creative jewish mom

DIY Simple Watercolor Butterflies Anyone Can Make!

If you love the look of watercolor butterflies with mixed media details and line work, then check out my doodle butterfly cutouts , though if you are looking for something just a bit simpler to make in quantities or as a craft to do with little ones, this simple watercolor butterfly cut-out craft might just be the one for you! I do love the calming look of these, and of course they would also be wonderful combined with the more detailed doodle detailed butterflies, if you so desire. And truthfully one big butterfly cut out from a page you've painted with watercolor clouds is oh so lovely, and maybe just the project to bring some joy into the world right about now. So take a look around for art that needs recycling, unfinished paintings that will never get finished or even some bits of paper that you can put to use by painting with simple watercolor patterns and then using for butterfly cutouts!

Watercolor Butterfly Cut-Outs For Collage, Art Journaling And Crafting

Now is a great time to paint loose watercolor butterflies and then add details with a fine line pen and some paint pens, and voila, some really great looking butterflies to use in so many ways are born! They'd be great as cake toppers, gift tags, collage elements, or as a wall hanging or mobile, the options are endless! While I plan to add antenae depending on how these butterflies will be used (if I use them in collage I'll draw the antennae, and if used as is I'll glue wire antennae to the back) you can decided what works for you, though of course cutting out very fine antennae is not recommended. What is recommended is to get out a bunch of watercolor paper, make some butterfly stencils of your own in a bunch of sizes, and make this a family project! LIttle ones can certainly enjoy adding color to the shapes using the wet on wet watercolor technique, and then even add details with tiny pom poms or other collage elements. Lets do it!

Watercolor Hyacinth Cut-Outs Look Amazing Anytime Of Year

It is true, here in the Northern Hemisphere we don't usually think about hyacinths right about now, but in Australia now is the time! And truthfully, hyacinths are such amazing flowers, whether planted (which one should start thinking about now) or forced (which could start happening around November) so why not give it a try with some watercolors? I painted these hyacinths to use in a watercolor art journal that I'm making, and I just love the results. And friends, when you cut out your watercolor florals you can of course make the stems thinner and shape the flowers!

How To Paint An Artful Watercolor Strawberry

Friends, this painted watercolor strawberry tutorial is from way back in 2015, but since I just used the strawberries for the last time (since I wrote my son's name and age on them) 7 years later and they still look great, I thought I'd revisit this fun craft. Make a bushel of strawberries, cut them out and use them as garlands or cake or cupcake toppers, gift tags, you name it! And best of all, they keep really well, you know in that box of little pieces of art that you can use in a pinch for party decor! Here is the text from the original post:

Isn't this watercolor strawberry portrait just the greatest? While I though at the time that she wasn't really putting her mind to this little painting session, in the end her unstudied strawberry turned out to be the best of all. Isn't it great when your kids out-do you?

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!

Simple Watercolor Ferns For Shavuot!

I shared these watercolor fern paintings with you last year for the Jewish holiday of Tu B''Shevat, though i just had to share them again as they are so simple and perfect for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, coming up this Saturday night. We fill our homes with greenery for Shavuot, which means flowers, plants, and often the kids go out into the fields and collect anything that seems appropriate. This year the holiday of Shavuot is back to back with Shabbat, meaning we will have to decorate the house on Friday afternoon, ruling out all that fresh greenery, and possibly even flowers, as they just won't look all that great once the holiday rolls around. And, for those outside of Israel, Shavuot is a 2 day holiday, meaning Shabbat, Shavuot, Shavuot, or Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So, I say, in addition to some lovely new houseplants, which is always great, go for some non-perishable decorations, like these watercolor fern paintings. And if you prefer you can always cut them out and make a garland, which could be quite lovely, so go for it and chag sameach!

Paint The Kotel In Rainbow Colors For The 17th Of Tammuz !

I have pulled this post from the archives, as it is truly a perfect one.

Today is the 17th of Tammuz, a solemn fast day on the Jewish calender which marks the beginning of a three week period of mourning for the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, (The Holy Temple/King Soloman's Temple.) So with the boys home from school early, and my daughter just starting her summer vacation, there is no time like the present to try and get back into our crafting groove which I have missed greatly! So today I pulled out the watercolors, and grabbed a white corrugated cardboard box, and we all spent some time painting the stones of the kotel, and I just love the results!

Yes, my boys smirked when I told them to use bright and beautiful colors for the stones that they know as beige, but I explained to them that we were painting the stories that the stones had surely witnessed, and all the beautiful prayers whispered in front of these stones every day by countless individuals from both near and far.

Simply Lovely Watercolor Fern Paintings For Mastering Brush Control

Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the New Year for the trees starts tonight, and if you have 30 minutes or so you can still whip up some gorgeous watercolor leaf paintings and learn about practicing your brush strokes a win win crafting experience! While I have yet to actually put in the time I'd like, I'm in the process of honing/learning some illustration skills, starting with 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!

How To Paint Loose Watercolor Florals

I just love all the watercolor floral patterns that are everywhere these days, on stationary, on fabric, you name it. And so of course, I am dreaming of creating my own lovely patterns, but first I have to learn how to paint, so don't anyone hold their breath! Okay, I'm not starting from scratch exactly as I did once upon a time do gouache paintings for a course in pattern design at Parson's in NYC, but I'll be honest that was quite a while ago, and I'm not exactly even sure why I took that course in retrospect, since I had no painting or illustration background. I guess it sounded good then, and it still sounds good, only today I can learn quite a bit by checking out all the amazing resources online, and especially at skillshare, where I am in the middle of a 7 day challenge called Expressive Florals.

So much fun to get out the paints and watercolor paper, and I can't wait to spend some more time honing my skills......though truthfully one can and should dedicate just a small window of time to learning something new, and for that skillshare is just too perfect, especially since you can download the videos to view off the grid, now wouldn't that be great?

How To Paint Red Poppies With Watercolors

After the holiday rush I decided that it was truly time to start dedicating some time to learning some new artsy skills, which really doesn't have to take a whole lot of time or money courtesy of skillshare, which I am happy to say is truly an amazing site with sooooo many great things to learn. I totally recommend it, and when you click HERE, you can get 3 months for 99cents, really folks, don't miss out on this one. (Or click on the ad below for a free month, but I'd go with the 99 cents.)

Given my wide range of interests I had a hard time figuring out where to start, (after the crayola calligraphy and brush lettering which we need to get back to) but something using supplies that we had on hand surely seemed like the best way to go, and i loved the idea of a challenge of sorts, so I started the Expressive Florals 7 Day challenge, which starts with painting poppies, a favorite of mine as they are native to my area here in Northern Israel.

The poppies I painted here, can certainly improve, but I'm happ with this as a start especially since this was done with brush only, no drawing with a pencil folks, as that makes things too tight, and the point here is to get loose, which I succeeded in only partly, but it is a start!