Danielle Calabro

It's the 2nd day of December and the reality that Christmas is only a few weeks away is setting in. Since we live in Florida this is the closet I will ever come to building a snowman. I was 26 years old before I ever saw snow in person and I turned into a little girl for the short period it did snow, it was the week before Easter and we went up to Georgia but of course by the time we got up the next morning most of it had melted but I was in awe while it lasted. I'm not sure how I would fair up north but I would definitely like to take a vacation one year where it actually snows and it stays on the ground for at least a day or two. I don't want our children to have to wait until they are in their twenties before they see snow for the first time.  Here in Florida we have to make our own snow, we went to the tree lighting in our little town and they had an area where the kids could play in what looks like someone took big chunks of ice and put them through a giant...

We have been super busy with the holidays Lately and I have found it hard to stay on top of everything. So where to start, we are waiting for the final "Gold Cert." on the loan approval for the house and it is driving me crazy and stressing me out. Its hard not to think about but we keep praying that everything will work out. Thanksgiving was great and time flew by getting to Christmas, only a few more days left and of course I have a couple more things to get got to love waiting on a pay check.  One thing I did not wait until the last possible minute on was Christmas cards. I only did 5, to be honest I loved doing the outside of the cards but the blank inside is what scared me the most.  THE SNOWMAN He is my favorite, just so darn cute. I used watercolor for the background and took a chance on the snowman and used gouache. I loved the matte finish the gouache has, I outlined using india ink. THE LIGHTS This is my second favorite, the lines were done with cop...

I know I have been away for about a week, I have been working on a few things. I got over my little grumble about the business license and I am moving forward. As I said in one of my last post I am making my christmas cards this year, so I have started my first one. The background is done, all I need to work on is the lettering. I have not decided if I will do the lettering myself or have a hi-res scan of the painting and just use a font. I think I will do a couple of more then go from there. The background was done in watercolor, I used a watercolor mask for the stars. While the background was still wet I sprinkled table salt on it and got a nice speckled effect. The tress were painted with gouache, I wanted a nice opaque cover, along with a gold paint pen, this added a nice little shine to it. Of course I doubt I will be able to get that effect on a printed card and if I can I may end up paying more, something to think about, I then tangled the trees.