Bella Dia

Early Fall Watercolor

My head has been spinning with all that I have to do but
these watercolors have a way of calming me down and
relaxing me enough to go to sleep. This one is much
smaller, about 4" x 6".  I hope everyone has
a happy and safe Halloween.

New Watercolor Drawing

late summer garden

I took a little break this evening and made a new
watercolor. I had a fall scene in mind but couldn't leave
the summer behind so soon, thus a late summer garden.

Thoughtful Friday 10 & Brian Wildsmith

Happy hearts and happy faces,
Happy play in grassy places -
That was how, in ancient ages,
Children grew to kings and sages.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

This beautiful illustration is by the wonderful Brian Wildsmith,
one of my favorite children's book illustrators. I am completely
taken with his use of color and composition and find his work
full of joy and magic. I just purchased this book, A Child's
Garden of Verses, and all the illustrations are by Wildsmith.
I'll share some more when I get a chance.

Fishbowl Pumpkin Tutorial

These fishbowl pumpkins are a fun and inexpensive way to add
some Halloween atmosphere to your home! Working around
the face is a little tedious so I would leave that for the adult to
do but kids can get in on the rest of the action. They look best
with a variety of sizes and different expressions!

You'll need:

any sized fishbowl - I got mine at the thrift store for $1
orange and yellow tissue paper
Mod Podge
paint brush
dish of water
pencil

Tear the yellow tissue into a variety of sizes

I thinned down the Mod Podge with a little bit of water in a dish.

Paint a smallish area of the bowl with Mod Podge and lay on
the tissue  then cover with more Mod Podge.

Repeat until you have covered the whole bowl in about two
layers of yellow.  I didn't do the bottom and don't worry if you
go over the top edge, you can trim that later.

After the yellow layer has dried (maybe about 20 minutes) take
a pencil and very lightly draw on the Jack-O-Lantern's face.

Tear the orange tissue into different sizes but also cut with
scissors some small straight edge pieces to work around your design.

Cover the whole bowl with two layers of orange tissue.

After it has dried, trim the top edge with scissors.

Put in a candle and admire your work!  As always,
never leave a lit candle unattended!

Halloween Tip: Scrim!

If you want to hide certain areas of your room or just
want to create a more haunted atmosphere then go to the
fabric store and get yards and yards of scrim! It's very
inexpensive and found in the decorator fabrics on those
really large rolled up bolts of fabric. Don't worry about
hemming or any of that stuff (the texture is very similar
to cheese cloth) just cut and hang! 

Fall, I hardly knew ye...

Well, that was quick. Fall is usually fairly short here but
this is ridiculous! All of the leaves haven't even changed color
and we just had our first snow! I'm glad I have these pictures,
and we may get an Indian summer yet,

but I have this photo set as my desktop just
in case I need a reminder!

If you want to see the pictures larger go to my Flickr page.

Lucky Me!

Yep, lucky me! I won the drawing for this sweet felted
marmot at Resurrection Fern! She's so adorable and
squishy soft and I am thrilled to having her living
here with us! Thank you Margie!