carol j watson

I am looking forward to Saturday’s 22nd World Wide Sketch Crawl! I thought it might be a good idea to put forth a plan in the event of rain. The Sketch Crawl is designed to take place rain or shine. You’ll just get to set up shop inside and sketch (maybe over a nice cup of tea?) to your heart’s content, until you decide you’re ready to move on to another location or call it a day.

If the rain is pouring down at the start time of 10:00 a.m., let’s just meet up across the street from the south entrance to the courthouse at Down the Alley Bistro. It’s a nice establishment…a good place to start our adventure that day!

Otherwise, I’m crossing my fingers and hoping to have a beautiful day! Please spread the word, and bring a friend or two! Read my previous post for details about this wonderful day.

By the way, if you are available on Friday the 10th at around 10:00 a.m. and are looking for something fun to do, join me, Karen Frost from the City of Georgetown, and a host of other daring artists as we paint poppies on the business windows on the square! We’re doing this to prepare for the Red Poppy Fest at the end of April, so come join in the fun! We’ll provide paint, bring a brush, a cup, and a drop cloth or tarp if you have one! Don’t worry if you haven’t painted a poppy before, we’ll help you along!

Got art?

Whew! I finished! These were fun little projects…I gave two away as Christmas gifts before I could take pics (hmmm, mental note to self: sneak them back for a picture). Four are left though, and they are going up on Etsy as soon as I am done with this post.

I say that these shrines are finished….for now, because they really are intended for completion by the owner. While I put a few embellishments inside, I was mindful to leave room for purposeful things to be added later. Each one definitely took on a personality of its own, but even that is destined to evolve in the hands its owner.

So, what did I do in these final stages? Well, first, I decided it was time for more hand-designed paper, so out came the rice paper, watercolors, and oil pastels. That is a therapeutic activity perfect for whiling away the time (even better if Ellen is on). I drew shapes and designs on rice paper with the oil pastels, then went over the entire paper with watercolor (Prang glitter watercolors are my favorite). Then I just tore various rectangles, squares and odd shapes with my trusty metal ruler.

I used more satin finish varnish to seal everything on the outside, and added more than just the decorative rice paper. I used stamps, fortune cards, and my favorite, precious die-cut gnomes from Tiny Things are Cute. I added some 3D features with various small embellishments and even some leftover multicolor shrinky dink rectangles left over from a previous project.

Last, I gave a light sprinkle of sugardust white glitter. I love it glitter. I love working with it. I love how when I finally quit for the night, I have glitter in random and accidental places. I love how the next morning, it is in my bed on and in my husband’s sideburns. Glitter migrates. No one is safe from the glitter.

Now all I have left to do is upload the shrines to Etsy. I’ll post more pictures there. For now, enjoy!