Realising how much time keeps passing

Everytime I turn around I find that so much time has passed I'm not actually sure what I have and haven't shared here anymore! Life has been very busy. I started a new job in December which is what I was doing but a little bit more but it's about learning all the new systems, which they do everything differently!!! Then my Grandpa passed away in mid December so that was On top of that my partner ended up cutting half the index finger off his left hand. That made for an interesting January and then time just kept passing really quickly. 

I have been stitching, though it seems I only have time to stitch my own designs. My grandma gave me some money for christmas so I spent it on some fancy metallic watercolours and OMG I am having sooooo much fun painting!!! I've then been turning some of those paintings into cross stitch patterns. I can't share a lot of them but I will share what I can. More about them at the end of the post!

I made this cute little Easter dragon for the autumn edition of down the rabbit hole. I called it Easter Surprise because you don't expect to find a dragon in your carefully decorated Easter egg :D

All this from a quick little sketch I did. I didn't even add colour to the sketch I just fell in love with it.

 

I also created some cute little dancing girls for the latest smalls magazine. These little cuties just make me happy. I finished them with a felt backing glued onto a magnet and they are currently on my fridge. They just make me happy looking at them each day.   

I'm also working on the winter design but of course I can't show that one yet because the magazine isn't out yet. So I also can't show the painting I did to inspire it. But there is a lot of white which you would expect in a winter design.

Hannah is growing up fast she has just turned 2 and it's like a tiny cyclone has hit our house every day! She is into everything but she also just loves to help. We have what's called a learning tower which is essentially a stool with a wooden cage area for her to stand up in so she can't fall backwards. But every night when I'm cooking dinner she will climb up there and help me to cook. She can't do much but she likes to feel like she is helping. 

Here are some of the pictures I've done while playing with my watercolours. The colours are from Chelsea Venz Art a lady on the gold coast who makes handmade watercolours. I am so in love with the effects these give a piece of art.

I think I will turn this father's day owl into a cross stitch eventually but not sure when. Let me know if you want it sooner rather than later. It won't be going to a magazine. So would go straight onto my etsy. 

This sea monster while cute as ... is too much like the character from the drawing book to be able to be used in my cross stitch but I will see if I can do a variation like I did with the dragon that I can turn into cross stitch.

Here is a photo of the lovely watercolours. I want to get more of her stuff but that will have to wait. 

So Happy Stitching Everyone, 

Caitlin

p.s. I hope it's not too long before my next update but this is me and life is busy!

Painting fun

 What do you do on a Saturday afternoon when you are 'bored' or at least not wanting to do what you have been doing all day? 

Well it appears I was in the mood to start painting. I had an urge to paint a witch and here is the result! 

I started by drawing a little character on the paper and then ... out came my watercolours. 

 

 I need to get a little better at drawing the outlines fainter... the more I got caught in the drawing the harder I drew. It's something I will have to work on. 

The hardest part with painting with watercolours I found was having to walk away and leave it to dry a few times before I tried to put other colours on the paper! It is so hard to do but here is one of the points where I knew I just had to walk away before I stuffed it up irreparably. 

I'm really proud of how she turned out. To the point where I then spent Saturday night playing with my cross stitch program and trying to turn her into a little cross stitch. I've got some more work to do and I want to play with the colours a LOT more. These are the colours the program gives me but I know they aren't right in real life.

 

 

I decided to keep the backstitching more subtle like the watercolour and used a grey instead of a black like I normally do. I will have to play with it a little more before it's ready but I'm hoping to have it good to go by October 1 in time for a special Halloween Stitch-a-long because who doesn't want a cute little witch to join them for halloween? 

 

 But to make this actually happen I have a bit of work to do :D I will start playing with colours and testing this out this week and we shall see if I can actually make it happen. Who would like to join me for a stitch-a-long? This will be a quick little stitch and I'm trying to think of a cute way to finish it that would look amazing decorating for halloween! 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

 

Playing with watercolours

We went to Boondoomba Dam again for Easter (a bit of a family tradition as we've been going since about 2000 ish) and I managed to get some really decent crafting time in. I did spend a lot of time reading and playing games but I took my watercolour stuff out there and I had some fun on Sunday afternoon. I will also have some photos of some crochet to share with you but I didn't get good photos so I will have to get those on a sunny day. 

I set myself up on one of the tables we had and the view was just stunning. I knew I wanted to try to capture it. I really really really want to work on being able to paint what I see better. I will get there eventually when I have time to practice more.

\I love the watercolour style where you put down the colour and then add pen outlines to it. It's just what I love to fiddle with.  Here is the picture before the ink was added (well much ink I had started the donkey before I remembered to take a photo). Nothing is sticking out very well.

As I kept going you can see it starting to pull out the details. We have such an awesome fire pit set up each year. The rocks stay there permanently and there are lots of areas to work around. We are starting to get very adept at cooking on the fire. My mum managed to bake two cakes while we were out there. Fresh baked cake is just to die for yummy!

And here is the finished picture. I kept the detail in the background to a minimum trying to make it look further away. I used too dark a green or the shadows under the trees but it's all a learning curve.

Then I started another picture after having a talk with mum and my cousin about foregrounds and backgrounds so I felt better able to get the look I wanted.  Eventually I will have a painting of this  scene below.

But not long after starting we got the only rain all weekend and I went and packed up. Then I was roped into a game of Kubb.  So here is my current position for this painting. I'm trying to keep the background lighter and the foreground brighter. We shall see how I go.

have you guys tried watercolours/landscape pictures and can give me some pointers for getting a good background/foreground definition happening?

I'm really happy with these pictures and I am looking forward to getting the second one finished. I am proud of what I achieved and hope to eventually be able to look at any scene and have the picture come out as I want it to.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Watercolour Sketches

I had the opportunity to get away over the Easter long weekend which was a much needed break for my family. We're coming into tax time so I'm getting less and less time available. Also uni is starting to really ramp up and I'm feeling the stress.

We visited a friend of my family's property in central NSW.

The views on their property were just stunning! This wasn't even quite at the top of where we were going. They run a working sheep farm so they have a decent amount of land.

While there I had time to just stop and paint a couple of times. I remembered to take my watercolours and a couple of small sketch books. I could have taken more time to sketch but we did spend a lot of time doing not much. 

 I used pencil to make a rough sketch n the paper and then I added the watercolours. I'm just using a set of kids watercolours I bought at riot at the end of the back to school sales. They're nothing fancy but do mix to make so useful colours. I then drew over them with my pitt artist black pen as I can paint over that if I needed to without it running.

I'm really proud of how these pictures turned out. I was trying to learn how to work with watercolours and all of it was new. I did definitely learn to let a wash dry BEFORE painting over it. Other than that I just love them.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter yourselves.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin