Scribble Rose Video Tutorial

While I was at Cookie Con {YES!  I'm talking about Cookie Con again} I showed how to do a couple of painting techniques that progressively got a little more difficult starting with antiquing and using the texture of the flood to add dimension.  Then I moved on to painting scribble roses and I thought I'd share here what I taught and how I do it.

It is literally scribbling concentric circles that gradually get bigger and messier as you go around, add a couple of green scribbles for leaves and BAM! they look like roses.  As you can see below it is my go-to technique when I want something to look pretty, girly, antique, and I'm in the mood to scribble... which is always.

Concentric scribble circles:  check!

Scribbly green leaves:  check!

..... ummm

I get it.  I'm a visual learner too.  You gotta see it in action.  I put together this quick video I took with my iPhone for my lovely friend who wanted some rose help.  I found that scribbling my roses and talking at the same time proved to be too difficult for me, so I don't say a word and let my brushes do the talking.  I put my brother singing and playing guitar as the soundtrack instead.  

Video stats:

• I used a regular detail 5/0 liner brush for the first step and an extra long liner brush for the second step.  
• Start with the lightest color {light pink} and then do the same thing with a darker color {maroon}.
• For the color: this is Wilton brand food coloring and the liquid in the cup is water.
• Start with a tight circle and then basically spiral out of control.
• Leave some white, it will serve as highlighting on your petals.  
• Don't be scared.  It might take some practice, but don't stress.  Just scribble!

You can find more about my brother and his original Graffiti Jamboree music HERE!  

Now... get in touch with your inner-preschooler and get scribbling!

I HEART Valentine's Day!

Something about Valentine's Day just makes me feel giddy.  I love seeing all the heart shape bowls, the cupid stickers, the red doilies...  It reminds me of being in elementary school and cutting out hearts and pictures of flowers from my mom's seed catalogues and pasting them to red construction paper to create valentines for all my classmates.  The red foil heart stickers were my favorite and I always made sure I made a special {and extra big} Valentine for my teacher dripping with glitter and edged with a paper doily.  How elegant!

I made a set of cookies with my past valentine-making experience in mind.  I asked myself: What would my dream stash of valentine-making supplies look like?  What little bits and treasures would I love to have in a big glass jar that I could pick through to create with?  

With those questions in my mind and romantic love songs playing on my Pandora I got to work. play. 

I tried out a couple of new things with this set.  Extending the color to the sides of my cookies brought  a different dimension to the cookie; and a whole new side to play with and add a little detail.

You may notice some extra shiny red cookies and that effect was accomplished by using my friend Nadia's {of My Little Bakery's} egg wash technique.   That was very fun to play with and gave such a different look.

I used a couple of molds for the cameo, frame, little flower, and the lock and key.  Molds are such a fun, easy way to add gorgeous and intricate doodads.  {Doodads is the technical term}.  There are so many fabulous food-grade silicon molds on etsy.  I simply melt some candy disks with a touch of shortening and paint them into the mold {this helps prevent any bubbles in those teeny tiny crevices}. I put them in the freezer for 30 seconds and pop them right out.  easy and gorgeous.  I painted the frame and the lock and key with luster dust.  Voila!  I love it when something that creates such impact is effortless.  

The scrabble tiles and typewriter keys are just about to scale so that gives you an idea of the size of these scrappy bits.  

 What a hodge-podge of vintage bits and scraps.  Go ahead... call me a romantic.

 So, now I'm in the mood to pull out my glue sticks and glitter and make the biggest doily covered monstrosity imaginable!  Maybe since I did these so early I will have time to play around some more with Valentine's Day creations.  Hope you have a fabulously shiny, lacy, glittery, romantical day!