09 April 2014

How to Draw a Duck

Who needs Peeps? Here is a duck tutorial for spring! Quack Quack! Have a Happy Easter everyone!

You will need:
  • pretty marker, one for beak, one for rest of the body
  • black marker or pen
  • paper
Here is a follow along tutorial below!

On a side note, I am having a lot of difficulty photographing my drawings as of late. No matter how much light and what camera setting I have for the photograph, it seems to come out really gray. Does anyone have any suggestions for fixing ths problem? I did this week's in inkscape but I really would like to physically draw my drawing tutorials. If it helps at all, it looks nice and white on my camera, but all gray and yucky when I load it onto the computer. I have to put the photo through extensive editing, and even then its a bit gray, and then the image is compromised as well. HELP!


How to Draw a Deer


Hello there! Want to add some friendly deer to the list of woodsy animals you can draw? Here is a simple way to draw them using only simple shapes and lines.

You will need:

  • colored marker
  • black fine tip marker or pen
  • paper


Here is a simple follow along guide!



 Good luck!

05 April 2014

Blue Lace Ballet Flats

For April, I am making a bright teal pair of ballet flats. To make things easier on myself, I invested the $4.50 for this awesome pattern by winter peach. (see right) Please purchase this pattern if you want to follow this tutorial! It is super cheap, and you can make shoes for all your friends because if comes with 7 different sizes. It also comes with really awesome instructions. They are easy to follow, even if you haven't a lot of know-how in the pattern department. Also it supports a small business, and is a pretty useful pattern overall :)

I am also making a tutorial on a custom fit shoe pattern that you could follow and just use that pattern! HERE is the link to that tutorial

Without further ado, here is what I did to make some beautiful shoes! So for this one, I put my foot on the interfacing sole pattern piece to determine a proper size. I settled of the size 9, since the 8 seemed a bit small. I am usually a size 7 1/2 or 8. I think reviews on winter peach's site said to go up a size if you are a half size.

I had some teal linen lying around leftover from my wedding, so this is going to become the outside of the shoes! The inside is an acrylic material from a dress I made last year. Here are the cut out pieces below, along with my fancy new tool from my lovely and generous mother-in-law :)


The first step is to place right sides together and stitch around the inside edge of the uppers (uppers=top part of shoes for the newbies out there). Cut up to--but not through the stitch to ease in flipping inside out later.


Next we are going to iron the uppers flat. This is much easier to do now than later when the shoe is trying to be all 3D shaped and all. We will also pin the lace in place. First flip the uppers so right sides are out and iron flat. Next, lay the lace under the upper and pin it exactly where you want it to be sewed down. Make sure both sides are even with each other.


Now we will sew the heel portion together! Open the uppers at the back so they look like the picture below, and sew together. Just leave the pins in at the bottom where the lace is, we will stitch this down with a top stitch after we get the heel right.


Now we will attach the sole liner to the upper liner fabric. (this is the white butterfly fabric in this case) Use a lot of pins, then carefully sew around the shoes, paying careful attention to seam allowance.


Now being careful to not hurt yourself with the pins, carefully try on your shoes to see how they fit. Don't worry if they do not fit perfectly, we will fix them in the next installment of this tutorial.

Happy shoemaking!

01 April 2014

April Inspiration

I am always inspired by the art that I find on my Pinterest. Recently, there have been incredible pieces popping and I thought I would like to share a few of my favorites! (with links if you like them of course!)

Chloe's Dress

by Sara Riches, Australia
I love the pattern in the skirt and the drips from the ink! This lady claims to be a stay at home mom. This makes me twice as impressed at how many beautiful pieces she has on her website.


Colored Pencil Fall Girl 2012

Morgan Davidson, Florida
This is colored pencil people. I don't know how people do this with colored pencil.



after nature

Niken Anindita, Indonesia 
I love the beautiful aurora borealis. And the lantern. And everything about this print. This artist really knows how to use light.




Dragonflies - Night

Jimmy Lawlor
Beautiful concept, captivating.




And where would I be without a bit of shameless self-promotion? I can't claim to be nearly as talented a any of these wonderful artists, but here is a new painting I am pretty excited about!

Girl's Imagination while Reading

Amy Rowcliffe



How to Draw a T-Rex


Sometimes it is fun to draw animals that only exist in our museums, our imaginations and long ago. Now, for the mightiest of dinosaurs of them all, the Tyrannosaurus Rex!

For this Tutorial, You will Need:
  • A colored marker, or two
  • A black pen
  • Some paper
Below is a simple follow-along guide!




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