Hey Y’all, I’m Katie, here to take over The Pigeon Letters' blog today combining my love of both art journaling, and the autumn season! Today I’m using Tombow Dual Brush Pens to paint a watercolor double exposure effect, creating a lovely autumn leaf lady in my journal.

What I mean by double exposure: A double exposure is a photography term, it is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image. I love creating paintings inspired by them, where I layer multiple subjects, such as autumn leaves inside of a woman silhouette.

Supplies

• Art Journal - This technique works best in a journal with watercolor or mixed media paper.
• Tombow Dual Brush Pens, or Watercolors
• Light Box
• Pencil
• Paintbrush or Water Brush
• Masking Fluid & Applicator

Optional:

• Fudenosuke Brush Pen
• Modeling Paste
• Stencil

Step 1: Trace your outline

To create your double exposure painting, the first step is to trace your outline. I printed out a simple black...

Hi there! Rachael of @dulciedoodles here! I’m coming at you today with a mini-tutorial of how to create galaxy letters with your water based markers.  Today I’ll be using Tombow Dual Brush pens, but you can follow this step-by-step process with your favorite blendable markers.

Materials 

•  Canson XL Marker Paper - This paper is extremely smooth and allows your water based markers to easily blend right on the paper.  This type of smooth paper is the key to blending with markers. Blending markers on copy paper or other pain drawing papers may not yield the same results. 

• Tombow Dual Brush Pens - The exact colors used in this tutorial aren’t the end-all-be-all of this tutorial.  The basic requirements are to use two dark/black colors and alternate with three bright colors to blend in between them.  Pinks, purples, and blues are often popular galaxy colors, but so are yellow, orange, and red. Select colors...

In this tutorial, I’m going to teach you how to create a half-drop pattern in Illustrator. Unlike basic repeats where a swatch is tiled in exactly the same position vertically and horizontally creating an identifiable grid (like a chessboard if all the squares were the same), a half-drop repeat shifts every other horizontal swatch down half of the height of the original swatch. Sounds confusing, but it’s really simple once you do it a couple times.

Step 1

Create a new Illustrator document, any size you’d like as long as it’s a square. I’m doing 8in by 8in in this example (the size of a Spoonflower swatch), but a size like 10in squared would work perfectly as well! Depending on how you’ll use this pattern (print vs web), you’ll want to choose your color mode – I chose RGB since that’s the format that sites like Spoonflower and Society6 require. I always set my documents at 300dpi, just for good measure.

Step...

I believe strongly in being creative and finding accomplishment and enjoyment that comes with making something yourself. With the pressures of modern day life and the mad dash to get things done it is easy to forget to take time for yourself. Embroidering encourages you to sit down and spend some quiet time with yourself and the rhythmic ‘pffft’ of the needle going in and out of the fabric. Sounds pretty good to me! 

With autumn just around the corner this autumn leaves tutorial will get you in the mood for cosy evenings and as many cups of tea as you can handle. Perfect for adorning any item of clothing or for some simple wall décor.

Essential Supplies:

• Autumn Leaves Printable Embroidery Pattern
• Embroidery thread
• Fabric
• Embroidery hoop (pictured 4”)
• Needle
• Pencil
• Scissors
• TV/Netflix/Favourite Podcast 

Step 1: Prepare your hoop

To prepare your hoop gather your fabric and ensure that it is at least 2” larger than...

If you're into lettering, you've probably dabbled in the modern calligraphy side of hand lettering, which is an incredibly rewarding art form. I've also had a ton of questions about composition. I also-also know that many have had the desire to branch out of pretty bounces and get into a structured composition, letting the layout be “the fancy.” If you fit into any of those desires, read on, friend.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped a lettering piece long before it actually takes off due to either not knowing how to (or not having the patience to) properly lay out a guideline that would act as a composition. Well NO LONGER. I’ve stumbled into a happy place of #letteringallthethings thanks to this Grid Builder (remember when I mentioned DesignCuts a while ago? It’s a GEM of a place)!

I’m talking NO MORE GUESSING or struggling with where to put what. I’m going to walk you through this easy-as-pie (I don’t...

Hi Friends! I’m Erin, better known as GoFontYourself around the ‘gram. I’m a huge fan of adding sparkle to any kind of crafty project so I’m going to show you a pretty simple way to go about it through embossing. Here is everything you need to do some quick custom shine!

Supplies

Essential Items:

• Cardstock paper (you can really emboss a ton of items which is why I love it so much, but to start, we’ll be practicing on any kind of thick paper)
• Embossing Pen (Ranger Ink is my preferred brand)
• Embossing Powder
• Embossing Heat Tool (Note: Your hair dryer will not work. Embossing requires higher heat than hair dryers can achieve!)

Not Essential But Will Make Your Life Easier:

• Anti-Static Bag 
• Powder Tray (got this little one from Michaels)
• Small Dry Paintbrush
  
  

Step One: Clean Surface

Embossing powder sticks to everything - I mean EVERYTHING - so you want a dry and sticky-free surface to start. I like to use an anti-static bag...

Ready to be a ROCK-STAR with your lettering? Why not show off your lettering skills by putting words inside the shape of a STAR? Fitting words and quotes into geometric shapes can be both fun for you and impressive to your audience. In today’s post, I (Alyssa from @Lyssas_Letters) will walk you step-by-step through the process of designing a piece of hand lettering artwork that leave people feeling star-struck!

Step 1: Thumbnail Sketches

I begin by sketching a small 5-pointed star with a fine-tip marker. You could also sketch in pencil; I just prefer to use ink because I don’t mind making “mistakes” during this phase of designing. The ink encourages me to take risks, knowing that I can’t erase!

The quote that I have chosen to write inside of the star is “Let your light shine.” Feel free to choose another short phrase or quote that resonates with you!

I find it helpful to write out the entire phrase and underline the “key...

Hi there! Camilla from Camilla Damsbo Art here to go floral with you today. Flowers are my absolute favourite motif and all the shapes and colours just make me smile. So I hope I can put a smile on your face with an easy 5 step bouquet of cornflowers.

Tools and materials

 For this project you need:

• Watercolour paper (I used Coldpress)
• 2 Round brushes - a small one for details and a medium sized brush
• Tissue and water
• Palette for mixing
• Watercolour paint. I used Prussian Blue (Winsor & Newton), Sap Green (Daniel Smith), Quinacridone Rose (Daniel Smith), Paynes Grey (Schminke)

You don’t need the exact colours I use, you can use whatever blue, cold red, green and dark color you have nearby.

 
A little tip for holding your brush:

Instead of holding the brush super tight and close to the bristles, try to loosen your grip and hold it higher on the handle. That way you get at a looser stroke that moves more freely. 

Step 1: Paint the first layer of the...

Watercoloring is one of the most loved art forms because it’s so versatile. There are many styles and variations that people adapt to create unique works of art. To help you learn the basics of water coloring and give you inspiration to paint this spring, FTD has a tutorial on how to watercolor flowers.

First, try your hand at beautiful roses that you can add to any card. Next, take a look at their tips and tricks for painting pansies, asters, lavender, palm leaves and eucalyptus. By the end of this tutorial you’ll know how to paint a complete spring garden.

To help get you started, we have a tutorial to teach you how to paint watercolor flowers. Read through the tips and techniques and then try your hand at these beautiful floral designs. Try adding this simple painting to a place card or thank you note that accompanies a bouquet to make the sentiment that much more special! 

Watercolor Techniques and Tips

Use a Variety of Brushes

To paint...

I’ve collected a lot of digital clip art over the years, either from purchasing it or creating it myself. In spite of having such a large library of graphics, I still look for new ways I can extend the use of my collection. Adjustment layers are an incredibly useful Photoshop feature and they give me so many options to create multiple versions of a single graphic in a variety of colours. I’m going to talk about three adjustment layer types in particular. It would be good to have a basic working knowledge of Photoshop to follow along while working through this article. A little colour theory might help demystify the magic but is not really necessary. I’ve included the original pink flower at the end of this post if you want to download it, bring it into Photoshop and follow along as we go.

There are three specific adjustment layer types you can use that will shift the colour of your image. Hue/saturation, colour balance and selective colour.

You’ll be able to...