Watercolor Crush: a Watercolor Coloring Book by Klutz

I am thrilled to show you a book I illustrated for Klutz, a division of Scholastic. As described in their about section, Klutz creates award-winning, premium activity books for kids and kid-minded adults.
​

read more

Watercolor Crush contains 18 illustrations to paint--it also includes a complete and fun set of instructions as well as a top quality set of watercolor paints and paintbrush! I cannot even begin to tell you how pleased I am with it. The watercolor paper is fantastic, the paints are bright, and instructions are thorough.

The best part? You don't have to be a kid to enjoy this!! All kids love this, but I have even sat with friends for a girls' night and painted together. For my book club, they so sweetly suggested we paint the book instead of reading a book that month. It was a blast! Even the women that declared adamantly that they were not artistic found fun in it! 

You can find it at Klutz, Amazon, Target, Michael's, Barnes & Noble, and many other places! 

In the book I show you different ways you can paint an illustration. In the image above it is fun to try different techniques! You can use an ombre effect for a sunrise or use a bleeding technique and a white crayon to create a starry sky. 

Below is a video of my 5 year old daughter painting the mermaid picture. She did a great job! 

On a personal note, Klutz contacted me last year to work with them. It had been six months since my late husband passed...and being asked to do this was such a blessing. It was a dream I had always dreamed coming true. It was focused and something I really could lose myself in. I remember painting at night after my kids had gone to bed and staying up way too late to finish work before deadlines were due. 

A couple weeks ago I showed my work at the Hello, Sunrise Market and had this book on display. I kid you not--little kids were drawn to this book! They would walk over to it and couldn't put it down. It was the BEST feeling!!! 

My favorite part was when my friend brought her daughter by and had me sign her book for her. I started to write her name in it but wrote it wrong.

I told her I could fix it.

We all make mistakes, but as an artist you can use your creativity to fix them and somehow your work comes out even better because of it.

I scribbled out her name and turned that into the grass. From it grew a grouping of flowers. 

She was so pleased! Her mother told me not long after she had made a spelling mistake. In classic artist fashion she made the best of it and turned it into a bed of flowers. 

Honestly, as I said it, I was just trying to console her. But hearing how she had done the same as me struck me and stuck with me. 

This is my absolute favorite painting from the book!

The colors are vibrant and when you add salt on top of the wet blue paint it creates  a unique effect as the salt absorbs the water around it. Leave the salt until it dries and then brush the grains off. 

There are fun tips on the ways you can display your artwork or further projects you can make with them. 

There are two pages that are perforated so you can send them as postcards in the mail or display as smaller works. 

​This collaboration was a dream come true!

I LOVE hearing how happy it makes little girls! I love to see how they imagined the colors and the creative ways they paint them. I love hearing that grown women are buying this book and treating themselves to time painting. 

Paint away, dear friends!

If you post it on instagram be sure to post the hashtag #watercolorcrushbook and feel free to tag me!