creative jewish mom

Watercolor Pomegranates Card Craft

We are ushering in the wonderful holiday of Sukkot tomorrow night, and I am still crafting (of course) so you may also be in need of a sweet way to make some holiday cards or placecards? My daughter made this for me as a Rosh HaShana card, and it is just so sweet I had to share it with you! A branch of apples and pomegranates could work for Succot, or even Tu B'Shevat, the new year for fruit bearing trees, so if you don't have time for it now, keep it in mind! I love the little touch of gold leaf, right?

Okay, lets get started on this, time is of the essence!

Watercolor Blue And White Vases With Flowers

Summer is the perfect time to delve into something new, and if you can take it with you, all the better! So friends, consider starting a sketchbook, keeping in mind that it is about creative growth not perfection, and I can promise you, it is a very very worthwhile journey, and so very satisfying, trust me! This watercolor paper sketchbook of mine was started two years ago on a vacation in Sweden, and I have been slowly adding art to the pages, most recently, art created with watercolors, ahhhhh. And guess what friends, if you don't like the results, so paint an acrylic paint painting over it, and voila, that watercolor painting gone wrong is old news. The main thing is to use your sketchbook to tell the tale of your creative journey, which can be so many things! If you'd like to start but not sure where, how about some sweet blue and white vessels filled with flowers, or not? This is a perfect subject for beginners, because wonky vases and flowers with interesting shapes might be that much more interesting! Okay, lets get started!

Simple Watercolor Leaves To Paint For Shavuot!

As you know, I love to create with a wide variety of media, and recently I've been devoting just a tiny pocket of time to filling my watercolor paper art journal with simple watercolor paintings. Check out my watercolor carrots, watercolor feathers and watercolor ferns. It is true, I'm loving the watercolor exploration as it is a relief from the intense oil pastel paintings I've been doing, though to create the kind of art I love with watercolors I'd need to combine them with acryla gouache and also get some liquid watercolors with intense colors, ah yes and huge pieces of watercolor paper! That said, my little travel watercolor palette is just so cute and fun to use, and there is something about the simplicity of watercolor that is just so very very wonderful, not to mention all the cool results one can achieve by letting the watercolors move where they like, on paper to which you've applied water first. And when the time comes to travel once again, I'm all set! Especially since I treated myself to some travel watercolor brushes, that come apart and form their own little protective case, lucky me!

Right now, as we approach the holiday of Shavuot for which we decorate our homes with greenery and flowers, decorating with watercolor paintings of greenery is certainly a wonderful way to go. So take a look at this layered watercolor leaves idea, do it on sheets of paper, and then hang them for wonderful and artful greenery! Keep on reading for a few helpful tips!

Watercolor Fern Paintings For Shavuot!

I am taking this one out of the archives, as we could all use a simple yet great looking craft project right about now, right?There is something so accessible and wonderful about watercolors, so give them a try!

Shavuot the Jewish holiday that celebrates the receiving of the Torah starts in 2 weeks on the evening of May 16, so now is a great time to whip up some gorgeous watercolor leaf paintings and learn about practicing your brush strokes a win win crafting experience! As part of my creative journey I'm in the process of exploring creating with different media, including watercolor painting. It turns out that the first step is learning brush control, using a round brush, and leaves like the ones used in my fern illustrations are created with just one stroke. Pretty great I must admit, and so relaxing to paint. A friend was over the other day and she thought I had stamped all these little leaves! Of course there are so many designs one can make once you master the one stroke leaf, so give it a try and enjoy!

Simple Watercolor Feathers To Paint Today, For Lag B'Omer!

Tonight we welcome the festive holiday of Lag B'Omer, so why not carve out a tiny window of time to paint some watercolor feathers? It is true Lag B'Omer generally brings to mind images of bonfires and bows and arrows, but I'd say feathers, which are used to write the Torah, and certainly the Zohar, originally, are a perfect symbol as well! Plus, feathers are just so fun to paint, and I ended up filling two pages in my watercolor journal with them, and can't wait to paint more, next time in a mix of rainbow colors or pastels, we'll just have to wait and see! If I had the time I'd paint some of these on watercolor paper and cut them out to hang anywhere, so lovely! Wishing everyone an amazing Lag B'Omer! Keep on reading for simple painting instructions!

A Peek In My Sketchbook: Simple Glass Bottles With Flowers

Sometimes a super simple waterproof ink pen sketch filled in with some watercolor paint can look fresh and fun. After all of the floral sketches I did in various sketchbooks this summer, the time came to introduce some color, and this is the result......not a work of art, but a sweet illustration that one can do rather quickly, even in this large A4 sketchbook! Of course, first practice drawing flowers that you love, then practice drawing simple glass bottles, and then bring them together, and that is it. A sketch like this could be done in so many ways, with a variety of flowers as I did, one with just one flower, or with even a few stems lying on the table waiting to be place in water. The main thing is, just draw it, and paint it, without worrying too much about anything, as this is supposed to be enjoyable and relaxing, got it?

Sketch Flowers Over The Abstract Watercolor Landscape To Improve It!

In the last 5 or so months as I've upped my sketchbook game considerably, I've also been slowly mastering the art of fixing mistakes, as pages in a sketchbook should depict a journey, but in my case not the stumbles, I prefer to forget about those! So, while my other fixes have been via paper collage or acrylic paint, fixing a watercolor landscape that isn't pleasing is actually a fun creative endeavor, as once you realize that the not so great watercolor sketch becomes a background for something else, ahhhh, the fun can begin. On a whim I decided to sketch a few large flowers not in proportion to the scale of the little brightly colored landscape watercolors, and I just love the accidental success of it! Now, covering a spread in my watercolor sketchbook is not four little landscapes as planned, but something more akin to a wall mural, so take a look and keep this in mind if you ever find yourself in a similar situation (which I hope you do!)

Abstract Watercolor Landscape Sketches With Pen

Last week I shared with you some very simple abstract watercolor sketches, check it out here, which are really lovely, and now I'm want to show you what to do when those sketches are not so successful! It is true you could just leave them alone, or paint over them entirely, but first, try defining some of the spaces with pen or colored pencil. I used a black waterproof pen and and white gel pen, but do experiment, as that is what a sketchbook is all about. After all my fears of messing up in my sketchbook, this week I entered a mind space where at long last I feel freer to experiment in my sketchbook, as first of all it is small and therefore makes more sense timewise, and ahhhhh, no one needs to know about it! Well of course no one except for you all, my dear readers. So, I really really do recommend trying to start a sketchbook practice, I am finding it to be so very rewarding and interesting, especially since this week I've moved into my landscape orientation watercolor paper sketchbook! Okay, have a look at the rest of the group, that were painted across two pages......

Watercolor Landscape Sketches Tiny And Abstract

I am dreaming of painting landscapes in my sketchbook, or not, on a regular basis, and yet something always seems to get in the way. It took me all summer long, but at long last I grabbed some watercolors and got to work on what should be some very quick and quite abstract landscape watercolor sketches. I have to say, I was quite pleased with the results......not professional use of the medium by any means, (and the watercolor palette I used is low quality and not dense pigment) but happy and still can't believe I actually painted these little studies. The funny thing is, after painting these I got overly confident and went for a full page, and......disaster, well not entirely, but I have to laugh and try to reclaim that innocence of the first attempt! At the very least a few more pages of this landscape orientation sketchbook have been filled, and am looking forward to filling some more, and then getting something whose first pages won't fall out, and thus need masking tape as you can see here. I am learning that the purpose of a sketchbook, whether for drawing or painting or both is to experiment and capture whatever is going on in your brain at that moment, without being overly concerned about the results. I am working on that one! I have a few tips for making little abstract landscape watercolors, so keep on reading......

Simple Watercolor Poppy Wall Art

After sharing a few posts last week showing the watercolor poppies I used to make holiday decorations I decided to hold off and publish this watercolor poppy wall art separately so that it wouldn't get lost in all the gorgeousness of the watercolor poppy cut outs and the watercolor poppies centerpiece! After making those watercolor poppy cut-outs with straight stems, I realized that I could paint a panorama (two sheets of large watercolor paper used horizontally) of curved stem poppies to fill the width of my kitchen picture ledge for some more lovely decor! And yes indeed, simply painting a long row of poppies with no added background looks quite good, and can be done fairly quickly. Best of all, flat art like this is certainly simple to store until you need to add a festive touch once again. Of course these poppies are so great looking you'll likely leave them up for a while! I have 3 picture ledges in my kitchen that are used to display art generally, and I love to change them up, so these poppies have been a nice addition, and quite a bit more calming than my flower paintings hung clothesline style! The great thing about watercolor paper is that I was able to simply stand the sheets on the shelf, and with just a bit of masking tape to secure them, voila, lovely art was born. Okay, I did have to paint the poppies first, but that was pure joy! Want to make some painted poppies to decorate a spot in your home? Let's do it!