Marker pens art piece fridge magnet DIY

If you have a fridge that can hold a ton of magnets, it is the best thing to rev up your dull day. Imagine thinking of that stew you want to prepare in the kitchen and drag yourself to the fridge, and a bright piece of art or travel souvenir magnet pops up on your face at the fridge door!

I discovered on the internet that you can actually make artistic fridge magnets rather easily. All you need is a bunch of marker pens that write or colour thick.

Here is a quick look at my experiment. I would give it a 6 on 10 rating for my first attempt. But I learnt a few things that would help you on the adventure:)

You will need:

- art canvas 5 inches by 5 inches

-- self adhesive magnet strips not more than five inches

-- a protective sheet to place underneath your working canvas

-- some cotton balls, or ear buds, paint brushes, rag cloth

-- a bunch of marker pens, of your choice. I used the Sharpie brand mostly

-- Rubbing alcohol..you get it in pharmacies

Optional is a glue gun or multi-surface glue

Start by scribbling the canvas away to your heart's content. Remember to fill all corners, and the edges where the canvas bends. Use more strokes if your marker is not too thick. I was more satisfied with my opaque colour marker.

Now is when your work with rubbing alcohol begins. Use an ink-filler or the cap of the alcohol bottle to drop a few drops on the canvas. Remember that you may take longer than you anticipate at this. Allow the drops to spread on the colours. Since it is canvas, it will dry or get absorbed more than it runs. Use a paint brush to blend the colours in.

You could tilt it at times to let the drops run. Or use a paint brush to blend the colours in, with circular strokes. Whatever you do, make sure that neither the paint brush nor the cotton take away colour from the canvas. You can gently squeeze the colour back on to blend areas on the canvas. Let the first round dry. And work on it again after it dries. Use your markers to dab, not with strokes, on white areas. Your choice if you want to leave the white gaps to show.

This is a process that took me about an hour. So if you left something on the stove thinking this is a quickie project, run and turn that thing off.

Once your art piece has reached a certain level of blending and you want to stop, leave the piece to dry for about 15 minutes. And fix the self adhesive magnetic strips to its rear. If the adhesive does not hold well, you can stick it with multi-surface glue or a glue gun.

Next step: Very important. Fix it on your fridge door! Or gift it to one special friend...

Ganesha on my coffee mug

Wanna do something on a rainy day? Ran out of ideas?

Grab a permanent marker and try out something on a coffee mug. You'll be surprised how much you can come up with.

I must confess that I have never tried that. But my dear friend Ashwini of Indulge Ashscorner blog did. And am yearning to do that sometime soon. In thepicture above, Ashwini has made her favourite abstract design of Lord Ganesha, and needless to say, these mugs were an instant hit with her friends.

Out here in USA, Sharpie is a popular brand of permanent markers. Guess in India, Staedtler and Camlin would do the needful. Am looking forward to feedback from anyone who has tried them on ceramics.

All you need for this craft, is

1. Plain coloured ceramic mugs

2. Permanent markers (Sharpie, or equivalents)

3. An oven to bake them after making the design

Ashwini has some tips for this project though. 

She suggests, that you use an oil based marker as the regular marker may fad away, or scrubbing to wash may erase the design.

She says:

- a thicker design works better - for better look and holding

- bake it hot in a normal oven, at 400 deg F for 30 minutes

but as she puts it, each oven has its differences.

- hand wash the mugs, skip the dishwasher.

Since Ashwini tried these experiments with a kitchen oven here in US, she does not know how much time an OTG oven in India may take to bake it for instance.

But those who are into terracotta jewellery making could try it out in their ovens and provide feedback.

A couple of other tips I found through googling, throw up the following bits:

- a blogger notes that letting the designed mugs dry for 24 hours before baking helps

- a couple of other blogs have revealed that microwave may not be a good option

so you shall be lucky if you have a normal oven in India.

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Pictures courtesy: Ashwini Deshpande

For permission to use the content: radicreative@gmail.com

Master strokes and tiny hands: Child Art

As an aspiring painter, I routinely browse Google Images to get inspired by masterpieces, everyday painters, blogs on drawing and painting and even try to learn from
videos online.

For years though, I have struggled to push myself, to paint. Somehow, the anxiety to create has been overwhelming. You may wonder why I am writing this post on my craft blog.

Crafting, is about creating, just like painting is. Someone who I admire greatly - an illustrator colleague with decades of experience from my earlier workplace, nudges me on each time I talk. He took to painting full time after retirement.

What he told me during my call two months back struck me the most. It prompted me to just grab the canvas and apply colour, without thinking much.

`Paint like a child. Don't wonder or fear how the painting will turn out. It has to be something that comes with your own discovery,'' he said.

This colleague went on to tell me how some painter friends, lament not being able to paint like a child, having honed themselves over the years thoroughly with techniques.

I have barely used two canvases since then, because my Artist table has been acting funny. But I started. Finally. Because I did not care how the paintings would turn out.

But am pasting here some pieces by kids of my friends and family, to make that point. Before I proceed though, here is a confession. These pictures have been sitting in my gadgets for quite a while. Apologies, dear senders, for this big a delay.

That is a picture of Snowman, by my neighbour's son Sarvesh. I love the buttons on Snowman's snow-shirt. Sarvesh, is a pre-schooler. The picture below is by my niece Smritti, who lives in Dubai. I loved her desk full of her art work. But this drawing floored me the most.

I had clicked this in her bedroom. After a few weeks, my niece sketched her dad's pic in pencil. And here it is.

Don't these pics make you fall in love with the kids even more? Straight from the heart, uncorrupted, full of love!

There is more...Scroll on.

Dia, my friend Nisha's daughter, made me want to hug her when I saw her drawing. Dia made a picture of herself among flowers in a garden.

Notice the sun, the flowers, the grass and the `V's. The big Vs are apparently Eagles, according to Dia. And the small Vs, little birds! Love you Dia, for this!

Her next one:

It is a garden picture. But also has a cat to go with it, besides a tree, and a bird flock flying above Dia's head. Love her perception. Pasted below is a self potrait. Priceless.

Refinement may make one polished with technique and craft. But watch these pictures and you marvel at a child's abandon in playing with markers and crayons on a piece of paper. No inhibitions of who will say what about the art, except may be a hug or `good job' from Mommy. They radiate innocence unblemished.

Below is a picture of Chota Bheem, the all popular cartoon character in India. My nephew Lohith who loves using his sketch pens over paper, found a white piece of styrofoam or thermocol lying around. And took to it. He is six years old. And loves Chota Bheem crazy.  His favourite hero comes alive in the sketch.

 Under guidance though, art could take on a different dimension. Scroll to understand.
Here is Chota Bheem in a coloured format, by my nephew.

And here are the sketching efforts by Smritti, through her drawing class at school.

It's how we too were taught in school - shade the objects for the right light effect. For her age - all of nine years, this is commendable effort. I would still cherish her daddy-mommy pictures which are the masterpieces.

Here is another picture, by Tamara, the beautiful school going daughter of my friend Teresa Rehman.

Many years back, an artist I met as part of work, showed me his visual novel in the making. The book was a delight. What caught my attention was the extensive use of child art in its imagery. He recalled, how every stroke by a child is poetry. You can read about it here.

And that we as adults insist on their making good pictures, with no idea of what a good picture is. He wanted to show respect to art by kids.

For those of you wondering why a post on child art now, I looked at it as a perfect way of celebrating this blog's hit count touching 1,00,000 anytime now.

Two years back, I had never dreamed of it. Now it makes me want to dream more. I hope to post more. With your continuous outpouring of love, dreams can come true after all.


Pictures Courtesy: Respective moms of the kids featured here

Permissions: These pictures may not be reused at all, for non commercial, commercial, personal work, whatever be the purpose.