Blog Series, Inspiration, Seasons, Tutorials

Blog Series: Fall Decor Day 1

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It’s only nearing the end of September but it’s getting rather chilly here already. The slice of warm sunshine on our honey-colored wood floor, the crab apple tree outside,  a few maple leaves starting to turn into their gorgeous glorious colors are all getting me into the mood for autumn decor. All of this week, I am planning to share with you inspiration and/or tutorials for the Fall crafts I’m creating around my house.

Here’s a not-too-frightening Halloween decor tutorial for Day 1.

Supplies (affiliate links):

Now, let me walk you through the steps.

Trim grey cardstock to 5″ x 6.5″. On Sizzix Accessory Standard Magnetic Platform for Wafer-Thin Dies, lay a Standard Cutting Pad. Place the grey cardstock on the cutting pad and arrange the Halloween Hangouts dies blade side down on the grey cardstock. Cover with the other Standard Cutting Pad and pass the whole Sizzix Sandwich through the Sizzix Big Shot Machine.

Repeat the same step with a piece of white cardstock.

Trim three pieces of kraft cardstock to 5.5″ x 6.75″ each. Layer the three pieces together with adhesive to strengthen the paper.

On the topmost layer, draw a box with pencil and ruler leaving about a quarter inch margin all around. Color this box with Translucents Gelatos colors as shown. Blend the colors with a wet paint brush. Let dry.

Mount the grey die-cut piece to the kraft background with 3D Foam Squares.

Cut out the Halloween Hangouts from their frames from the white cardstock die-cut piece from before.

Color the pieces with Translucents Gelatos.

Ink up the background stamp with Black Stamper’s Big Brush pen and stamp randomly around the grey cardstock layer.

Attach the Halloween Hangouts pieces with 3D Foam Squares, slightly offsetting toward the left on the corresponding grey layers.

Add some pattern to the grey layer with Stamper’s Big White Pen. I love how solid that white ink is!

Add a little more depth to the background by making marks with the Brown PITT pen.

Die-cut the boo out of  kraft cardstock using the Sizzix Sidekick Side-Order Set – Halloween using the same Sizzix Sandwich as described above. Color the ‘boo’ cutout with Brown PITT pen. Cut a speech bubble out of white cardstock and color it with Translucents Gelatos. Mount the ‘boo’ to the speech bubble using a glue pen. Inlay the kraft cut-outs to the ‘boo’ also using the glue pen. Attach it to the grey layer with 3D Foam Squares next to the owl.

Use the Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 12PK – Shadow Script Halloween to die-cut the word ‘beware’ out of white cardstock and its shadow out of kraft and grey cardstock using the same Sizzix Sandwich as described above. Attach the word to the kraft shadow with glue pen. Use 3d Foam squares to attach the whole word to the grey shadow offsetting slightly toward the left. Attach the word above the block with glue pen.

Die-cut an easel stand for your decor piece using the Sizzix Bigz Die – Small Easel. Simply place your paper on the bladeside of the Bigz die and place the die between two standard cutting pads. Pass the entire Sizzix Sandwich through the Sizzix Big Shot machine. Attach the easel to the back of the block as shown. You can store it flat when not in use by simply folding the small groove fold back up.

Place the piece on your fireplace or shelf to add a festive touch to your home!

Be sure to be back tomorrow for some more fun inspiration!

*All contents, words and images are copyright of Mou Saha.*

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Behind the scenes, Celebrations, Illustration, Mou's Sketchbook, Seasons, Shop

Hello Fall: All Image Collections on SALE

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Today is the first day of Autumn and it’s my favorite season! To celebrate, I am offering 15% discount on ALL my downloadable and printable coloring books/ image collections this weekend (9/22/18 – 9/23/18) only. Prices are adjusted, no code needed.

Not only that. I am also launching my newest image collection ‘Hello Fall’ TODAY!

Sweater weather, pumpkin spice flavor and glorious colors all around – that is autumn where I live and I love every bit of it. This gorgeous season inspired me to draw the colorful leaves, the pumpkin gingersnap pie scented candle, the crab apple sprigs, the squirrels that so actively gather acorns, the back-to-school supplies, fall outfits for picture day, the puffy cotton flowers, the strangely shaped gourds, the sunflowers bigger than my daughter’s head, the Halloween decorations, the wreath I made myself for Thanksgiving  and many more. I put these line drawings together in a downloadable and printable collection that you can color as well as use as collage images in your art journals, mixed media art and more. You are also going to get 15 bonus pages with ideas for coloring and art journal pages. Because you can adjust the print sizes of these images, you can even use them in your planners. Print as many times as you need to embellish your personal art projects. Whatever you choose to create, these images will do the hard work for you!

This printable image collection is about all things FALL. You can instantly download the printable PDF following the completion of your payment. You can download the PDF UP TO 3 TIMES just in case the first attempt fails.

No shipping fee, no waiting for the mail.

You can print and reprint as many times as you want!

You would normally pay anywhere between $1.67 and $5 for a SINGLE printable coloring page on Etsy after scrolling for hours to find one you really like.

My goal is to make this easy and affordable for you.

** This is a digital product that you will download. No physical product will be shipped.

**NO REFUNDS on this product.

** Copyright © 2018 Mou Saha. All rights reserved.

You can print these drawings only for personal, non-commercial use. Restrictions include but are: not limited to the following: you cannot resale these drawings, sell them as finished paintings or any art derived from them, submit for publication, teach classes using them, copy and/or distribute them in any form without my written permission.

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Family, Inspiration, Mixed Media Ventures, Online Workshops, Seasons, Uncategorized, Video tutorial

21 Secrets Just Add Water Workshop: Oil & water

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Summer vacation has officially started here. There will soon be mad rush with summer camps some of which are already under way but today I’m playing and watching FIFA.

If you too are looking to boost your summer creativity, check out the self-paced 21 Secrets workshops. You’ll have fun with the short doable video workshops! As soon as you register, you’ll get a welcome email with access to the first class.

Here’s my take on the first class by Connie Solera out now.

It’s me and my kids, two of whom are taller than me now, but I still feel like I’m arching over to protect them 🙂

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Celebrations, Illustration, Inspiration, Life, Mou's Sketchbook, Seasons, Shop, Vacations

New Coloring Book: At the Beach

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When we lived in Florida, I didn’t think I could miss summer… ever! But when we moved north, I found cold weather for most of the year. Even though we have pretty beaches here too, the drive is longer and the water much colder. All of a sudden summer days and our trips to the beaches became a lot more precious to me. 

As I washed sand off the beach toys, I felt that soon this summer too will be a thing of the past and we can only hold on to its memories. And I wanted to re-live these moments and cherish the fond memories we made. To do so, I compiled my drawings inspired by our beach vacations – things we saw, things we shopped for, things we did, and created a coloring book named At the Beach. 
 
At the Beach is a printable coloring book of fond beach memories. It includes a fun collection of 30 hand-drawn images that bring back memories of carefree sun-soothed, surf-soaked beach vacations. Plus, there’s a bonus section of inspiration to help you bring the black-and-white pen drawings to life in full color!

In this coloring book, you’ll find cute flip flops, stylish swimsuits, the dyed woven straw beach bag with raffia fringes which we ended up not buying as it wasn’t big enough, the rose colored sun glasses I bought at St. Maarten and many more. At the Beach will surely help you re-live YOUR beach vacations and enjoy the special summer memories a while longer.

I’ll email you the printable PDF within 24 hours of purchase. No shipping fee, no waiting for the mail to step into coloring bliss!

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Celebrations, Family, Inspiration, Life, Seasons, Travel, Vacations

Back from the Bahamas!

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Helllllooooo!!!

We are back from our spring break cruise to the Bahamas! Here’s the story of our trip in pictures.

Leaving the cold and rainy weather behind was not hard. As we drove to Cape Liberty to our cruise terminal, I took this photo of the Harbor Pointe light house. Blurry as it was on a cloudy, rainy day, it was still beautiful!

Car parked. Luggage out. Family shot.

First view from the cabin on board of the Anthem. Bon Voyage!

Since I take all the photos, I’m never in them. So, here’s one mirror selfie!

Day 1 was sea day. Nini and I took our cameras and explored the ship. Found several pieces of amazing art all around.

The Pulse Spiral by Rafael Lozano Hemmer, is a grand chandelier with 200 light bulbs that pulses rhythmically to heart beats. We added our own heart beats to this mix by placing our hands on the metal plate.

Also loved Andrew Myers’ Topographical Facial Series 1-4 and Kerry Miller’s Flowering Plants of Great Britain.

The first few times we passed by this chair, we found an older gentleman fast asleep on it. Much to my daughter’s frustration, we came back to it one more time and took this photo.

Because of inclement weather, our itinerary got an overhaul. Day 2 was no longer to be a day in Cape Canaveral but another sea day.

We made it to Coco Cay on day 3.

EVERYONE LOVED THE SAND, SURF AND SUN!!!

Ashis floated around in a surf mat for hours.

After that the boys went back to the ship with the baby and I stayed back on the island with Nini for shopping. Some cool local handicrafts and musical instruments were bought.

Day 4, we were at Nassau. We spent the whole day in the island. Ashis took Nini for snorkeling with the shore excursions.

Around noon, I took Ayush and Jia for our glass bottom boat excursion to the coral reef. Ashis and Nini made it back from their snorkeling trip just in time to hop on the boat. When we came back, Ashis took baby Jia back to the ship while Ayush and Nini came shopping with me.

This gentleman is a young police officer and was happy to pose for a picture with Ayush!

Oh the colors of this Bahamian island!

After a while, Ayush was done walking. So we took him back to the ship. Changed. And came back out again for more photos and shopping!!! Pretty jewelries were bought for this young lady!

The kids were the most excited to reach Port Canaveral on Day 5! It was strangely emotional to go back to Florida again, but this time as a tourist.

Jia embraced the ocean with open arms! Looks like she too is a sea girl at heart.

One word: BLISS.

I came to Tampa, Florida back in December 1999, a week after I got married. I had left my home and family back in India. A new phase of my life began unfolding in the gulf coast. We built our first home from ground up. We had our three children. We got our first puppy, Brave. Then sixteen and a half years later, we had to move. To New Jersey. Ayush and Nini were beyond upset. Jia was too young to know. I steeled myself and left my neighbors and friends behind who had become family to us. I promise you, I did not cry as we drove off 10748 Plantation Bay Drive at 3.20 pm on July 17th, 2015. But as the ship sailed away from Cape Canaveral, it hit me that I had left home once again. My Jia will not go to NASA for school field trips. Or pet manatees in ocean reserves. Or have an annual pass to Disney and Sea World. Or smell like chlorine swimming in the home pool. Yes, she will do other things in New Jersey. But that’s a part of our lives she will only know from our stories.

An excess of food was consumed EVERY SINGLE DAY. Desserts were had even at breakfast. Can’t tell if we liked the taste or the look more!

A large debate was had over whether this towel beauty was a peacock or a turkey.

At 6.30 am on Sunday, 4/2/17 the Anthem of the Seas docked at Cape Liberty.

One last photo was taken on the cabin balcony.

Luggage was hauled. Customs cleared. Last photo of the Anthem was taken from the parking garage.

And then, we drove back to routine. From luxury to comfort. Exhausted. Somewhat sunburnt. Happy. Full of beautiful memories and stories to tell.

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