Painting with a purpose

I, like many of you out there, am not the kind of person who can sit down and produce something from nothing. I do not feel like I have much of an imagination so, whilst I love doodling and I love to paint, I cannot sit down with nothing in front of me to inspire me.  I don't need to have it all planned out but I have found that I am a person who needs something; a theme, a colour palette or a picture/object to inspire me. While it may not be much, just having something to start with really helps me.

Carol was inspired to doodle this journal page after finding this old ribbon in her office. 

For a while now, I have been spending time each week doodling with my paintbrush. I have kept a painting journal for a number of years (oh how I wish I had kept one from the beginning to see how my brushstrokes had improved!) and it had been neglected for a few months as the paperwork and running of the business side of You can Folk It demanded my attention.

Needing to relax and to paint again and to help inspire other Folkers, I have begun "Painting with a purpose." By this I mean painting our designs but in new and different ways. Each Thursday on our Facebook page, I post these Folky Doodles to inspire others and to remind myself not to forget my own love of painting! Here is a round up of what I have been up to so far...

1. Experiment with colour.

In all of our kits, we have given you patterns, paint palettes and images to get you started but that is only the beginning of your journey. At You Can Folk It! we love colour and the different looks it can help create. Here, I took the wreath design and painted it using different colours from the Series 2 Starter kit.

Painting one pattern in different colours can be a great way to personalise your handmade gifts and cards.

The red one would be a gorgeous alternative to a Christmas wreath, the yellow one would be perfect for Easter cards. Why not add one to a Mothers day card using their favourite colour?

2. Arrange your designs in different shapes.

Our designs are created to fit onto our mount board squares, hanging hearts (Series 1 kits) or plaques (our Series 2 kits). However, once you have built your confidence, you can play with arrangements. Why not create a flower wreath, a corner design perfect for embellishing an envelope or a simple line?

Here, I painted circles and when dry, I added the flowers from our Bluebirds kit before painting commas strokes and Vintage Rose leaves. 

During my doodles, I enjoyed creating different designs and if you are not confident enough (yet) to make your own, I have added printable designs to our Pinterest board.

3. Combine designs

There is a joy in painting the same designs over and over again and being a skill based art, the beauty of practice like this is that you will reach a point where your hands move almost without thinking to create the perfect brushstroke (honestly!). There are times though when we want to mix things up and create something new.

During one doodle day, I sat down with the intention of combining elements from different kits. For our Daisy details kit, the leaves featured in the design are plain comma strokes. The daisy pattern is so pretty, I wondered what it would look like with the more detailed leaf featured in our Vintage Rose kit. The great thing about these leaves is that they give the pattern more structure and I was able to turn three flowers into a pretty wreath.

Our kits are fantastic on their own and are so versatile just by changing colour alone. This exercise however, has reinforced to me once again that you can create any design you wish using the building blocks each kit provides. Even after 20 years, it is nice to be reminded that playing with these building blocks can create something so unique and eye-catching.

Happy Folking,

Love, Carol xx