We return to our in-person meetings at the VFW on the first Friday of the month. Beth Mattheus will teach various techniques to use in backgrounds for greeting cards. For these exercises, we will be using 3 Daniel Smith watercolors of red, blue and yellow. They will be yours to use and keep in magnetic half pans in a hinged tin. In addition, we will be using 140Lb. watercolor paper to create different washes of color. These finished backgrounds will then be enhanced with your choice of stencils, rubber stamped images and words so that you can use them as greeting cards. All materials to do this will be provided for the $7. materials fee.

You will need to bring your painting supplies. Making sure to remember a palette for mixing, blue tape, a flat surface to tape the watercolor paper while you paint (this could be Masonite, wood surface, aluminum foil covered cardboard), 2 large flat brushes and 1 or 2 round brushes, paper towels and water bucket.

In addition, you could bring a favorite Americana paint so we could experiment with using this paint with the same watercolor technique.

Based on members’ request, we will be learning about the use of resin in a project. We will be celebrating the season with painting a Resin Christmas Tree. The first photo is shown using a wooden cutting board. The second photo shows a painted canvas and a base coated bread board. Gerri says that with the weight of the gems the canvas can dip slightly so the resin will sometimes create crevices. So, pick up your surface depending on the look you like. Gerri used various sizes including an 11-inch board she got at the Dollar Store and a 14-inch bread board. Although the design we will be using is with objects, resin can be used on any finished painted item. We appreciate that Gerri will take this opportunity to share this technique with us. Material fee will be the usual $7. fee.