coloring page sale!

I've got a fun little sale happening over in the shop this week! All of my digital coloring pages are marked WAY down! 

Head on over to the shop HERE for the complete list of my coloring page offerings and for all the details! Offer expires Sunday, September 5, 2015.

P.S. I've also added two new sets to the shop! Neighborhood and Cities Coloring Pages and Tribal Designs Coloring Pages

live in the sunshine

marbleized washer necklace

Did you know that the hardware store is one of the best places to shop for creative projects? And at about twenty-five cents, washers are one of my favorite materials grab when I am browsing the aisles of my local Home Depot. There are so many different ways to transform a washer into a pendent. I thought it would be fun to use nail polish marbling to create some colorful statement necklaces.

All you need are washers and nail polish.

Fill a small container with water and lightly pour the polish onto the surface of the water and then swirl it around. 

Next, dip the washer into the the water. It will pick the marbled nail polish and once dry will be permanent.

I used colorful beads and created a long strand necklace with the washer as the pendent or you could add the washer to your favorite chain or strand of beads.

a fresh batch of art journals in the shop!

I've been hard at work creating a fresh batch of art journals! You can find them over in the shop HERE.

floral alphabet with makewells

Hello! It's Megan from Makewells and I'm back with some more lettering tips and tricks! Today I'm showing you a creative way to add a little flair to your lettering. 

I'm obsessed with drawing/doodling florals, so today I am combining two of my favorite things: lettering and flowers!

If you've followed along with my lettering series, you'll know that I always like to start out with some basic pencil sketches. For this project, I decided to create an alphabet, so I quickly worked my way through the 26 letters to come up with the forms I would use for each letter.

After finalizing my sketches, I created each letter to go in my floral alphabet. Below, you'll see the step by step process:

1. Lightly draw the basic form of the letter

2. Thicken downstrokes

3. Erase area you'd like to put the flower, and lightly draw in

4. Ink (I used a Micron pen - just make sure you use a pen that is waterproof)

5. Use watercolor to add a splash of color to the flower. 

That's it! An easy way to add a little flair to your lettering. 

For the alphabet I created, I mixed up the places that I added the flowers, depending on the form of each letters. 

Here's the entire alphabet:

Another alternative is to paint the letters and flowers in acrylic. I followed the same steps sketching, but then used acrylic paint for both elements instead of ink and watercolor.

Of course you don't have to do just flowers. Get creative with other elements to create your own series! Bugs, bows, sea life...anything goes!

Have fun applying this technique to any of your lettering projects. I decided to send some extra happy mail to a friend, using the floral alphabet for the first letters in her name and city. 

Happy creating! Don't forget to post your projects on instagram using #redefinecreativelettering 

Xo, Megan

@Makewells (instagram)

www.makewells.com

a peek inside the van project

I shared a while back that we bought a Ford Transit van and we have slowly been converting it into a camper van for our family adventures. Back in June I shared some of the process and today I thought it would be fun to share another peek into the van project.

So I have to remind you that at this point in our lives, the van is for fun small(er) trips. Since we have a toddler, we won't be living out of it for months at a time. This has given us a little more flexibility be simple but creative with the interior. In the van conversion world, many people turn their vans into something that will work as a full time home or will function for months of travel on the road- this is not us!

We wanted a few key features for our family- a queen size bed in the back with storage underneath (for camping gear, surfboards, a cooler, etc), a potty chair for long road trips and cabinet with a sink.

We also wanted the inside to feel really creative! I drew pattern all over one of the walls. For the adjacent wall I wanted to do something a little different so I designed my own peel and stick wall paper from Spoonflower. 

I wanted to bring a little of the outdoors inside so I photographed some of my favorite trees in our backyard, I did a little creative editing in Photoshop and turned that photo into a repeat design. I then uploaded my design to Spoonflower and created a roll of peel and stick wall paper. It was SO easy to install- as simple as peeling off the backing and sticking it to the wall.

The peel and stick wall paper is made from 100% polyester which means you can dust and wipe it down! 

If you recall, we designed the back of the van to have a large platform for a bed that has two bench seats attached. Underneath one of those seats is a camping flush toilet. The adjacent  bench now holds our clean water/plumbing for the sink that Andy built.

A feature that we really wanted was a small cabinet and sink for hand washing and food prep. 

Andy built a small cabinet that has a sink bowl and pump faucet. Below the sink is where we keep the bottle for grey water (or the used water from the sink). The clean water (attached to the faucet) comes from another bottle under the bench. 

The next project is to add a removable cutting board/cover for the sink so we can have additional work space when we are not using the sink.

The sink was a MAJOR game changer for the space. Since we spend a lot of time hiking and outdoors (often in places there are no bathrooms) it has been really nice to have the ability to clean up!

The other addition we made was installing lots of hooks all over the van for hanging extra clothing, backpacks and mesh bags for storage. For me this has made a big difference in keeping the space organized.

We still have a few more projects to complete but so far we are loving our mobile living space! 

For more peeks inside our van and our family adventures you can follow me on Instagram HERE