Pippa in Pastel Pencil

This is a pastel pencil painting of a delightful little dog that we often look after. She is a Cavaschon ( Cavalier King Charles/ Bischon Frise). She and her owner have now moved away but we hope to still see her from time to time.  So as a memory for my husband, and at his request, I painted her portrait. Which I hope you like.

This is the reference photograph I used.
Thank you for visiting

Pastel pencil painting of Bam Bam and a very brief outline of my art journey

This is a pastel pencil painting of my friend's cat, Bam Bam. I painted it as a surprise for her, which fortunately she was delighted with.  Although I started painting about 20 years ago,  my art journey has not been a very long one. By that I mean I haven't consistently been painting all that time. I consider it more dabbling in art. I preferred cardmaking,  enjoying die cutting,  stamping,  embossing,  iris folding, etc. etc.  However having started watching Lindsey Weirich 'The Frugal Crafter' on youtube,  my interest in painting began to emerge. So I dusted off my watercolour paints, pastels and acylics,  purchased some new supplies (of course) and got stuck in. 

I watched several art videos on YouTube after that, looking at different techniques and this is how I truly learned to paint. People say I am talented but this is a talent I never really knew I had. This pastel painting has proven to me that I can actually paint.  So my advice to anyone is, you can do it, just have a go, watch other people and copy how they do it. After all, from a baby we have learned by copying, so why stop? 

 For inspiration why not visit Patrick Ley Greaves' website at http://www.purewatercolour.com,  There are some excellent tutorials, members' galleries and forums offering advice and tons of inspiration.

This is the photograph of Bam Bam  which I used for my painting.

More paintings

Here are a few more paintings which I have done recently

This is from a beautuful photograph on Paint my Photo

I wax inspired to paint these palm trees after watching a tutorial on youtube

This was taken from a photograph of my grandson. He wants to ge a dustman when he grows up and is fanatical about different types of dustcarts. 

Thank you for visiting and I hope you like my paintings. I also hope you may be inspired to have a go yourself.  X

Handpainted greetings cards

Hello everyone. I thought I would just share a few of my latest handpainted greetings cards.

This is a watercolour painting of my grandson who wants to be a dustman when he grows up

This Betta fish was painted with Graphik line painters

A duckling painted with Inktense pencils

Watercolour palm trees

Wet in wet watercolour flower

This seagull was painted in Pastel pencil. I used a wonderful photograph from my friend over on Docrafts

This is Geoffrey Giraffe, he was created with coloured pencils

I was commissioned by my neighbour to paint a picture of a male wearing designer clothes for her son's birthday card

I hope you like my latest pieces and thank uou for visiting my blog.
Lainie x

Latest watercolour paintings

As I haven't updated my blog for a while I thought I would show you a few of my latest paintings. They have been turned in to greetings cards as I never think them worthy of wall space.

I hope you like them and thank you for visiting my blog today.

Lainie x

Easter Baskets

Hello everyone,  I thought it was about time that I posted something on my blog again as it seems a while since I last did.  Well I hope you are all fit and well without too many aches and pains.  I have a rotten cold at the moment with streaming eyes and muzzy head yuk!
But apart from that I am ok and have made the most of my free morning and created some little Easter baskets which I hope you like.

I have used the beautiful cross stitch pieces from my friend Claire and we are hoping to get some orders for these in time for Easter. Our choc-in-a-boxes were very popular and still going strong. The picnic basket I learned to make at a craft class at my local craft shop and the yellow one was from a tutorial on youtube using We r Memory Keepers envelope punch board.

Thank you for looking and I hope yoy'll visit again soon.

Lainie x

A few projects created with the envelope punch board

Hello friends,  followers and fellow crafters,  I thought I would share with you a few projects that I have recently created using my newest and most favourite new toy......An envelope punch board by We R Memory Keepers.  These are soooo simple to make, just using a 12" × 12" piece of designer series paper or cardstock and with a few embellishments make beautiful gifts.  The ones pictured are special orders that my friend and I were commissioned to make.  The tutorials for these were found on youtube.  I hope you like them.

Thank you for visiting my blog and if you do leave a comment or choise to follow me, then please be sure to let me know so that I can return the favour.

Lainie xx