Beginners Watercolour Painting – and a plethora of simple new year crafts

I hope it is not too late to wish you all an extremely heartfelt happy new year. I feel expectation levels high from us all for a more settled and peaceful year ahead than perhaps the recent years have given and I should like to offer the warmest of welcomes to a great many new subscribers, who joined Whitewood and Linen over the Christmas holidays. Today we are gently easing ourselves back into this creative space looking at a few simple crafts I indulged in during Betwixtmas; those days when time appears suspended and if you are like me, a time when you wish to be nowhere in particular, with nothing much to do. Except perhaps craft. I managed to fill my days with a little stitching and embroidery, some beautiful recycling of paper and card and a dabble at beginners watercolour painting too. First though, let’s begin with a look at why there will be no new year resolutions around here …

In short I rarely stick to them and thus feel I don’t achieve. I would prefer to focus instead on what I know I can do and reframe the resolution idea instead as a personal goal. Therefore I am calling my goal this year Re. Re-cycling. Re-purposing. Re-inventing. Re-using. Re-everything I can possibly Re. I thought I did a lot of Re-ing. It would seem I don’t do as much as I could. I shall do more and thus achieve my goal.

And so onto crafting. What utter joy I am finding in beginners watercolour painting. Brand new brushes and vintage paints are never far from my craft table these days and I find every spare minute is devoted to practicing. Leaves mainly since I fear these to be my nemesis. Once upon a time my lovely mother in law passed on a pallet of her watercolour paints to Master M which I recently discovered drying out at the back of a cupboard. A simple spritz of water brought the bright colours back to life and there appears to be no stopping me now. I’ve found several talented artists on both Instagram and Pinterest and watched a selection of their free tutorials to gain a basic level of understanding. @watercolorwithnina teaches a nostalgic and vintage approach which couldn’t suit me more. I feel sure Nina is talking only to me in her wonderful YouTube videos and I can see endless opportunities to incorporate beautiful faded roses into my life. Do take a look at Nina’s social media channels if you are interested in beginners watercolour painting.

And I am so enjoying learning from @paintstobrushes who teaches many styles of watercolour painting. In particular I am quite taken with the splatter technique which formed the base for my tulips below. Again, I urge you to seek out Farah if you are interested in beginners watercolour painting and for that matter advanced techniques. Both these ladies are hugely motivational in their approach and not for the first time did I find myself grateful for such talent shared freely amongst us.

These days I am never too far away from a needle and thread either. Quiet hours were spent mending, embroidering and there was even a little patching of clothing which didn’t need it at all, yet which benefited from it nonetheless. I wanted to share with you my poncho, bought a few years back on a shopping trip with Little Miss. She chose a khaki one and I a pinky peach. We were both extremely pleased with our purchases until we discovered the pom-poms around the neck line were in fact rabbit fur. Cue squeals of disgust and I couldn’t even bring myself to take my offending item to the charity shop, preferring instead to bury it at the back of the wardrobe. A recent tidy up and out it popped and in the spirit of Re, I decided to snip off the offending fur hoping to stitch a simple and neat neck line. Even with my stitch unpicker it was just not to be and I achieved nothing more than a row of unsightly holes. I tried a few solutions none of which looked quite right and eventually settled on some visible mending. I enjoyed a quiet while sitting at my window watching walkers amble on by using the skills I learned here to create a unique neckline which looks rather fetching when a polo neck sits beneath it.

Of course I faffed in those quiet days too finding a look for the home I was happy with for the bleak mid winter. “Do you know Mum, I think you are the only person I know who likes January and February” offered Little Miss one day post the big day itself, when she called to see what I was up to. These old wooden boxes bought from a dear friend look rather fetching reinvented and faffed as shelves to house mini treasures don’t you think? Sometimes it only takes you to look at an item you already have in another light and a reinvention is right there in front of you. Do you recall this simple reinvention?

And I played with new thoughtful Christmas gifts too. Master M bought me this sweet wax seal and sticks. “The W is for Whitewood and Linen” he said jolly pleased with himself “and I thought these wax sticks were your colours too” he finished rather grandly. Forgiven; for not reading Mum’s blog every single week. More of this craft another time.

I had so many ‘new craft’ gifts I wish to share them all with you now, although I won’t. Instead, each one will follow in a new story as the year unfolds, inspiring you I hope, to try something new or pick up a craft where perhaps you left off. Discovering you can do something you had no idea you could or having just a little more practice at something from long ago, is quite the best feeling. And there really is no better time than in the bleak mid winter.

Now before I go, I would love for you to meet Emily @box.paper.scissors if you don’t know her already. Lovely Emily shared several interesting recycling ideas recently reusing and reinventing her Christmas cards. I am a terrible hoarder and each year my festive cards go into a box and each year Mr M shakes his head in mock protest. This year however I decided to take a leaf out of Emily’s book and turn them into next years wrappings and trappings. Of course we all know the gift tags from old cards trick. Mine are usually parcel tag shaped. I made a couple of these using delicate embroidery taken from thoughtful handmade cards and I also adopted Emily’s fun suggestion and shaped a few as Christmas ornaments…

I particularly loved Emily’s idea of creating your own Christmas gift bags. You simply take the front of your Christmas card and stick it to the front of a paper bag covering any unwanted logo or design. Genius idea. I had a couple of gorgeous bags with logos on, so set to on those…

And in the spirit of adding my own spin, I made a paper gift bag and used a gifted card for its decoration. This particular card had a front and back I could use so I covered a supermarket match box – more ideas for this craft here – and added a bundle of short candles. A small gift for Little Miss who is hosting a much looked forward to family Sunday lunch around her new dining table shortly. Christmas pudding is on the menu since we never seem to manage it on the day itself.

I think with Emily’s help, this has been a good start to my 2022 Re goal don’t you? Twas the perfect craft to carry out whilst polishing off the final mince pies and a glass of Baileys and might be an easy afternoon craft to carry out on these quieter winter days with little ones.

Emily sells the most beautiful gift wrap and ribbons – and incidentally the most delicious washi tape I ever did see – as well as a selection of stationery and ephemera to tantalise and tempt her customers via her online shop. Generously, Emily is offering my readers 10% off their orders from now until midnight on 2nd February 2022 when the code WHITEWOODANDLINEN10 is applied at the checkout. So if you are thinking you might like to stock up for Valentines Day, Springtime birthdays or perhaps even Mothers Day, you can access her shop via the link in her Instagram bio or at www.box.paper.scissors.co.uk 

So as you see, no time has been wasted and I have so many more crafts to share with you as the year unfolds. Join me next week for a craft you can try yourself even if you have never attempted anything like it before. Another gentle step into our new year ahead, until then…x