Author: Colette Horsburgh

It’s been a while since I’ve done any Hama pieces.  Hama, for those who don’t know, are also known as Perler beads.  You build the pattern you like, then iron them to fuse them together.

I have several hundred pictures of ideas from various sources online, and I’d like to say I’ll get around to them all one day, but I probably won’t.  I found a really cute cherry blossom tree recently though, and that inspired me to get my beads out.

It has that slit down the middle so that you can make two, and slide them together to make a 3D tree.  Like the Christmas tree ones I make and sell.

The picture only showed one side, but I knew it would be easy enough to work out a second side.  And so I picked out my colours.

I didn’t quite have the right shades.  It didn’t bother me too much for the trunk, but I did wish I had a lighter pink.

And then I started placing my beads.  Hama is a strange craft.  It’s theraputic and relaxing placing each bead one at a time, but also there’s a constant thrill that comes with the risk of a pet knocking the board over.  This has been done before.  And will probably be done again.

I did the trunk and started on the cherry blossoms.  Lots of blossoms.  And then I began to suspect that while I might have enough of the second pink shade to complete the first side of the tree, I didn’t think I’d have enough for the second side.

And so I gave up.  For now.  I took it all apart and returned the beads to their boxes.  I haven’t given up for good though.  I’m going to see if I can find a paler pink, and then have another go.

Last week the April Scrawlr Box came through my letter box.  So I decided I should probably write a blog post about the March box.

For those who don’t know, Scrawlr Box is a monthly art subscription box.  And it’s a load of fun.  The boxes are sized to fit right through your letter box, so no fussing with post offices.

Each month you get practically all the supplies you need for an art project.  As well as a postcard with a print from a featured artist, who used the same sort of supplies as in the box.

This month came with a line art of the print too, for us to colour in.

From here the lighting gets a little better in my pictures because I actually opened my living room curtains.

In the March box there was some Staedtler Super Soft coloured pencils…

…a jumbo graphite pencil, a Koh-I-Noor woodless white pencil, a Derwent Burnisher, a Derwent Blender, a V Ball pen…

…an A5 sketchbook with a pretty shiny purple cover…

…and a double hole sharpener.  Scrawlr Box also sends a different sweet every month, and a sticker with their logo on.  Recently the stickers have been designed to reflect the mediums in the box.

You also get a card with all the details of the items in the box.

A lot of people, me included, like to leave this til last.  That way taking the supplies out of the box is more of a surprise.

The bottom of that second page is the monthly challenge.  The art print, combined with the rainbow of pencils, inspired me and I had an idea right away.  But first we have to swatch.

The Blender and Burnisher confused me a little.  I have a nice full set of Faber-Castell Polychromos, but I don’t really know how to make the best of them.  I want to learn though, and this Scrawlr Box has definitely reignited that desire.

And so on to the Enchantress.  You don’t HAVE to do the challenge of course, but as I said, I was inspired for this one.

I didn’t intend for her to be snarling like that, but I haven’t done too many mouths yet so I’m not too good at them.  I did use the Burnisher though, and there is definitely a difference.

I’m not sure the effect is worth the aching wrist though.  On to the hair.  The hair was what I was looking forward to most.  I used the blender a bit too, and it looks good but I’m not sure if I did it right.

When I’d done all the hair I went over it with the Burnisher, and outlined a little more in the black pen.  I really like how it turned out, but I wish I’d managed to not have her snarling.  I’ll have to do some mouths practice.

And because the coloured pencils were supposed to be as good on black paper as they are on white, I did a little robot too.

Okay, time to open April’s box.  I’ll try and blog about it before May’s arrives.

So that big thing that I’ve been alluding to?  Patreon!

I discussed recently about the plans that I have for Crafted By Colette.  One of those plans has always been to set up a Patreon one day.  I wanted to wait until I had a little bit of a bigger following.  But with the upcoming changes in their fees, Patreon have pushed my hand a little.

So in recent weeks I’ve been revamping my branding a little, and prepping my Patreon page.

I designed a series of monsters who will represent my tiers:

Each monster has a different tier, with costs from $1 to $25.  And each one comes with juicy perks.

Amongst the perks on offer are free mini alien plushies…

Loading poll…

…monsters designed especially for you, free badges and art prints.

I’ll also be doing a monthly raffle for a Patron to win a free 6×4″ art print of any of my work they like.

Plus, I’ll be writing a Patron blog post every month.  In the post I’ll list and thank each and everyone of my Patrons, and pick 1 or 2 to highlight.  If they have projects they want me to feature, plug or review I’ll do that too.

There’ll be lots of freebies and fun stuff going on.  I have lots and lots of ideas.  If there’s anything you want to see, please comment and let me know.

Go over and become a Patron.  The first 10 new Patrons – at whatever tier – will get a handwritten personal letter and doodle from me.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have spotted a range of monsters recently.

They’ve been hinting at something big coming.

If you’re clever you might have worked out what it is.

But if you haven’t, don’t worry.  You won’t have to wait much longer.

Because it’s tomorrow.  The big thing that I’ve been working on for weeks and weeks, it happens tomorrow!  Tune it at 5pm to find out all about it.

I hope you’ve all eaten lots of chocolate.  I had plenty 🙂

For Easter this year, after some time (ahem, hours) browsing on Pinterest I settled for this craft.

The Pinterest link didn’t lead anywhere, but a reverse image search found me the original website.  Home and Gardening Ideas posted this little craft, and I followed their instructions.

The written instructions were a little unclear, but at the bottom of the page is a YouTube video.

It was a really easy tutorial to follow.  I had a little trouble cutting the ears.  It was just fiddly.

And somehow the face ended up looking really angry.

But it didn’t look too bad.

I did have a second go.  This time I used safety eyes and embroidered a face before filling the sock.  And I cut the basic shape for the ears first too.  I kinda loved how plump he looked before I tied the twine to make his head.

I trimmed his ears a little more, and he looked adorable.  Even if I did stitch his mouth a bit too low.

But it was a fun little Easter craft and now I have two cute little sock bunnies.

My old logo was designed back in 2012.  I was obsessed with Zentangles at the time and the star is a Zentangle pattern called an Auraknot.

It’s a very relaxing and fun pattern to make.  And I love the star that I produced.

But it’s a little complex for a logo.  I did create a simpler version.

In recent years though I’ve become a lot more colourful in both my personal style, and in my work.  I find myself becoming a little obsessed with rainbows.

I’ve been considering redoing my logo for a year or so now, and recent/current events have made that final decision for me.  But I had absolutely no idea where to start.

Until I saw this…

Megan Weller on YouTube posts a lot of ways to fill your sketchbook, and I love them.  I have a big collection of a list of things to do in sketchbooks, and I’m always looking for more.

Hopefully that video starts at the right point, where Megan demonstrates some fun lettering techniques.  If not, it’s at 5:40.  When I saw them I grabbed a sketchbook and had a go.

I really liked that middle one, and it was that which sparked my imagination.  So out came my Ohuhu markers.

I couldn’t decide whether to add the frame to the banner or not, or whether to join up my horrendous cursive, so I did a bit of everything and then asked my Facebook and Twitter followers for advice.

Version two was a bit more rough.

And then for version three I settled a bit more on what I wanted.

The next step was to make it digital.  This was a bit stressful.  My digital skills are not that good yet, although I’m working on it.  It took me a while to do it, but I finally managed.

It’s by no means perfect.  The foreground lettering is ever so slightly fuzzy, but it’s good enough for me for now.  Maybe my digital skills will improve, or I’ll hire someone to do a better job.  But that’ll have to wait.

I’ve done a bit of supply shopping in the past few weeks.  With two specific art methods in mind.

I’ve bought myself some decent watercolours, because the set I got myself at Christmas is very chalky.

And because I’m me, I got all sorts of other watercolour bits and pieces too.

I also got the last remaining pieces I needed for an art/craft I’ve been desperate to try.  Can you guess what it is?