early black friday sale!

It's a tradition around here to have a Black Friday Sale but this year I am having my sale EARLY and all week long- starting today! My hope for those of you out there who celebrate Thanksgiving, is that instead of stressing and shopping leading up to Thanksgiving and the day after, maybe you will choose to relax and soak up all that family time without the pressure to hit all those big sales! 

I've got things marked WAY down- in fact these are some of the lowest prices I've offered in a while so get em' cheap while you can!

Head on over to the shop HERE for over 40 online classes!

My coloring bundles and all of my coloring page downloads are also marked WAY down!

     

       Head on over the shop HERE for coloring pages!

giveaway from Maiden Astoria

I am so proud of my friends over at Maiden Astoria. You may recall the posts that I wrote a while back following their journey opening a store and gallery on the North Coast- you can read them HERE and HERE. Today I thought it would be fun to share a peek inside their shop. They have been open since May it's pretty safe to say that their passion project has been a great success!  Today Maiden Astoria is giving away giving away a "Cozy Box" to one lucky reader. Head to the bottom of this post for all the details! 

Cozy box includes- 

One grey hoodie with any design (best hoodies EVER!)

A handmade strudel and spice candle

Oregon made chocolate

To enter:

Leave a comment, let us know your favorite cozy essentials (mine are my warm fuzzy socks and my grey beanie hat!)

I will randomly draw a name and announce the winner at the end of the day.

******************************UPDATE WITH WINNER!*********************************************

Congrats Deb! Email me at alisaburke@gmail.com and I will put you in touch with Maiden Astoria for your cozy box!

a batch of bowls in the shop!

Ok you guys I have a fresh batch of pottery in the shop HERE. I've have a bunch of ring bowls that once again, I am crazy in love with! Instead of being thrown on the wheel, they are slab bowls made by my mom and then glazed with pattern by me and fired in our kiln. These little bowls are perfect for jewelry, loose change, little snacks or anything small. 

This is the first of two batches that will be in the shop leading up to the holidays and they always go fast so get em' while you can!

handmade clay stamps

Coming from a pottery family, I've witnessed all kinds of interesting ways to work with clay. One of my favorite little tricks is using everyday things to create unique textures. You can take this concept even farther and create once of a kind stamps to use in clay projects.

I like to gather random things from around the house- legos, jewelry, buttons, legos, basically anything that makes an imprint will work.

You can use just about any clay, I used Fimo Soft Polymer Clay. I started by rolling my clay into a small cylinder.

Next, I used my everyday things (my favorite was one of Lucy's hair clips) and pressed them into the clay. I used each side of the cylinder so my stamp would have two sides.

I baked my clay stamps according to the directions on the package.

Then they are ready to use! Stamp them into any kind of clay to create interesting texture and imprints 

Check out a few ways that I use stamps in my clay projects:

clay charm   feather stamped clay   clay pinch pots   clay present toppers

3 ways to use a coloring page in a tablescape

I love putting a creative twist on my holiday tablescapes and while I enjoy traditional decor, I am a sucker for anything creative and a little unexpected! I've created a fall floral coloring page and today I am sharing three simple ways to put it to use in your table settings.

Coloring is not just for kids (thank goodness adults are finally catching on to this) and I think decorative coloring pages are great for adding something unique to a table. I drew a fall floral coloring page for you guys (scroll to the bottom to download). I printed it off in two different sizes and got busy using those pages in a my fall table.

You know how restaurants and diners offer a coloring placemat and crayons to kids? Well I've always wondered why they don't make them for adults!?!

I thought it would be fun to print off coloring pages on 11"x14" card stock and use them as placemats. They are decorative and pretty in black and white but they can also be colored!

Add a jar of colorful markers to each place setting and you'll provide the opportunity for your guests to get a little creative!

I also used 11"x14" pages to create a table runner down the middle of the table. I love the black and white but you could get creative ahead of time and color or paint the pages to add color to your table setting. You find some of my favorite ways to add color to a page HERE

 

I will never EVER buy napkin rings because they are so darn easy to make out of anything! I used a page that I colored to create a set cute little napkin rings.

So there you have it, a creative and colorful approach to a table setting! 

Download your own floral page below and have fun coloring and decorating.

download floral coloring page 8.5 x 11" HERE

download floral coloring page 11 x 14" HERE

playing with watercolor markers

I use a lot of different supplies and once in a while I like to share new products and materials that I am currently playing with! Something I am having lots of fun with is the Windsor & Newton watercolor markers (this post is not sponsored). I saw them in a local art supply store and and thought they might be a fun supply to experiment with.

What I really like is that you can buy one at a time or you can purchase them in packs of 6 or 12. I really like selecting my own colors instead of buying packs and there are SO many colors to pick from- over 30 which means you get a lot of variety.

They have are double ended with a fine point and a brush tip.

They work a lot like watercolor pencils where you can draw with them but you can also dilute them with water and brush. 

As my long time readers know, I love using regular markers and water soluble pens for drawing and diluting with water. But these pens were are made to be diluted so they are really rich and more saturated than regular markers.

I've been having a lot of fun playing with them in different ways! They are really fun to use for creating blended backgrounds.

I also like using them to add color to my drawings. 

They are intermixable with watercolor paint so you can use them to add details or pops of color to watercolors paintings.

One of my favorite ways to use them is to create colorful scribbled backgrounds. Lucy really likes this process too!

I fill my background with colorful expressive scribbles and then add water. The result is color but with a little bit of texture.

These are my favorite backgrounds to draw on top of because all that color and texture shows through!

I think it is pretty safe to say that we are totally enjoying these markers and while they are not cheap, even a couple of colors would make a great addition to any mixed media supply stockpile!