The color wheel above shows where to paint the colors on the color wheel. Red, yellow, and blue are your primary colors, and orange, green and violet are your secondaries. Complimentary colors are directly across from each other.
Recommended Watercolors
On the left there are my recommendations of which Professional or Cotman (student) Paints I would purchase first, second, and third if you are on a budget.
Color Palette
The color palette is for you to print and color in with your paints like they are laid out in your palette so that you can easily reference what the colors look like on paper.
We’ve made the jump and are excited to announce that we are now selling Watercolor Floral Prints in the shop! They come in standard sizes, 5 x 7, 8 x 10, and 11 x 14 for easy framing and gift giving. And be sure to check out my newest limited edition pieces on Minted and new Watercolor Fabrics on Spoonflower! I’ll be posting more about those soon……..
Pinners Conference Promo Code
And even more exciting news! If you live in the Salt Lake City area be sure to watch Fresh Living on Tuesday morning for a fun segment on my upcoming watercolor floral painting class at Pinners Conference! It’s next weekend already and I’m so excited! Be sure to stop by my booth and say hello, I will have a few giveaways going that you can enter, and will be selling prints and doing some watercolor painting with baby Alice. If you haven’t gotten a ticket yet, don’t worry! You can grab one for free ahead of time with my promo code “nataliemalan” or use the same code as a discount to sign up for some of their awesome classes! There’s tons of fun shopping and lots to see and do, so be sure to grab a friend or two and head over to the expo and come introduce yourself! Hope to see you there……
I have exciting news! My Pinners Conference Class is now scheduled and open for registering on the Pinners Conference Website! We will be jumping right in and painting during the class – which will be loads of fun. Be sure to use the coupon code: nataliemalan – for a 10% discount when you register!
Watercolor Kits for Pinners Conference
The Watercolor Kits mentioned on the registration page are up for sale for $15 in my etsy shop! Be sure to check back and add me on instagram or sign up for our emails for more fun previews. The email link is on the sidebar, or in the footer if you are on mobile.
In the class we will be painting florals similar to the one above and those posted on my blog and instagram.
The kits have everything you need to get started painting your own fun masterpieces. The first 50 kits include: a 36 color palette, #6 brush, 4 pieces of 4×6 140lb watercolor paper, sketching pencil, as well as a 6B pencil and 3 pieces of 5×7 140lb paper as part of a sponsorship with Dick Blick. I’ll also be posting a couple fun handouts to get you going with more art supplies, and a little color theory. Kits will be available for pick up with your ID, fifteen minutes before the time of the class.
***Any kits purchased on etsy before Nov 1 will also come with a darling 5×7 gold foil “Create” print!!!
Voting closes Sept 8 for the “Minted x Domino Challenge Round 2!” Thank you so much for all your support! Click on the “designs submitted” link to see all 7 (or on any of the images above).
Welcome to all our new email subscribers! The Free Botanical Garland files will go out on Sunday; so be sure to watch your email. And if you haven’t signed up yet, the form is on the sidebar of the website, or the very bottom of the page in the footer if you are on the mobile version. And be sure to verify your email by clicking on the link in the first email that comes to your inbox.
Baby Alice is liking her room, and looked sweet coming home from the hospital in my mom’s vintage doll dresses. I used to wear them too as a baby. It was so fun to dress her up for the very first time. She’s settling in, and we are keeping a close eye on her overly loving siblings.
Baby Alice arrived yesterday via planned Csection, and we are so excited to have her in the family! 18 inches, 6lb 9oz. If you know our family at all, you may know it took us a while to name our last baby…… Four months to be exact. This time we decided ahead of time on a couple names, but they were dependent on the color of her hair when she was born. I wanted something cute for her hospital bassinet that we could change at the last minute, and so the free botanical garland idea was born.
Just a little Thank You for you taking the time to vote for my work on Minted! Free thank you cards to print below; just click on the link to download the pdf. voting is open now until Sept 8 for the Minted x Domino round 2 challenge – my entries are listed with links on the sidebar if you want to see them as prints, go vote!
I’ve been searching for a good DIY Sailor Bow Tutorial and free pattern, but couldn’t find one… so I decided to create my own! I’ve loved seeing them all over Etsy and Pinterest, but the stores I try to buy them from are always closed. Now I can make as many as I want, with any fabric I like! I do have one from Etsy, and I will tell you that it is incredibly well made and totally worth the money if you can catch the bow you want!
I figured at 38 weeks pregnant it was time to take a few maternity photos before I run out of time! This pregnancy was a little different than my others. I took a pregnancy test in preparation for my wisdom tooth removal which was negative so we were all set to go. Got my tooth removed, and didn’t react well to the pain meds and was sick for a couple of days. Then Christmas came, and my brother in law married the cutest girl ever, and I was still feeling a little queasy off and on and took another test – which was negative. I attributed the queasiness to flu season and wrote it off.
Pregnancy no.4 Cravings: Around new years I was craving ruffles and sour cream and onion dip and basically anything super salty and my friend Jaime laughed and kept telling me to go get another test. Taking three kids out is a hassle so I just never went. Then one day she finally talked me into it and came over so our kids could play, and made me take my test which was positive right away. I called my Dr immediately because I was concerned about having my wisdom teeth removed while being pregnant, and found out that he had passed away unexpectedly that morning of a heart attack caused by a blood clot at age 57. Dr Baxter was my doctor for the past 12 years and delivered all three of my other kids and will be greatly missed.
How I told David: After I stopped bawling in shock about my Dr passing away, Jaime suggested we should think of a fun way to tell David; so we decided to send him pictures of groups of things in fours and see if he got it. I sent pictures of: 4 pears, 4 barbies, 4 pillows, 4 pencils, and 4 baby shoes, and he didn’t think anything of it. So finally I just had to tell him.
Telling our kids: They were even more excited than I thought they would be. Except for our middle child. He was 3 at the time. We told them at dinner and he started crying uncontrollably. We couldn’t figure out why, and I finally realized that I had said, ” Guess what guys!? We’re getting a new baby!” And he was upset that we were going to be getting rid of his little brother and getting a different baby instead. Whoops. After we explained my mistake he was really excited and insisted that it was a girl. Turns out he was right.