A Cute Halloween Coloring Book Witch for Kids and Adults

Penelope the witch made her debut last Halloween as a #1 New Release on Amazon.

This year, I will be adding several new Penelope pictures to my Etsy store.

Here is a glimpse of the first greyscale image:

INK on ETSY

                                        Greyscale on ETSY

This image and more will be available soon on YouTube, with instructional videos. Ronda Francis, my coloring partner in crime, will be doing the coloring, and there will be tips and trends galore.

The full PENELOPE'S GARDEN coloring book is also available at my Etsy shop and on AMAZON.

I am looking forward to this endeavor--I hope you are too!

xo

Accidental Coloring Discovery with Tombow Pens and Faber Castell Pencils

I love happy accidents.

Today I discovered that working with Tombow watercolor markers and colored pencils, Faber-Castell Poychromos pencils to be specific, is a match made in heaven.

If you put down a layer of color with the Tombow pens and wait about a minute for it to dry, you can color over the top with colored pencils. This allows for subtle shading and detailing which can be a problem when using markers alone.

I also went over the top of the whole thing with a Uni-ball Signo white pen. This also worked well.

Here is a quick video with a demo. Stay tuned--I'll be doing a whole picture soon.

Have a great weekend!

xo

Gorgeous Garland Coloring Book and Gel Pen Giveaway!

Hi everybody!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I am celebrating by giving away my Gorgeous Garland Coloring book. It has 56 pages to color (14 image with three copies each), enough garland for a six foot Christmas tree.

Just color, cut, and create your own garland.

Watch the video and sign up below! Follow guidelines to qualify.

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Good luck!

What is YOUR Coloring Personality?

This personality list was created by me for fun. I have NO credentials for creating personality tests, but I have been told it is accurate. 

Let's see if it is true for you too.

The Perfectionist: Everything you color is beautiful, but you are never happy with it. You like iced tea, coffee, or anything with caffeine. You may have every type of eraser known to man, but none of them work well enough for you. You love organizers and date books but never use them.

The Lone Ranger: You like to close out the world when you color. You may have a whole area or even a room dedicated just to coloring. Your taste in music ranges from a little bit country to a little bit rock and roll. You love scented candles.

The Over Indulger:  You might not stop for your cup of Starbucks, but it is very hard for you to pass up a great new coloring book, or pencil, or gel pen. You'll color in your pajamas, with the kids, alone, or with kitty on your lap. You are a bit afraid of spiders and kind of like it when you get the hiccups.

The Little at a Timer:  You think about coloring a LOT, but many times your find yourself finishing one leaf, a flower, or even just an outline. But that does not bother you a bit! It takes you a while to finish but the results are worth it. You like fuzzy slippers and a robe and would love a visit to the spa.

The Stalker:  You watch some of the coloring groups from afar but have never posted. You admire many of the pictures and feel a bit nervous about posting yourself. If you look carefully at your pictures you'll see you prefer cool colors with a pop of warmth. You love the holidays and always look forward to dessert.

The Picture Jumper: You have plenty of books, and you have started many pictures, but you have only finished a few. You are very excited to start, but soon see something new and can't wait to start on it, leaving your other picture half done. You love cookies and can't understand what all the fuss is about yoga. 

The Old Schooler:  You started coloring WAY before coloring was cool. You had the 64 color Crayola set of crayons when you were a kid, and possibly the scented markers. You may have even colored on Saturday mornings as you watched cartoons. You are addicted to pizza and wish it tasted like it did in the 70s.

The Librarian:  You may have dozens of books or only a few, but the ones you have are placed carefully on shelf or stacked where they are easy to view and accessible. You won't rip the pages out of the books to color even if it is much easier to color that way. You love cinnamon and have taken pictures of clouds or seashells.

The Combo: You are little bit of everything--or maybe none of the above! You can't be put into any of the above categories, and you might have a great love for animals and watching movies.

So tell me what category (or two) YOU fall into. 

Have fun! xo Dea

Buy my new best selling Halloween coloring book HERE.

Or and older one HERE.

Penelope's Garden Halloween Giveaway

Penelope's Garden will be on sale October 1, but until then I am offering a glow in the dark giveaway.

I will give three copies of the coloring book along with black light markers to make the images glow!

Check it out here.

Enter the giveaway here! If you click the little YouTube sign at the bottom of the video as your watching it will take you over to YouTube and you can subscribe there.

Thank you and good luck!!

xo

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CRAFT for KIDS ~ Make a CUTE HALLOWEEN GHOST!!

Ooooo!! It's almost October, that spooky time of year. Trick or treating and Jack o'lanterns abound.

Kids love this chilling time of year so every weekend of October we will post a creepy craft for kids.

This weeks craft is Adorable Apparitions. What you will need for this cute craft is:

Mod Podge fabric stiffener (Buy here)

Cheese cloth

A bowl

Balloons

Wine glasses or other cups or containers to hold the balloons

Scissors

 A small amount of black felt or a black marker or Sharpie

First blow up as many balloons as you will make into ghosts

Insert them into the glasses so they are about halfway in, and popping out of the top. You will be resting the damp cheese cloth on these balloons so make sure they are blown up enough that they will not sink into the glasses. Tuck the knot into the side so you don't get a bulgy ghost.

Cut the cheese cloth into thick strips, about 3 or 4 inches wide. Make the bottoms of the strips uneven. This makes for a spookier ghost. If you are going for cuter use more of a square shape rounded off at the bottom.

Pour some Mod Podge fabric stiffener into a small bowl, and dilute a bit with water. Now dip the strips of cheese cloth into the Modge Podge, and wring until slightly damp.

Place one strip over the top of a balloon with the ends hanging spookily down, then place another strip criss-cross over the top, the ends hanging down also. Set aside to dry.

Repeat on the other balloons.

When they are dry to the touch, you can glue some little black pieces of felt for eyes, or use black markers or googly eyes from the craft store.

Now take a pin and pop the balloons, and remove them carefully from the bottom. Thread a bit of fishing wire or floss through the tops of their heads and Voila! You have a happy little family of spooky ghosts.

You can hang them anywhere, but I will be painting a branch black and adding them as the season goes on to make a Haunted Halloween tree. (I'll show you next weekend.)

Show me your ghosts! I'd love to post them.

Happy Haunting!

The craft next Friday will be Pet Ghosts--see you then for more spooky fun.

xo

Make a Picture Like Eric Carle ~ Kids Can Create a Picture Collage

The illustrations in The Very Hungry Caterpillar seem to capture the attention of almost every young child.

Simple yet complex, they are colorful and eye-catching.

Recreating the look is fun and easy for any child who is old enough to use a pair of scissors.

What you'll need:

Several sheets of white paper

One sheet of thicker white paper or board

Watercolor paints or markers

Paint brushes

White glue

Scissors

First, decide what you are going to draw. Feel free to copy my bears, but if you want to draw mice, or bugs, or your family you can.

Then paint several colors of watercolor on the regular paper. The colors can overlap, they can be in patterns, white areas are fine...basically you can't make a mistake. 

To give the colors even more texture, after the first layer dries choose a different color and make lines or dots. Crinkling up another small sheet of paper or paper towel and dipping it in the paint will create nice textures when softly touched on top of another color.

Using your paintbrush for texture is fun too. When the paint is almost used up on the brush it feels a bit dry and breaks up into sections. Without wetting the brush, dip it into a color and lightly go over another color on the page for a cool lined effect.

I did one page of my first layer of paint in browns and blacks because I wanted to make some trees. To get the spots, dip the brush in black paint, then brush your finger so the paint is kind of flicked off onto the paper. If your brush is too soft, hold the brush over the paper and lightly tap the finger of your other hand so little speckles drop off onto your page. (This method can be a bit messier.)

After your pages have dried, begin cutting shapes.

For my picture, I needed three ovals, three circles, for the bears heads and bodies, three very long rectangles for tree trunks in brown, several shorty skinny rectangles for tree branches, and many leaves cut out from all the different colors I painted. I also made six little arms, six little legs, and six little ears, and one big oval in green that will be a patch of grass. I also cut out a butterfly from some of the scraps and some very long curved triangles for grass. (The butterfly is made from two B shapes.)

Please feel free to make your trees, leaves and bears ANY color you like. Don't feel limited to the edges of the paper--go out of the lines!

Now start to glue the pieces you cut any way you like. You can see within the cut out pieces how the white spaces, speckles, squiggles, and paint splashes all add to the texture and charm of the picture. You can copy mine or create your own. I hope I see some mice, cats, dogs, wolves, monkeys, or anything else you can think of.

Send me any of your completed work--I'd love to show it off here!

Have fun!!

xo

Artsy Back to School Stained Glass Bookmark for Teacher

Summer went by too fast!

Bring a tiny bit of artsy fun into the classroom with a back to school bookmark for the teacher.

For this craft you will need:

Elmer's (or similar) glue

Colored Sharpies

Thick paper or cardboard in color of your choice

Clear plastic sheet

First cut out a long book mark shape from the paper.

It can be any shape you like, curvy, swervy, a flower, a lightning bolt, or a rectangle. Just use your imagination and have fun.

Cut a window in the paper.

Using the paper bookmark as a guide, cut the clear plastic slightly smaller than the bookmark.

Now make any type of stained glass design with the Sharpies that you choose. Flowers, shapes, even just one or two colors looks great. 

If you are using white paper or cardboard you can color it with the Sharpies too.

Take the glue and put a thin line around the clear plastic when you have finished coloring, and glue it on the window.

Viola! You have a beautiful stained glass bookmark lovely enough to grace any book.

Have so much fun and please show me the bookmark that you and your kids create.

Email to dealenihan @gmail.com.

XO

KIDS! Make a 3D Hand!

3D art is so cool.

Just a quick post to show you how to do a really cool and quick drawing of your hand--in 3D~!!

You'll need:

~ Paper

~ A ruler

~ Several markers (thicker is better for colors, and one thin black) Colored pencils will work fine too.

Watch the vid and have fun!!

It really does look like a hand is under the paper. Feel free to send me pix of your artwork.

Another version:

Thanksgiving Art for Kids

We all remember drawing turkeys when we were kids by tracing our hands on paper.

This Thanksgiving lets do it a little differently! Instead of tracing our hands onto paper, lets draw turkeys on our hands. :)

It's simple: You will need--

1 non-toxic marker~this is used for the outline (I do not recommend Sharpies--although they are a favorite for drawing on paper, even the Sharpie website does not recommend using them to draw on the skin.) Read about Sharpies HERE. 

OR a liquid or pencil eyeliner in a dark color. 

If you like,  you can trace your hand first first and figure out what your turkey will look like before you transfer it onto your hand. (Remember, if you are right handed you will be drawing the turkey onto your left hand, so your RIGHT hand will have to be traced onto the paper--palm DOWN.) But if you decide to just WING it (no pun intended--wink) don't worry if you make a mistake, you can wash with soap and water and start over!

Your fingers will be the tail feathers, your thumb will be the neck and head, and your palm will be the body and wing of the turkey, just like our turkey pics from back in the day.

When you are done with the outline, you can color it with non-toxic markers or even watercolor paint. 

Please send me pictures of your artwork--I love to post it on my ART BY YOU page. Kids love to see their art there, too.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

P.S. I do not eat turkey~I would be more likely to be found giving one a big HUG. 

Here's a more intricate for the older kids:

Five fat turkeys are we--

We slept all night in a tree--

When the cooks came around, we couldn't be found--

So that's why we're here you see.

Make a FINGERPRINT MATERPIECE!

Today is a great day to get out the paints and make a beautiful picture with FINGERPRINTS!

All you need is watercolor or acrylic paint--and fingers :) Just dip you finger into the paint and press onto paper. You can do just one or dozens. Make bugs, animals, monsters, or anything else you can dream of.

Contact me when you are done and I will post them HERE.

HAVE FUN!!

WHO LIKES TO COLOR?!

Happy Katie!!

Do you know a kid who likes to color?

They can join the Out of This World Coloring Club on Facebook! We aren't judging here--we have a few moms who are having a great time coloring our pictures too--but they are not eligible for the prizes during our fun contests--sorry moms!! (Click here for link https://www.facebook.com/groups/478108415587906/?fref=ts )

Jamie's awesome egg!

Pictures from the Out of This World Coloring Book Series are featured--and they have been AWESOME. We have had a striped bunny, a purple haired, candy loving girl named Francine, and a sneaky robot featured on our pages!

There are contests to win, pictures to color, and pages where you can find art drawn by YOU.

The last contest was during Easter, and Francine and the Spy Bunny was featured. The next coloring book will be PENELOPE'S GARDEN, and will feature a spell-casting witch and her friend Heather who can only talk in rhyme.

Penelope and Heather thinking about a spell.

I can't wait until the book is published so I can see all of your work.

I will post a new and printable cartoon to color every week--see on the right column under pages.

I hope you all have fun!!

See you at the club!

XO Dea



Taelor colored a terrific striped bunny :)



Coloring some special eggs.

JP was the grand prize winner of the last contest. Congratulations!!


JOIN HERE!

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/478108415587906/?fref=ts