks the Ohio River in Southern Indiana.   

I am getting really excited about ICE at the Edge. Students are traveling from as far away as Florida, Connecticut, and Minnesota to attend.  

If you'd like to enroll, it's really easy, and affordable and the workshop includes dinner...

And, at the end of the workshop, you'll have created 4 beautiful pendants that you can wear yourself, or give as gifts.  

As you can probably tell, I love working with ICE Resin...it's let me create and express my art in lots of new ways...I'd invite you to visit my etsy shop to see more...and hopefully, you'll think about coming to ICE at the Edge to learn how to create these beautiful pieces yourself.  I hope to see you there!