A Time to Play: Taking Time to Create

Play

Welcome to our new weekly blog post, A Time to Play. Sunday afternoon’s were made for relaxing in our house. It is something we have made a huge priority over the last few years. We guard it pretty closely and it ends with a date night rotating amongst the family members. It’s a way that my very busy Hubby is able to spend quality time with each one of us.

Well this is the beginning of what I hope to carve out some time to learn some new skills. As we have had to change our schedules when hubby left his ministry it has been difficult to find the time for my craftiness. (HEHEHE- that just sounded kinda funny)

Scheduled play Time

Now each week will look a little different- some weeks I will share some artwork or I might share a favorite supply

This week for instance I am going to share….

WHAT’S In MY TRAVEL ART BAG

I have had this Eastpak Back Pack since I was in High school- It has been half away around the world with me and back again. It has been through 4 years of college too. It has been camping and hiking and has now found permanent residence in my craft room.

The front pocket

Let’s start with the clear pouch that holds 2 bottles of water- I used two travel bottles that came with our camper. (It had shampoo and conditioner) in them. and there is masking fluid. It keeps white spaces when using water color. you paint it on and then rub it off when dry. a glue stick and some binder clips.

Then there is my favorite mechanical pencil and a simple microfiber cloth for wiping off my paint brushes.

Then there are scraps of paper for testing projects and an artist card pack.

The Big Pocket

This is one of my favorite watercolor notebooks. It’s small and I love the spiral bound option so I Can fold it over for easier use.. I have really grown to enjoy Arteza’s Art supplies and there a bunch listed throughout this post. You can check out their website here and stay tuned to learn about more of their art supplies! You can check out more here

THESE are my absolute favorite water brushes also from Arteza. They come in 6 different brushes 3 round (small, medium, and large) and 3 flat brushes (Small , medium, and large). I lost one of the caps while we were camping 2 years ago! the velvet bag came with the Artsy palette coming up in a few pics

this pencil set was an Amazon find. I needed a cheaper set for traveling and I needed some new drawing pencils. this set was perfect.

This simple little travelers notebook was something I put together a few years ago. I had to re-work the band. and I took so over side sketch paper and water color paper and cut them down to fit the inserts. It is perfect for camping and traveling.

Somedays you just need a coloring book! and this one is small enough to just slide in amongst the other stuff in the bag and I can just grab it and the colored pencil pack and go sit at t a picnic table somewhere. and the little book to the left is just an insert for the travelers notebook above covered in scrapbook paper and it has some heavy duty mixed yardstick.

This little pack has a bunch of goodies in it. Hubby and I have matching ones. His is gray and mine is this lovely shade of purple

The top picture is what is held in the pockets on the left hand side.. The pack come with three pencil holder “Pages. the first one is stitched in but the second two can be put in with velcro. I only have an extra one in. in currently. the first one front and back hold my Arteza Woodless Watercolor pencils- they are my faves to date. they are so smooth and not scratchy like some. And they dissolve so well.

Page two

The second page has my PITT Pens (fine Liners and a Mechanical pencil with Red lead in it!!! I have recently started using red colored pencil to sketch in before I water color over it. It just kinda melts into the painting and adds depth to the artwork.

The big part of the pack has just a few little things.

This little cellphone looking device is actually a watercolor paint palette. I needed something small. Would you believe that there are 60 colors in it? I love just how pigmented these colors have and I love to play with them.

The top picture are 2 silicone muffin cups one for clean and one for dirty water, my kneadable gray eraser (AKA stress therapy) and a roll of WASHI tape .

These are super special paints!!! These are Derwent Graphitint watercolor paints. They have Graphite mixed into the hues- These amazing paints give wonderful earthy tones with a slight graphite luster. I have thoroughly enjoyed using them and I am currently saving upper the water soluble Graphitint colored pencils.

Finally these mini travel brushes can be corked and make for easy travel.

If I need to get smaller I can just grab the purple pack and the travelers notebook. and be good to go. These are made by Sakura Koi and come in round brushes in 3 sizes (small, medium, and large).

So are you ready to play>. Join me each Sunday and be ready to share what you are working on!! I can’t wait to hear what you are working on!!

You can check out last weeks art post here

And to check out the rest of my Choosing Courage posts you can click here. This marks my 14th blog post and the end of week 2!