Sarah Jane's Craft Blog

I know I'm a bit late to the party on this one. The paint pouring craze peaked a couple of years ago, but I had already bought the supplies to get in on the craze, so as I was organizing some of my craft supplies, I decided now was the time. I even managed to convince my husband to help. Of course, the blank look on his face when I said we were going to do paint pouring reminded me that not everyone follows crafters on social media and spends their free time on Pinterest. So, for those who don't know, paint pouring is a method for applying paint to a canvas or board by thinning it down with a paint medium (or buying pouring paint which has been pre-thinned) and then pouring the thinned paint onto the canvas or board to achieve lovely abstract swirls. The first thing we needed was a place to catch the paint (since it will run off the edges of the canvas). So, we whipped up a paint station from a box. We cut down the sides and then I put a piece of parchment paper (a plastic tr...

  It's been a while since I made a post about adult coloring . The buzz has passed a bit from the activity's height of popularity, but I still enjoy filling in patterns and designs--especially while I'm watching TV. So what's new in the coloring world? Well, you can get coloring books pretty much anywhere now, and the glut of leftovers from the sudden craze of coloring for adults means that you can often find the books at discount stores (or sometimes even on clearance racks).  When you're finding those bargains, pay attention to more than just the designs available. The thickness of the paper, whether the book will open flat (or nearly flat), how detailed the designs are (and if you have the right kind of markers, pens, or colored pencils to color those teeny tiny designs), and whether the book has designs on both sides of the paper all need to be considered to get a coloring book that you'll use and enjoy. I've picked up and been gifted ...

I participated in a card exchange at the end of the summer and decided to make my cards. I knew I wanted to use my new butterfly punch  but I couldn't figure out how to use it. I figure you couldn't go wrong with combining it with rainbow paper. I didn't have any rainbow paper in my scrapbook stash, so I decided to make it. I taped some watercolor paper to some foam board and mixed my colors with quite a bit of water to make a rainbow gradient across the paper in the traditional ROYGBIV order. This was a lot of fun and didn't take too much time. It really got me itching to paint some pictures again. I ended up making a few sheets of rainbow paper, but you could make 4 cards with one regular sized sheet of watercolor paper. After my paper had dried, I cut it into fourths. I just folded the paper to guide my scissors, but you could also use a paper cutter to make it even neater. Then I used my butterfly punch to cut the silhouette of a butterfly out ...

Last spring I made a Guide to Adult Coloring , but since then, I've picked up a few new supplies and coloring books that I think are worth sharing. First up, coloring books. I still recommend the Joanna Basford and Eleri Fowler coloring books, as they are high quality with beautiful designs. But if you're looking for something a bit more economical, I've found a few options. This coloring book was so good, that I even added the recommendation as an update to my original post over the summer. Parragon publishes a line of coloring books that are each 288 pages long and are priced around $8-12. The paper isn't quite as thick as some of the high-end books, but it's jam packed full of great designs. They range from geometric to floral to doodle-y--whatever your mood may be. The three images below are all from Coloring for Creativity . They also have a Coloring for Tranquility and Coloring for Inspiration . In most of my coloring books there are mandalas...

If you haven't heard about adult coloring books, you've been living under a rock. I have always loved coloring, so I was really excited when these books started popping up everywhere. As I have been coloring, I've learned a little bit about what to look for in your coloring books and supplies, and I thought I'd share some of my advice and a few of my colored pages. I'll try to keep this post updated as I try out more books and art supplies. First off, I use colored pencils in my coloring books. I have tried several different brands, and I have a few to recommend. Prismacolor Verithins  (pictured above) are a really nice set of hard colored pencils. Prismacolor is a very well known brand of artist quality colored pencils. Their "regular" Premier colored pencils (pictured below) are fairly expensive (about a dollar a pencil unless on sale), and are very soft and vivid. They are great for coloring large areas in bright colors. However, mos...