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Grout any Mosaic Project to Perfection Every Time!

8/28/2023

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Is there anything more satisfying than adding the finishing touches to a project? This step can be a little bit nerve-racking for beginners to DIY mosaics, but you'll be amazed at how you'll feel when your grout is wiped clean. Check out our video for this process here.

STEP 1: MIX THE GROUT

For all of our mosaic projects, we use unsanded grout for a smooth finish. Typically, we use white, but if you want you want to color your grout for your DIY mosaic projects, check out our free Mosaic Guide!

To get started, you'll need:
  • Your unsanded grout
  • A disposable cup
  • Water
  • Something to mix with. We'll often use the back of the paintbrush we used to add the glue to the backing. You can also use a disposable spoon!
diy mosaic
Put a small amount of your grout powder into your disposable cup. The amount will vary based on the size of your project. For a 6"-12" project, start with about a half cup of grout. Keep in mind that you can always mix more, but you can't reuse grout later that you've already mixed up.

​​Next, add a couple of tablespoons of water at a time. The goal is to have grout the consistency of a thick milkshake. It needs to be thick enough that it won't drip, but thin enough to be smooth and spreadable.

STEP 2: APPLY YOUR GROUT

​Normally, we use our hands to spread the grout over the top of the project and push it into all of the gaps between the tiles. If you're squeamish about getting your hands dirty, you can use a disposable spoon or putty knife for this.
diy mosaic
diy mosaic
When all of your cracks are filled in, use a damp sponge or paper towel to smooth out the grout and wipe the tiles clean. You'll need to rinse and wring out your sponge or switch paper towels several times as you wipe. Getting the tiles clean typically takes awhile, so don't panic if you feel like it isn't going very fast.
diy mosaic

​STEP 3: LET IT DRY

Be sure that you've removed any significant chunks of grout on top of tiles and on the edges of your project. Then, let your project dry overnight. If there's any remaining grout dust on your tiles, you'll be able to wipe it off easily when it's fully dry!

Congratulations! You did it - enjoy your DIY mosaic masterpiece!

Do you want to learn more mosaic techniques or tips like how to color grout? ​Check out Our Guide to an Absolutely Stunning Mosaic!
diy mosaic

Pumpkin Mosaic Kit

$15.00 - $45.00
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Afro Puffs Canvas Painting Kit

$15.00 - $243.00
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Painting for Two - Couple's Cherry Blossom Canvas Painting Kit

$25.00 - $90.00
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Christmas Gnome Canvas Painting Kit

$15.00 - $243.00
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Taylor Swift Canvas Painting Kit

$15.00 - $243.00
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Eras Taylor Swift Canvas Painting Kit

$15.00 - $243.00
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Cross Mosaic Kit

$20.00 - $35.00
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Mosaic Christmas Tree Kit

$15.00 - $40.00
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Mosaic Angel Kit

$14.99 - $29.99
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Leaf Mosaic Kit

$15.00 - $40.00
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12" Oval Trivet Mosaic Kit

$35.00 - $40.00
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6" Circle Trivet Mosaic Kit

$20.00 - $25.00
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The Easiest Color Theory Concept to Use on Your Canvas Paintings

8/17/2023

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For some people, picking colors for canvas paintings is very intuitive. For others, it can feel like a shot in the dark. Painting may not be rocket science, but there is definitely a science to what our eyes are naturally attracted to. If you don't feel confident selecting colors for your paintings, we have good news for you! There are four types of easy-to-learn color schemes that can make this process incredibly simple. All four of them are covered in our FREE How to Choose a Background Color course, as well as our comprehensive Foundations Studies course.
acrylic painting for beginners
Get access to the FREE course!
acrylic painting for beginners
Check Out the Color Theory Course!
Today, we're going to cover the simplest of the four color schemes: complementary colors. The reason that this is the easiest color palette to create is that you are simply selecting opposite colors on a color wheel.
acrylic painting for beginners
Check out the color wheel shown here. Red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel, making them complementary colors.

​This type of color scheme is sometimes called an I color scheme, because you can draw an I, a straight line, across the color wheel to find your secondary color. Across from blue, you'll find orange. Across from red-violet you'll find yellow-green, and so on and so forth.
Now that you understand the concept, how do you use it? Let's put this into practice by showing some examples in paintings! 
acrylic painting for beginners
The first example is a waterlily painting from our Foundations Studies course.

​As you can see, the flower itself is a vibrant pink. You can think of pink as a variation of red when you're selecting colors, so the opposite of that would be green! That's why this painting works so well. The background is a complementary color for the main subject of the painting.
acrylic painting for beginners
Next, let's look at this mushroom painting from our Mushroom Canvas Painting Kit. Again, red and green are complementary, or opposite, colors, so when this painting was designed, we knew that green would be an excellent choice to make the red mushrooms stand out!

In addition to selecting a complementary color for the background, we also created high contrast by selecting a very dark green. This makes the color of the mushrooms stand out even more. Want to learn more about how to use value, or lights and darks, to make your paintings pop? The first section of our Foundations Studies curriculum covers this!
acrylic painting for beginners
In this painting from the Alpha Queen Canvas Painting Kit, we knew that we wanted her crown and jewelry to stand out more than her lips or dress. In order to make the gold accessories stand out, we selected a purple background, because purple is opposite yellow on the color wheel.

In order to let those two colors really shine, the lips and dress are a more neutral shade of red. That gives the two complementary colors the opportunity to be the brightest colors in the painting. If you wanted the lips to stand out more, you would want to do a bright red, and then do a more neutral shade of gold in the accessories, rather than a bright yellow.
In this case, you would more than likely also want to adjust the background color from purple to something that will make the red stand out more. If you don't want to use green as the complement to red in this case, check out How to Choose a Background Color for other color palettes that would work well!

Below you'll see two examples of butterfly paintings that we made using our Butterfly Canvas Painting Kit. In one, the artist wanted the butterfly to be yellow, so they chose to make the flowers purple to complement the yellow. In the other, the artist chose orange for the butterfly, so blue was the natural choice!
acrylic painting for beginners
acrylic painting for beginners
As you can see, this is a super easy method for choosing two colors that look great together. Want to get more in-depth and advanced with your color theory skills? Check out our Foundations Studies courses, which each include around 10 video art lessons and everything you'll need to do several exercises and complete paintings!

acrylic painting for beginners
​This FREE course includes:
  • The first thing to determine before you even think about your background
  • How to pick a gorgeous color palette that is backed by science
  • Why choosing a background color isn't enough, and one last decision you should make.
I'M READY TO LEARN MORE!
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how to fix your acrylic painting mistakes

8/12/2023

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As beloved painter Bob Ross used to say, "We don't make mistakes; we just have happy accidents." Here at The Sketching Pad, we firmly believe that to be true. Making mistakes in painting gives you a chance to learn something new. Sometimes, you learn to fix your mistake and reset. Sometimes, you like what you accidentally did more than you liked what you intended to do!

​We use acrylic paint for all of our canvas painting kits here at The Sketching Pad, because it's a fantastic paint for beginning canvas painters. There are a lot of reasons to love acrylic paint. It dries quickly, goes on smoothly, and is easy to clean up.
how to fix your acrylic painting mistakes

Perhaps the best thing about it is how forgiving it is. There's almost nothing that you can do that can't be fixed!

​Whether you've accidentally painted your background color on your flower petals, you've smeared your detail lines, or you've smudged your paint with your hand, it can all be corrected. Don't throw that painting out, even if the mistake seems huge. Just follow these very simple steps, and you'll love your painting again!
In most cases, just let the accident dry, and paint right over it with the correct color! If you try to fix it while it's still wet, you're just going to keep smearing your painting until it's a muddy mess. But letting it dry or drying it with a hair dryer will mean you can add another corrective layer of paint - no smudges involved!
how to fix your acrylic painting mistakes
When the color you're painting on top is lighter or too transparent to cover your mistake, you'll need to take a couple of extra steps.
​
  1. Let the mistake dry completely. Don't keep pushing around wet paint in a color you don't want.
  2. Paint white paint over your mistake. In the example shown here, our background color got smudged onto our sunflower petals. We simply put white over the dark red color to correct the shape of the petal.
  3. Let the white dry completely.
  4. And paint the area as normal
It really is that simple! Always let mistakes dry completely before trying to cover them, and when necessary, use a layer of white to help cover darker colors. If you do that, there's absolutely nothing you can't fix when painting with acrylics. When you're a canvas painting beginner, you should expect to make mistakes and layer your paint until you get it exactly the way you like it. That's just part of painting! Embrace the process, and enjoy the peace of mind you get from knowing that absolutely anything can be fixed until you love your masterpiece.

WOULD IT HELP YOU TO SEE THIS PROCESS STEP-BY-STEP IN A VIDEO?

​We'd love to send you access to a video for this, along with all of our other acrylic painting tips and techniques videos. Access to our video library is completely FREE!
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how to fix your acrylic painting mistakes

CANVAS PAINTING KITS MAKE IT EASY TO CREATE MASTERPIECES!

Kits include:
  • Canvas with drawing of your choice
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KEEP LEARNING & KEEP CREATING!

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Throw the Prettiest Barbie Painting Party!

8/7/2023

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Have you seen the Barbie movie yet? Between our almost all-female team here at The Sketching Pad, the ladies who come into the studio to paint with us, and the girls we teach in classes, the Barbie buzz is really something! Whether you found the storyline to be moving, or you just like sparkles, throwing a Barbie Painting Party is a great excuse for some girl time. We've released a Barbie Canvas Painting Kit to ensure that the painting part of your party is covered. Next, we gathered all the best Barbie-themed snacks and decorations to make your party planning a breeze!
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY

BARBIE CANVAS PAINTING KITS!

Painting parties are a blast, but being sure that you have all the right supplies can be stressful. When you order canvas painting kits from The Sketching Pad, we send you everything you'll need, including a canvas with the design drawn out for you. You'll also receive a video tutorial that you can pull up on the tv or project on the wall, so your guests can follow along!
One thing that's included with the Barbie Canvas Painting Kit is glitter paint! We hear you - glitter can be a huge mess in your house when you use it for craft projects. But the glitter we include in this kit is a gel that you brush on just like the rest of the paint, so you won't be finding glitter in your carpet for months. It's practically mess-free!
Order your Barbie Canvas Painting Kit!
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
Invitation by: MollysPrintCo

INVITE YOUR GUESTS IN STYLE

Sending invitations that are on theme is a great way to get your guests excited about your painting party. The easiest way to do that is to order a file on Etsy that you can edit on Canva! The invitation shown here was created by MollysPrintCo. This invitation works whether you're throwing a party for kids or adults because let's be real - pink and girlie are what we're going for here!
Be sure to add into the invitation that they'll get to paint during your party - it'll make them even more excited!
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
Image Credit: Love the Day

BARBIE PARTY DECORATIONS

The most important thing is to think pink, white, black, and sparkly! Not everything has to have Barbie's face on it to be perfect for your party - in fact, keep those touches to a minimum.

We love how eye-catching this table setup is from Love the Day. This black and white table runner adds a pop of contrast, and the light pink roses are a pretty and feminine touch. You could add these touches to your refreshment tables or to your painting tables, but be sure that the table runner is disposable if you'll be laying your canvases on it.
Want more tips on how to prepare your home for your party and keep messes to a minimum? Check out our post 3 HACKS TO A MESS-FREE PAINTING PARTY.
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
Image Credit: Love the Day
Creating large-scale, elaborate decorations is usually not necessary to throw a party that looks fabulous, but this party is BEGGING for a photo op! Your guests will love taking photos in their very own Barbie box. You can make your own or order one online!

The best way to make a big impact with less effort is looking for decorations that are bold and eye-catching. You don't have to include a ton of small things - just select a few high-impact decorations, stick with a specific color scheme, and keep it simple.

The great thing about throwing a painting party is that the activity itself adds to the color and flair of the event. You don't have to decorate quite as much, because the room will be full of Barbie paintings!
Looking for more ideas on setting up your painting activity and decorations? We'd love to send you our FREE guide: Every Step to the Perfect Painting Party. It lays out everything you'll need to prepare for your party, all of the supplies you'll need, and so much more!
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
Image Credit: Twinkle Twinkle Little Party

ADD SOME ACCESSORIES

Whether your Barbie painting party is for kids or adults, your guests are going to love this idea! Encourage them to wear pink, and provide fun accessories for them to put on during the party! Of course, this example from Twinkle Twinkle Little Party was a kids party, but adults like to play dress up too. They just need you to give them an excuse to do it!
Because it typically takes a couple of hours to paint a canvas, you don't have to add a lot of activities to your party. The painting is the activity! That said, if you want to add in another activity, consider a quick Barbie-themed game or something that doesn't take a lot of time.
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
@OhClary

ADD SOME PINK REFRESHMENTS!

Pink refreshments can be the finishing touch that makes your event the prettiest Barbie party!

Keep it simple by adding an easy pink signature drink, or go all the way and create a beautiful Barbie cake that will wow your guests. Because of how much fun they'll have painting, you can go as simple or elaborate as you'd like on the refreshments. As long as there's something pink in there, you're all set!
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
@CravingsofaLunatic
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
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BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
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BARBIE PAINTING PARTY
It's time to order your painting kits! These Barbie Canvas Painting Kits include:
  • A canvas in the size of your choice with the design drawn for you
  • Paint in all of the colors you'll need
  • 2 paint brushes per canvas
  • A video painting tutorial to walk you through every step of the painting
  • Optional: aprons, easels, and more!
shop now!

Want more info on every little detail for the perfect painting party? We'll explain how to prep your house, what to buy, and even give you printables for your guests!
BARBIE PAINTING PARTY

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    hey there!

    The Sketching Pad has been helping people just like you have fun and stress-free painting experiences for over a decade. Whether we're helping people create masterpieces in person in our studio, or we're guiding people who are painting at home through our painting kits and video tutorials, we are passionate about helping people see that everyone can be an artist with the right tools and guidance!

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    This FREE Acrylic Painting Guide includes:
    • How to prepare for painting.
    • Things to keep in mind as you paint.
    • How to confidently mix colors.
    • Stippling
    • Blending
    • Splattering
    • And so much more!
    sign up for free!

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    You'll learn...
    • How to prepare your home
    • How much time to allow for painting
    • A printable supply checklist
    • A detailed explanation of the art supplies you'll be using
    • A printable painting guide to give your guests
    • Easy, big-batch drink recipes
    • Ideas for decorations
    • And more!​
    sign up for free!

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    This FREE course includes...
    • ​What to determine before you even think about your background
    • How to pick a gorgeous color palette that is backed by science
    • Why choosing a background color isn't enough, and one last decision you should make
    Sign up for free!

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    You'll learn...
    • What tiles to buy
    • What grout to use
    • Exactly what supplies you'll need
    • How to prepare for your project
    • How to complete every step of the project
    • How to grout to perfection
    • How to tint grout
    • How to seal your project for the weather
    • ​And more!
    Sign up for free!

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  • Art Programs
    • Drop In Hours
    • Private Parties
    • Weekly Classes >
      • Adult Classes
      • Kids' Classes
      • One-on-one Lessons
    • Clay Dates
    • Special Events
    • Field Trips >
      • Field Trips at The Sketching Pad
      • In-House Field Trip Kits
      • In-House Art Field Trips with Our Instructors!
    • Spirit Night >
      • Spirit Nights at The Sketching Pad
      • Spirit Nights at Your School!
    • Camps
  • Art Kits
    • Canvas Painting Kits >
      • Animals
      • Nature
      • Characters
      • Kid Favorites
      • Girls Night
      • Guys' Favorites
      • Valentine's Day
      • Mother's Day
      • Easter
      • Spring
      • Summer
      • Fall
      • Holiday
      • Sorority-Themed
    • Mosaic Kits
    • Pottery Painting Kits
    • Art Lessons at Home
    • Video Painting Tutorials
  • Hire an Artist!
    • Seasonal Window Painting >
      • Seasonal Window Painting >
        • Christmas Window Painting
      • Seasonal Window Stickers
    • Murals
    • Drawings & Paintings