Natalie Bowers: Living Out Loud

If I had to sum up last week in just one word, I’d choose the word productive. As well as all my usual design team work, and the Watercolour Mastery course I’m taking, I had all the preparations for Saturday’s Health and Wellbeing Day to do – which, by the way, went very well. If you like, you can read about it here.

So what about design team work? For Cheeky Studio, I shared two cards I made using the Sweet Succulent ephemera, and one 12×12 layout I made using the August kit and Notebook Nancy ephemera.

For Mama Makes, I used a sentiment stamp from the Sending Hugs set on a Christmas card. It’s not always appropriate to send someone a ‘merry’ Christmas card, so I like to make some that might be more suitable. For Skull and Cross Buns, I used several elements from their new Christmas range to create another Christmas card. It’s rather unusual, but I like it!

For EllieBeth Designs UK, I shared a few peeks of my planner and used the new Winter Dreams collection to set up this week in my bullet journal.

For Watercolour Mastery, I had another bash at the beach scene I painted last weekend. As I knew I wouldn’t have much time to paint, I decided to do smaller versions of the painting on greetings cards and try different colours to see how they effected the mood of the painting.My favourite is the one on the right. I think I achieved a better variation in value, and the colours are brighter, more uplifting. After painting these, I took them along to the craft fayer, and, interestingly, the only one that didn’t sell was the one on the left which has darker and stormier tones.

As for the other cards I made for the Health and Wellbeing Day, here they are:

I didn’t make them all from scratch, some of them were half made and I just finished them off. Still, it was a very productive week – my die-cutting machine has never seen so much action! Some of these cards are still available to buy via my Etsy shop, and 25p from the sale of every card will be donated to the Southern Health Recovery College.

So that was last week. What about this week? Well, I’ve got my usual design team makes to share and a bunch of custom cards to make and an Etsy order to fulfill. I’ll also be tackling this week’s Watercolour Mastery lesson which is all about different ways to paint from reference photos. Plus there are some facebook challenges I’d like to try to do, and a few videos I need to film. I’ll tell you how I got on with all that next Monday.

Until then, don’t forget, if you’d like to buy anything from the shops I’m on the design team for, you can use the discount codes below!

• Cheeky Studio – for 10% off your order, use the discount code: natalie1o (excludes kit club subscription).
• EllieBeth Designs UK – for 10% off your order, use the discount code: NATALIE10.
• Mama Makes – for 20% off your first order, use the discount code: IMNEW.
• Skull and Cross Buns – for 10% off your order, use the discount code: DESIGNTEAM.

Thanks for stopping by! xxx

Hello! It’s Monday, so it must be time for another weekly round-up.

For Cheeky Studio this week, I shared two project. The first was a birthday card I made using the left over Sweet Succulents clusters from the July kit, and the second was a homework-themed layout, created using the August kit, featuring the Notebook Nancy ephemera. The kits themselves aren’t available anymore, but you can still buy the individual ephemera packs on the website. Don’t forget to use my code natalie10 for 10% off your orders!

Speaking of Cheeky Studio, I created another layout featuring their ephemera for my Mixed Media Monday series on YouTube. For this 12×12 I used the ‘On the Cover’ ephemera to scrap this picture of my children sitting in our local library, reading books. To create the mixed media background, I used Nuvo Shimmer Powders and LOTS of water on a piece of Vicki Boutin Foundations paper – it took the water really well. I’m impressed!

For Mama Makes, I made a stack of watercolour Christmas cards and used the ‘merry christmas’ stamp from the Cozy Christmas stamp set. It was the perfect size for these 4×6 cards. For Skull and Cross Buns, I used the Santa’s Workshop set to stamp the robot and doll, the Merry Christmas Neon Sign Rubber Stamp and the acrylic stocking embellishment on top of an embossed panel I coloured using Gelatos.

My biggest project this week was One Week In My Bullet Journal. Every day, I filmed my planning sessions and shared them on YouTube. The photos below show how the week turned out. I used the EllieBeth Designs UK Poppy Fields stickers as it was Remembrance Day yesterday. Rachel donated 100% off the profits from the sale of this collection to the Royal British Legion – which totalled £250.

For the coming week, I’m using the Grateful Heart collection and am again combining my personal tasks and my creative work tasks in the same bujo. I liked having everything in one place last week, so I’m hoping it works well for me this week.

Angela Fehr’s Watercolor Mastery course continued with its second week last week. We looked at value and how to master it and bring depth and vibrancy to your watercolours. We painted Notans and Value Studies before trying a painting based on a high-contrast photo. I chose a photo of a lotus flower as it was beautifully lit and had the full range of values. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out although I think the background still needs a bit of work.

Week 3: Colour, Not Just a Theory

This week, we are looking at colour and how to use it to affect the mood of our paintings. On Saturday, I tried my hand at a beach scene. I used a photo I’d taken on our trip to Knoll Beach a couple of weeks ago and made a Notan and Value Study before attempting the actual painting. I’m finding the Notans and Value Studies really helpful – they make me look properly at the picture and help me determine where to focus my painting attention.

Over the next few days, I plan to paint this scene again, using different colours to play with the mood. I also want to paint it looser and with more expression.

Finally, here are some other cards I made. This Saturday coming, I’ll be selling my cards at our local Health and Wellbeing Fayre. As I’m doing a lot of watercolour practice at the moment, I’ve decided to focus on painting watercolour cards to sell too. They always seem to sell well – and if the Christmas cards don’t sell-out, I’ll just use them myself!

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by! xxx

Don’t forget, if you’d like to buy anything from these shops, you can use the discount codes below!

• Cheeky Studio – for 10% off your order, use the discount code: natalie1o (excludes kit club subscription).
• EllieBeth Designs UK – for 10% off your order, use the discount code: NATALIE10.
• Mama Makes – for 20% off your first order, use the discount code: IMNEW.
• Skull and Cross Buns – for 10% off your order, use the discount code: DESIGNTEAM.