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DIY

New eBook: 30+ Fashion Painting Ideas with DecoArt® Stylin™…

(Scroll down for a GIVEAWAY!)

Hey y’all, I have some fun news to share: DecoArt has just released a new ebook and I have 2 projects in it!

30+ Fashion Painting Ideas with DecoArt® Stylin™ is an ebook all about how to use their new fabric paints, Stylin, to create on-of-a-kind shoes and accessories.

My projects in the book:

Mixed Media Shoes and Zippered Pouch:

and Galaxy SuperStar Shoes:

I had so much fun working with DecoArt to make these. I love painted shoes! and Stylin is my new favorite line of fabric paint. It doesn’t harden on canvas or other fabric as it dries, it stays pretty soft and flexible. The paint is actually formulated to penetrate leather, faux leather, and canvas surfaces for a smooth finish, and provides excellent adhesion.

You can download the ebook HERE to get the tutorial for both of my shoe projects, + more tutorials from many talented artists!

To celebrate the launch of this book, DecoArt has partnered with me to giveaway the full line of Stylin paints, which includes 14 colors and retails for over $40! Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

USA AND CANADA ONLY. (sorry my international friends! 🙁 )

Giveaway runs through 08/31/2018 Winner will be contacted and has 1 week until 09/08/2018 to respond, or I’ll choose a new winner.

Good luck to you all!

In the meantime, Grab you copy of the ebook here. The E-Book is 100% free and provides project inspiration in many different styles. You will be able to follow step-by-step instructions complete with pictures in order to recreate these trendy and classic looks.

Scrapbooks

My Alaska Mini Album

Hey y’all, today I have a new mini album to share! I love making mini scrapbooks, and it’s already been 2 months since I arrived home from my Alaska trip so I figured it was about time to document it, right? 😉 I had such a great time in Alaska!

I used a flip book by Paper House Productions for the album. I’ve actually had this album base in my stash for 1-2 years now and hadn’t decided on the perfect photos for it until now! It works so well for these. My only complaint is that as I started filling it up, some of the pages fell out. 😮 I simply adhered them back in with some Tombow MONO Multi Liquid Glue.

Because it has so many flaps (which I love), it also required a lot of photos to capture it for you. So rather than post all 20+ photos in a blog post, making it really photo heavy and slow to load, I’ve got the complete album HERE in my portfolio.

See the full mini album here.

Sketching

My Top 5 Tips for Sketching in Your Planner

Hello everyone, My latest post for Tombow USA is live and I wanted to direct you over to it.

In the post I am sharing my top 5 tips for sketching in your planner!

I doodle on everything (I always drew on my schoolwork as a kid. Thankfully I was homeschooled and my Mom didn’t mind), so obviously my planner is going to be filled with random sketches too, right. I know you would expect nothing less. 😉

Tombow partnered with Bloom Planners to supply those of us on the design team some new planners, and I love they planner and address book I received!

Grab the full post on Tombow’s blog here.

Uncategorized

I was interviewed for a podcast!

Hey everyone, guess what? I was interviewed on a podcast! As an introvert, that’s totally scary, but I did it!

The ladies of the Crafty Ass Female Podcast asked me to be a guest to talk about the bunch of different things it has taken to get Studio Katie to where it is today, and my episode is now live! YAY!

Amanda, Kristin, and I discuss being artistic at a young age, starting my blog 9 years ago, how the ‘feel’ of blogging has changed, my early influences, design teams I’ve been on, why having an online-based business is best for me, and more! We also get real in their Patreon exclusive ‘After Chatter’ show, where you can sign up to watch an exclusive video (where you also get to see a peek of my studio, and the amazing Bob Ross shirt I’m wearing) of us three chat it up about how I price my work, what I thought I’d being doing if not managing Studio Katie, and working with brands on social media.

I was definitely nervous as we were recording the podcast, because I hate talking on the phone/video, and even in person I don’t really say much- I speak through my art, you know? But I was also surprised at how much I did talk in this recording. Kristin and Amanda are amazing, and has some fantastic questions.

Head over to craftyassfemale.com for more information and to listen to my interview.

I’ve also been on one other podcast- the How She Creates podcast! You can find out more about that here.

Art Journals

3 Ways to Use the Tombow XL Blending Palette

This post contains affiliate links, which help pay for this site. That being said, I never promote anything I don’t love! If you purchase using them, I might get a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Today I wanted to do a little product feature of Tombow’s new XL Blending Palette and show you some of the ways that you can use it! The concept of the blending palette isn’t a new one, they’ve been selling their original Blending Palette for quite a while, but they’ve just come out with this new size and I love it.

The XL Blending Palette is an 8×10″ sturdy laminated card with a nice white surface (to see and blend inks) on one side, with a Dual Brush Pen color chart and blending tips printed onto the back.

Let’s see a few ways to use the XL Blending Palette:

Technique 1: Blending the Colors.

This was one of my favorite things about the smaller Blending Palette, and the XL Blending Palette just gives me even more room to play around with this technique.

Here’s how to blend the markers and get some ombre style lettering:

1: Apply a darker color of ink to the Blending Palette.

2: Pink up the dark ink with a lighter color marker, make sure you’ve pretty well covered the lighter tip in the darker ink.

3: Letter onto your paper with the lighter marker. As you write, the darker ink will wear off, and your marker will go back to it’s original ink color.

The Dual Brush Pens are self cleaning, so all you have to do is write with them, or scribble on a piece of paper and they go back to normal. This technique won’t hurt any of them. 🙂

Technique #2: Watercolor Drips.

While not actually watercolors, the Dual Brush Pens are water reactive, so they can act similar to watercolors and can be used for many of the same types of projects as you would the paint.

For this technique you’ll need the XL Blending Palette, a Dual Brush Pen, a misting bottle with water and a journal.

1: Apply a generous amount of Dual Brush Pen ink to the top third of the XL Blending Palette by scribbling it on.

2: Mist with water, and tilt the blending palette so that the ink runs down toward the bottom a little.

3: Lay flat again and lay your journal face down on top of the blending palette. Press down to transfer the ink and then lift up.

4: Let dry.

I found a new EASY way to make a drippy “watercolor” page. How: scribble ink onto @tombowusa new XL Blending Palette, mist with water and let the ink run downwards. Next place your journal fave down onto the ink to transfer it, and then lift it back up! 🎨so much fun!💗 The XL blending palette is brand new & available in @tombowusa’s VIP box, but that’s supposed to sell out SOON. 😬 you can find the link to it on my blog. . #Tombow #tombowusa #tombow2018dt @tombowusa #tombowvipclub #dualbrushpen #archerandolive @archerandolive Notebook #bujo #bujoinspiration #bulletjournal #dotgrid

A post shared by Katie Smith (@studio.katie) on Jul 25, 2018 at 7:48am PDT

As you can see below, I didn’t have any ghosting/bleeding through to the next pages of my journal. You want to make sure you don’t use TOO much water or they could ghost through, but the pages in my Archer and Olive notebook are very thick so I didn’t have that problem.

Technique 3: Mixed Media!

The XL Blending Palette is so handy for mixing mediums on! Here I’m using Dual Brush Pen ink to color Modeling Paste.

1: Scribble the Dual Brush Pen ink onto the blending palette.

2. Use a spatula to mix a little bit of modeling paste into the ink.

3. Use the spatula to apply your new colored medium through a stencil (or however you want to use the modeling paste!) onto your art journal page!

4. Remove the stencil, and wash the stencil, spatula & blending palette.

So there you have 3 fun techniques you can use with the Blending Palette, but those aren’t the only 3. Feel free to experiment and play with the palette to see what you can do!

Here are a few more projects I’ve used the Blending Palette on:

You can find the XL Blending Palette available for purchase here.

Reviews

Unboxing Tombow’s July 2018 VIP Box

Hey guys, Today I am unboxing Tombow’s July VIP Club box! and it is AMAZING AND HAS A HUGE VALUE.

If you want the July box, they have limited quantities available and once they’re sold out they’re gone. so get it now.

Okay, let’s open up the box:

What I love about Tombow’s VIP (Very Inspirational Products) box is that you can see what you’re buying before purchasing it (I’m not a huge fan of surprises. lol).

Included in the July box:

The Desktop & Carry Marker Case

This case is a great improvement on their previous marker stand. The new case holds up to 108 Dual Brush Pens and other writing instruments. (So you can also store a handful of your go-to pencils or Fudenosukes in it as well. The accordion style design allows you lots of versatility when deciding how to display it on your desk, and the snap on lid is perfect for when you’re on-the-go.

The Custom Dual Brush Pen 10-pack

This 10-pack includes colors from the 96-set of Dual Brush Pens, so these are not new colors, this is just a new assortment. So if you already have the 96 pack, you may not NEED this extra set, but it’s a fun bonus for sure! It’s a gorgeous set! It includes some of Tombow’s most popular colors, it does not include a Colorless Blender Pen though.

The new XL Blending Palette

A blending palette sized at 8×10″? Yes please! This is great for a larger surface area for blending. The back includes a color chart and blending tips.

This VIP box is a $61.97 value.

That’s incredible, y’all. I got this box as a part of the Tombow design team, but if I hadn’t, I would be buying this for sure.

I’m excited about both the Limited Edition Dual Brush Pen 10-pack and the XL Blending Palette, but I’m extra in love with the new marker case. I got a sneak peak of it back in January and have been waiting for it since then!! It has an accordion design, so it will fold out on to your desk, or you can fold it up and snap the lid on to take it on the go.

Right now I’m using it to hold my 96 Dual Brush Pen set, and then using the extra 12 slots to hold my MONO Edge Highlighters, MONO Drawing Pens, Fudenosukes and MONO Twin Permanent Marker.

Currently these products are only available in this VIP box.

You can purchase the July 2018 VIP Box here for $30 + Free Shipping here.

To get notified of the VIP boxes as soon as they’re available, people can sign up for the Tombow VIP Club email list here.

Art Journals

New Class: Art Journal Prompts 01!

Hey you guys, exciting news! My newest class for Big Pictures Classes goes live on Monday (July 23rd, 2018)! I absolutely love working with BPC to bring you some really fun techniques and ideas in my classes.

What’s the new class?

Art Journal Prompts

What’s it about? Exactly as the title suggests, this course is a prompt based class. In the class I share 5 journaling/writing prompts and 5 art technique prompts to use in your journal, as well as process videos using both types of prompts to create 4 spreads from start to finish and to help inspire you to get started in your art journal!

Do you ever get “blank page syndrome”? Where you open up your art journal, but then you’re not sure where to start? I occasionally do, which is why I created this class! I find prompts to be the perfect solution to get over the blank page. You can follow them to the letter, or just use them as a starting point. My favorite lesson in the class is lesson 5, because I show you how to make a messy collage, that will totally cover up the scary white page, without fear of “making a mistake”.

There are 7 lessons included in this class.

Lesson 1 is the the introduction, but I’ve also included a tutorial for binding your own Traveler’s Notebook insert, which is the type of journal I use in the course!

Lessons 2 and 3 include the prompts we’ll be working with.

And lessons 4-7 are all process videos where we’ll start making art journal pages! The fun stuff!!

To sign up, you can start a free 2-week trial of Big Picture Classes!

If you sign up for Big Picture Classes you get unlimited access to all of their classes, including my other classes: Tombow Techniques, Sketching in Your Art Journal! And Watercoloring in Your Art Journal!

You can learn about ALL of my classes here.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this course and what’s included! I’d be happy to answer! Comment below or send me a message!

DIY

DIY Barn Star Paintings

Hey everyone! Today I have a new blog post on Walnut Hollow’s blog! The tutorial? How to paint the easiest barn quilt stars ever. And I mean the easiest!

I’ve painted a different barn quilt before, and it involved so much planning (of the design) and taping, and multiple coats, and let me just say that this method was so much quicker!

Walnut Hollow makes premade Barn Star panels that all you have to do is paint!

Grab the full tutorial over on Walnut Hollow’s blog.

Tutorials

How to Draw Your Own Stickers!

If you’re as obsessed with stickers as I am, then you’ll have wanted to design your own before, right?

Today I have a brand new post on Tombow USA’s blog showing you how to draw and color your own stickers! I based mine on emojis for this tutorial, but what I love about this technique is you can draw anything you want for your stickers. Emojis, quotes, or even your own style of art, whatever that may be!

Grab the full tutorial on Tombow’s blog here.

Painting

How to Swatch your Watercolor Pan Set

Hey everyone, I recently made a swatch of some of my watercolors and wanted to show you the process, in case you’re curious about doing it for your own pan sets.

Today’s post is also a bit of a product review, because I just bought this watercolor tin palette, and since I’ve gotten some questions about it on instagram, I’m doing a review!

Let’s start with the swatching:

Step 1: Start by cutting down a piece of watercolor paper to fit into the lid of your palette.

Step 2: use a ruler to sketch a grid out onto the paper that matches the paints inside your palette. This tin holds 40 half pans, so that’s the grid I made.

Step 3. Fill up your pans. Obviously you’d skip this set if your palette is already filled. I, however, am using this tin to hold all of the tube watercolors I own. I actually left a few empty in case I bought new colors.

Step 4. As you fill up the half pans, write out the name of each color into the spaces on your swatch paper.

Step 5: Use a clean paintbrush to swatch each color into the matching spaces on the paper. It’s helpful to have a couple of jars of water nearby, so that you can continuously clean your paintbrush so that the swatches are true to color, and not contaminated with the previous color.

Now you can keep this inside your palette, and refer back to it when you’re painting so that you know exactly what each color will look like on paper.

Okay, let’s review this palette:

What is it?

Fclub Watercolor Tins Palette Paint Case with 40Pcs Half Pans Carrying Magnetic Stripe on The Bottom

Why I bought it: I wanted some empty paint pans so that I could squeeze my tube watercolors into a palette.

I was just going to buy some empty half pans on amazon, but when I saw this tin had Van Gogh’s Starry Night printed on it, AND it was only a couple of dollars more than just empty pans by themselves, I wanted to try this.

What’s cool about it: Well, besides the Starry Night (Nan Gogh fangirl here)? Each half pan has a magnet on the bottom, so that they stick to the tin and don’t fall out.

Any cons? well, when I first opened it, half of the pans had come away from the magnets. The magnets turned out to be some cheap self adhesive magnetic strips on the bottom of each one, that aren’t actually that “sticky” so the adhesive didn’t hold to the half pans. Easily fixed by me reglueing them to the pans with a stronger glue, but I was bummed that I had to do that at all.

I did actually remove a few of the half pans on the bottom row, simply because I had some extra full pans with watercolors that a friend gave me and I wanted to include in the tin as well.

Overall, I’d totally recommend it, if you want a new palette tin, and if don’t mind possibly repairing the magnets, and you love Van Gogh. Although it is available in different patterns on the outside as well.

You can grab one on amazon here. Note that this isn’t a paid post, and not an affiliate link. I just really like this new palette and wanted to let you guys know about it! 😉

What other art product reviews would you like to see here?