Liberty Bell Watercolor Painting

In case you missed it, the US Mint is producing the first non-round coin since 1915, when the $50 octagonal Panama-Pacific coin was introduced. This new coin is shaped like the Liberty Bell. The price? $19,600. It contains one ounce of gold, the current value of which is $4,053. They're only producing 2026 of them, so apparently the scarcity makes up for the extra $15,500? Hard pass, obviously. 

Instead of buying a chunk of gold shaped like the Liberty Bell, I recommend keeping $19,550 in the bank and putting the rest toward some fun art supplies. Then use them to make a painting of the Liberty Bell. Affiliate links below. 

Liberty Bell Watercolor Painting

Materials: 

• watercolor paper
• watercolors
• metallic watercolors
• colored pencils

Steps: 

Find a reference image of the Liberty Bell. I used the picture on the Wikipedia page. Sketch the basic shape of the Liberty Bell onto your watercolor paper. Only include the basic shapes; ignore all details. Fill in the basic shapes with a combination of brown and black. 

When the first layer is dry, add the next layer. I put streaks of browns and black onto the yoke, then painted the bell with blue, grey, and brown. I added some of the details, like the metal bars connecting the bell to the yoke, and the supports at the base of the bell. 

When that layer was dry, I added metallics to the bell. This was my first time using the Soho metallics - they're awesome! I added streaks and patches of gold and bronze to the top, bottom, and right side of the bell, then added silver and white to make the reflection. Then I painted the background light blue. 

Then I added the famous crack. 

For the final step, I used brown and black colored pencils to add in the last details. I chose not to write the text on the bell, but I did add the lines. I was worried that the colored pencils might not work well on top of the metallics, but it wasn't an issue. 

This was a fun project to do. I really enjoyed experimenting with the metallics and am excited to use them again. Next time, I want to try more of the colors. 

Fourth of July

We celebrated the Fourth of July with Suzzi, Larry, Dawn, and all of our kids... none of whom are kids anymore! We had a delicious meal with festive drinks that were tasty if hard to drink and hung out by the pool. We saw a beautiful sunset and many (illegal) fireworks. We had a wonderful time. 

Fourth of July 2026 (affiliate link)

The pictures I took around the table inspired this page. Because there was so much empty space above and below the smiling faces, I cropped all that off before printing my photos. The six photos you see were printed as two 4x6" photos, which I then cut into thirds and separated with a journaling block.  

Posca Colored Pencils and the National Parks Postcard Coloring Book

Many of you probably know Posca for their amazing paint markers, but did you know that they now make colored pencils as well? When the folks from Posca reached out to me to try their 12-pack of colored pencils, I happily accepted. Posca Colored Pencils have a creamy wax-hybrid formulation intended to produce bright and consistent color, with the ability to blend and layer smoothly. I was eager to see how these pencils would perform. This post contains affiliate links. 

I decided to use the Posca pencils to color an image from the new-to-me National Parks Postcard Coloring Book. This A6-size book contains images from 20 units of the National Park System on thick cardstock appropriate for mailing. 

I selected the image of a bald eagle at Olympic National Park and started coloring. I loved how vibrant the color was and how easy it was to get good coverage. The pencils felt good in my hand. The colors blended well, although with only 12 colors it was infinitely more difficult to get subtle blends than if I'd had a larger set. The thick paper of the postcard took color beautifully and worked very well with the pencils. 

Here is my finished postcard. 

This is what the back looks like. I added a tiny bit of color, but didn't want to cover the writing area. I'll probably end up decorating it after I address it and add my message. 

I really enjoyed this project. The Posca colored pencils are a delight to use, though having only 12 colors is very limiting. The postcards feature beautiful images printed on paper that it ideal for coloring. The small size allowed me to finish the project in a much shorter amount of time than a standard coloring page. I'm eager to use both the pencils and the coloring book again!

Luxembourg

I have a bad habit of putting off scrapping our travels because it is so hard for me to go through hundreds of photos and select just a few for a layout. I currently have 19 travel pages and and 8 non-travel pages on my to-be-scrapped list. Of the last 15 pages I've completed, only 4 were about travel. For as much as we travel, I'd like to keep those numbers a bit more balanced. All this to say, I'm finally starting to scrap photos from our 2024 trip to Europe. 

I started with Luxembourg, even though it wasn't chronologically first. I missed the country entirely, but I still want to document it in the album for the rest of the family. Since I wasn't there and obviously have no memory of the visit, I leaned heavily on the blog post that Steve helped me write just after the trip.  

Luxembourg (affiliate link)

Looking at these photos makes me sad that I missed seeing such a beautiful country, but I am so grateful that's all I missed. There was a very real possibility that I could have missed visiting the other nine countries we saw on that trip.

Coloring Donald and Daisy Duck with a Neon Effect

After coloring Dumbo with a glow effect, I was excited to color Donald and Daisy with a neon effect. What a fun technique! And so much easier than I expected. Affiliate links below. 

 

Like Dumbo, Donald and Daisy came from the Disneyland Parks Colouring Book. I cut down the image to a 7" square. I got out my black Ohuhu Honolulu...

... and colored the background black, making sure i could still easily see the lines of the coloring page. 

Then I traced the lines of the characters using Ohuhu Nahukus. 

The next step was adding a really thin line of white over the center of each of the colored areas. It didn't end up perfect, but no matter. When that was dry, I used my Ohuhu Halawas  to add a soft glow around the edges of each line, then colored right up to that glow with black. I worked on one section at a time. 

In retrospect, I wish I'd used the black Honolulu or a black Kaala to color the background. It would have been easier and faster than the colored pencil. Not to mention, my black Halawa is now half the size of the rest of the set. 

I love how this turned out! And like I said, it was a lot of fun. I will definitely be doing this again.