I've kept it no secret that I'm Italian and I generally love Italian desserts. It's the lemon and orange zest that hooks me! When my friend, Kate, saw me post about a cannoli cake, she said she wanted to try the recipe. Knowing that Kate's a great baker, I was all for her baking it. Truth be told, I'm too much of an experimentalist to follow a recipe. Turns out, Kate experiments too, but she knows what parts not to mess with and how to make her well-thought-out changes. I'm more of the type who thinks, "I like eggs, why not add more?" I know, baking is all science. I got my only D in high school chemistry.

It was so delicious! Moist and fluffy, with hints of orange. I think it tasted way better then a cannoli! We truly enjoyed the cake and the company!

I'm looking forward to the joy of getting back to being able to do these things!

Needless to say, it took a lot longer for me to complete my end of the deal, but that time has finally come! Since I've been teaching perspective to my online watercolor class, and because it was time for our still-life class to paint food, I decided to paint Kate's cannoli cake as our subject.

We started by sketching the cake plate in perspective and first drawing a cube. Perspective tends to trip people up, so we dove into it to get it mastered. We then created ellipses within the cube for our cake stand and layered cake.  Since everyone knows that delicious cake needs coffee, milk or hot tea to wash it down, I included a beverage in this still-life as well. Understanding perspective takes a lot of the discomfort out of trying to draw scenes with multiple or complicated shapes.

I used liquid mask to preserve some whites around the rim of the cup, highlights in the tea and the tea bag string.

I decided on my background colors and enjoyed layering them. I let the colors intermingle.

The chocolate chips are so much fun to paint! I have a little tutorial image on how to paint them on an older blog post here.

Here is the final painting above. I'm giving this original to Kate to commemorate our fun day and to thank her for sharing her gift with us. Pretty soon, I'll be posting a special page on my website with my original watercolor paintings for sale. Many are 11X14", 8x10" and 16X20", so if you've got a wall that needs something special on it, keep an eye out for this new place to shop!
Note: the prints will remain on my Etsy page.

Hope this post inspires you to bake something yummy. In case you are interested in trying it for yourself, here is a similar recipe to the one that chef Kate used. Her special modifications were to use plenty of navel orange zest, a "cinnamon plus" seasoning blend and buying the best, high quality Mascarpone cheese you can find. Enjoy!

If you're considering getting an illustrated custom family recipe of your own, have a look at some of these examples and get in touch with me.

Let me know in the comments or on social media, what kind of cakes you like to bake best.

I'm bringing out one of  our favorite crafts from art camp, the plushy pillow. It's a great one because more than anything, it gives you a chance to do 3 important things:

In art camp, we created this project using pre-cut felt squares. However, in light of the coronavirus quarantine, I thought it best to keep it simple and use household objects. Who needs extra trips to the store or packages to consider sanitizing? Our modified version uses things that you may have on hand, such as old T-shirts for the fabric. My son, Tre, had a few "old faithful" T-shirts, or as Seinfeld called them, "golden boy."

The next step that I took was to have the kids measure in 3 to 4 inches on all sides. I was glad to remind him how to use a ruler : ). I helped by drawing a box in the middle using chalk, but a marker could work as well. This provides for a "cut line" that the fringes get cut up to.

Lastly, Tre sewed on the button. I explained to him to start underneath the button and go upward. He could either criss-cross to form an "X" or go from the top to the bottom hole to create 2 parallel lines like an "11" shape. He opted for the criss-cross method (shown below)

It ended up small and cuddly because we were using a shirt from Tre's pre-school days, but the bigger the shirt... the bigger the pillow.

Here are a couple of photos I want to share from this project at Camp Create. The kids learned so much sewing on the buttons in 2018. We had them pick their own colors of felt to mix and match with the different buttons. For  camp, they sewed on little pockets as well.

Special thanks to our campers who won the poster contest last summer during our weeks of art camp. Their art helped to create the front of our flyer for this year. Thank you for your creativity; Rylee, Hayden, Inese, Tre, Tristan and Lily.

We are aware that your plans for this summer are most likely in limbo. As of now, we are hopeful to proceed with our dates of June 15th - 19th or June 22nd - 26th as planned. However, if things do not rebound as quickly as anticipated, we will take one of two actions:

1. Reschedule the camp for later in the summer (possibly July or August)
2. If complete cancellation is necessary, we will take our cue from the airlines and create a credit system where your paid art camp tuition from this summer will be applied forward to one of next summer’s art camp weeks.

At this time, we are still keeping our registration open, so feel free to register without paying (and pay right before camp starts) if you’d like to reserve your child’s spot without having the financial commitment. To do so, just fill in the registration form and hit, "continue", but do not proceed through the payment portion. Your registration and spot will be saved.

If you are signed up for the newsletter, we will let you know if any plans change.  We sincerely hope that we will be able to enjoy the fun and creative activities we have planned with your children in June! 

Let us know how the project goes by tagging us on Facebook or on Instagram at: #campcreateartcamp. You can find and follow it here.

While I usually have students in my home studio to paint together, I've long wanted to be able to offer classes online for people out of town who have requested it. This odd state of staying at home has forced me to finally make it happen!

Each week, I'll create a page on my website full of examples, notes and information. I’ll also post a video(s) of me teaching the content.

What I'm most excited about is that I'm creating an online forum to help us stay connected with one another, get feedback as we work through the painting, and hold each other accountable. Hopefully, this will keep us actually getting our paints wet each week ! ; )

I use my talented, artful assistant, Holli, and my daughter, Mia, weekly (and sometimes daily) to get feedback on current projects. It is invaluable to have other eyes on our work!

I’ll also continue to utilize a Pinterest board and add fresh pins weekly that relate to the content we are studying. Even if you are not yet ready to dive into a class, feel free to follow me on Pinterest.

This next 8-week series will cover the main aspects of painting a still-life.
We will discuss the following:

• Arranging your objects
• Composition of your painting
• Basic perspective
• What to put in the background
• Highlights on hard and soft surfaces
• Painting glass and refracted light
• How to paint different lighting scenarios
  (windows, light bulbs, sunlight)
  
• Creating visual balance
  
• Fun classes on water-coloring florals and food.

Though my favorite medium is watercolors and that is what I'll be using in my examples, the art theories and skills taught in this particular series can be applicable to oils and acrylics as well!

This past week’s lesson is a free extra bonus lesson. The cost is $180 for 8 weeks. Once the course is over, you can choose to renew or discontinue the class. In other words, there is no commitment.  If interested, you can register here.

It may help to have a look at the this past week's free bonus lesson. It's like tasting a free sample. This class covers the basic art theory of how to compose a still life.

*Note: The free class includes videos of me teaching, but does not include videos of me actually painting. Future classes will have both.

I'm looking forward to staying connected with students both old and new in this way. As always, I welcome your feedback on what you'd like to explore.

If you have friends that you'd like to connect with by sharing an online painting class, copy, paste and send them this link to register: http://www.caryndahm.com/classregistration.html

-The human spirit is incredible. We long for community and connectedness and when we can't have it, well ... we're going to make a way!

Last night someone who loves our family "quarantined us" by putting this sign on our door along with a jar of colorful m&ms. We were so happy to have the treat after just having ate pizza and watching a movie. Tre has been putting a hurtin on that candy! I admit I'm doing my part to put on the "quarantine fifteen"

In an effort to further spread the joy, I scanned the sign, cleaned it up, purchased a corona virus graphic (so that it's copyright free) and made a  printable version here for download. 

You can also click on the image above to download the printable .pdf file.
A new window should open up.

Have fun spreading the joy to those you love and making the best of a tough situation!
- Caryn

Hello, my friends.  I hope that everyone is managing OK. The craft that I'm sharing today is one of Tre's, my youngest son's, past favorites from Camp Create. I chose to share this project today because of its simplicity : ) It totally reminds me of our generation's little Shrinky Dinks!

I'm finding more each day that it is essential to our mental health to step away from social media and the news, unplug and just Breath.  On one level, worry can become paramount during these times, but in other ways, being home, simplifying and spending more time outside has been therapeutic. In that spirit, I'm planning on giving myself a word to focus on every couple of days.

The word that comes to my mind this morning is ... simplify. Trying to stay focused on the people and things that are at hand in front of me, and leave the rest to do another time. When my little (but bold) grandma was alive, we used to have coffee every Friday morning. On days when I felt overwhelmed or tired, she used to tell me to ... "Only do what is necessary, the rest can wait!"

I'm embracing these words of wisdom today. Hope you can spend time creating with your kids, taking a hot bath, cooking a healthy meal, getting outside, drinking hot tea, gardening, walking dogs, reading good books, resting and SIMPLY breathing and being.

Here are the details for today's super fun but simple project:

Supplies:

• Colorful array of Sharpie markers
  
• Chinet disposable cups
  
• Aluminum foil
• Oven (toaster or conventional oven)

Helpful tip: While these do look stunning piled in a bowl near a sunny window, at Camp Create we made mobiles out of them. To make colorful mobiles, just punch a hold near the top of the cups using a hole punch before baking them. After they have melted and cooled, the kids can thread string into their creations and tie to make colorful mobiles. To hang, we tied the fishing string to criss-crossed popsicle sticks. You can use whatever you have on hand, but a pipe cleaner worked great to hold the 2 sticks together.

This project idea was inspired by a world famous glass artist named, Dale Chihuly. Miss Holli introduced me to his work. She grew up in Seattle, WA, where Chihuly has his roots. His art is actually on permanent display in Florida's city of St. Petersburg. When things go back to normal, consider scheduling a day trip to see his art. It is something to behold! Here is the museum's website.

Would love to see what you create with your kids during this down time. Tag me on Facebook or via Instagram using #campcreateartcamp.

What inspirational verses, words or thoughts are you focussing on today?