Arts and "Craft" Night

I host (teach) an Arts and Craft night at our local brewery the last Tuesday night each month. It is a little different than most of the sip and paint nights hosted elsewhere. The artists have the option of creating their own work of art instead of creating identical projects. My goal is to teach people a little bit about materials and uses and to let them delve off into their own creations so that everyone has a final product unique to them. I do offer a step by step as well for people who are just starting out and not ready to take the independent plunge just yet. We also do more than just a painted canvas. We have created jewelry, Dia de los Muertos masks, wire and bead wrapped serving ware, painted pint glasses and mixed media canvases. I typically rotate the projects so we have something different to offer.The ladies we have for craft night are always a "hoot" and are very open to trying new things and I love the direction they go!


This past month (and a few months ago) we created mixed media collaged canvases. We used stencils, patterned patters, tissue paper, gloss medium, acrylic paints, and used brushes, incorrectly. Yup, we scrubbed, slathered, gooped and enjoyed every minute of it. Since it was in honor of Spring finally being upon us, our inspiration went to the sky using stencils and paper with birds, bees, owls and hot air balloons. Starting off we layered tissue paper to our canvas, then began painting and stenciling. We added cut paper pieces from cardstock and then applied more layers of paint to blend it into the background.

I love that everyone had a completely different final project and walked away with new knowledge of materials. Enjoy the photos and for fun I also tossed in a sample from the January workshop where hearts were our inspiration at the bottom.

A work in progress..