Doodled Animals with Ohuhu Nahuku Acrylic Markers

Ohuhu is known for making high-quality art supplies that are much less expensive than comparable brands. I own four products by Ohuhu: the Honolulu Dual-Tip Alcohol Markers; the Kaala Dual-Tip Alcohol Markers; the Marker Sketchbook; and the Pupe Paper-Friendly Water-Based Markers. I love them all. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to try out the Ohuhu Nahuku Acrylic Markers (affiliate link here and below). 

I've used acrylic markers ("paint pens") by other manufacturers, but Ohuhu's Nahuku is completely different than anything I've used before. 

I'm used to acrylic markers with a chisel or point nib, where you press down to let the paint flow into the nib the first time you use it. Instead, these markers have brush nibs. The paint flows into the brush without any pressing (though you do have to shake them). There's a peekaboo window on the side of the pen so you can see how much paint is left. Genius! 

And that paint? The pens are really juicy and the paint flows onto the surface beautifully. The colors are highly pigmented. They are gorgeous on white and even more so on black. I did a single coat for my swatch cards; as you can see, most of the colors are completely opaque on both black and white. Only the four lightest colors could use a second coat on the black. 

    

After swatching the colors, I couldn't wait to try the pens on an actual project. I recently found a scrap of paper from years ago where I'd doodled four animals in a distinctive style. (I wish I knew what artist had influenced my doodles so I could give proper credit. Let me know if you recognize the style.) I used the Nahukus to doodle those animals (and a few more) to fill a page. In each case, I colored the base, let that dry, added the secondary colors on top (ears, whites of the eyes, tummies, stripes, dots, etc) and let that dry. I did the outlines with a Flair pen to see how it would write on top of the paint (perfectly). 

I loved working with these markers! The paint flows so well. But using them on paper is a waste of an amazing product. You can use any markers on paper, but these pens are made to write on non-traditional surfaces, like glass, plastic, rocks, wood, fabric, and much more. 

There was an empty plastic Ziploc bag sitting on my desk, so I decided to doodle more animals there. And that's where the Nahukus really shine. The brush nib glided over the plastic like skates on ice. I did the base layers, let those dry, then did the detail layers. I only outlined two of the animals; this time, I used the black acrylic marker to see how fine of a line I could get. 

The bag is wrinkly, so the scan isn't great, but you get the idea. 

I tested the Ohuhu Nahukus Acrylic Markers on two more surfaces, which I put together into a single project. I'll show you that on Monday.

What to Do with an Old Calendar: Frame Your Favorite Pictures!

Each year, I get Steve a bunny-themed wall calendar. At the end of the year, he gives me the old calendar to use for crafting. When I received the new Framed Effects Circle Surface from Plaid, I thought it would be perfect to display a cute spring photo of bunnies. Affiliate links here and below. 

This project couldn't be easier. I started by using the frame to determine the cropping for the calendar image, then traced around the outside of the frame with a pen. 

I cut just inside the traced line, then used mini Glue Dots to adhere the bottom half of the image to the back of the frame. I chose to use Glue Dots because they're plenty strong to hold the calendar page in place, but still easy to remove when I want to change out the image. Finally, I cut flaps to expose hardware, then added Glue Dots to the top of the image. 

In just minutes, I was able to hang my framed calendar page. 

Obviously, I could have painted or stained the frame before adding the image. I like it as is. It's actually designed to be used for glass chip crafting, something I haven't tried yet. If you've tried it, let me know what you think and whether I should give it a go. 

Absurd Burgers: A Creative Craft for Kids

If I were going to make a hamburger craft using cardstock or construction paper, it would look something like this:

I cut the individual pieces of a traditional burger from cardstock: a pair of tan hamburger buns, a white onion slice, a red tomato slice, green lettuce leaf, a slice of yellow-orange cheese, a brown burger patty, and a blue plate for them to sit on. Then I arranged them on a black piece of paper. But I didn't glue them down. Why? Because this craft is called Absurd Burgers. To make an Absurd Burger, you have to change things up from what is expected, which is where the creativity really comes in. 

This is an example of an Absurd Burger. 

Melting the cheese onto the plate and then stacking the items on top of the melted cheese is absurd. 

This Absurd Burger looks challenging to eat. 

Is this burger actually absurd, or is it just vegan-friendly, with the meat and cheese separate from the rest?  

This is definitely an Absurd Burger.... 

... but at least the bun is what's touching the table. In this burger, the meat is. 

After the last two burgers, anything with the plate at the bottom suddenly doesn't seem quite as absurd. Until you stop and think about how you'd react if this is what you were served at a restaurant.  

There is so much room for creativity with this project. I stuck to traditional burger components, but I know that if you let a classroom of kids loose with this activity, you'd eventually see non-traditional ingredients in some of the burgers. The more absurd, the better! 

When everyone has made their Absurd Burger, have them glue it to the background paper. Then it's time for a writing assignment. Give the kids several options: 

• Write the menu description for your Absurd Burger, with the goal of making it sound as appealing as possible. 
• Write a restaurant review, imagining you ordered an ordinary burger and your Absurd Burger is what arrived. 
• Write about an alien planet where your Absurd Burger makes perfect sense. 

Wouldn't you love to read the results?! 

New Year's Eve 2024

This is the second layout I made for the final game of Bash Bowl VII. I only earned two points for my team this time: a point for ephemera and a point for the Project Life cards. We put up a valiant effort, but congrats to the Scrappin' Banshees for taking Game 3 and the series. 

New Year's Eve 2024 (affiliate link)

This page will be next to the Christmas 2024 layout in the album, which also features a single horizontal photo matted in black, with Project Life cards holding the title and journaling. So I wanted to make sure the two pages didn't resemble each other too much. I think the use of gold and green here, along with the different layout of elements, helps make this layout distinct. 

In the journaling, I mentioned one of the activities we did on New Year's Eve: solving a Hindenburg-themed mystery puzzle. You can see it in the photo on the table in front of us. It was challenging, but the story and the mystery were engaging and the puzzle was fun to solve. And we learned a lot about the Hindenburg itself. I had no idea it was so roomy, with such elegant spaces for the passengers. And I certainly didn't know there was a smoking lounge. That seems like a colossally bad idea, but apparently it was strictly monitored. Anyway, if you're the type of person who likes puzzles and mysteries and learning and history, I think you'd enjoy the puzzle too. 

Christmas 2024

Last week was the final game of Bash Bowl VII. After two games, the score was tied. My team, Twisted Scissors, won Game 1. Our opponents, Scrappin' Banshees, took Game 2. As they say, it all comes down to this. 

Here is my contribution for Game 3:

Christmas 2024 (affiliate link)

It's busier than my layouts usually are, but I'm happy with it. I've had those patterned papers and die-cuts for years; SEI released "Holiday Cheer" in 2011. So I'm glad to finally have used them. 

Here are the elements for Game 3:

I earned three points for Twisted Scissors: one for ephemera I sprinkled at the top left and bottom right; one for a textile (that's a white ribbon above the photo); and one for the Project Life cards that I layered above the photo and that are holding my journaling. It would have been easy enough to add buttons, but I didn't want the lumps and since I wasn't going to do paper distressing anyway, it would only have meant a single extra point.

50 State Quarters: Coloring Pages Using Kuretake Gansai Tambi

It's time to share the next four of the 50 State Quarter coloring pages. Today's states include Georgia, California, North Dakota, and North Carolina. This time I used Kuretake Gansai Tambi, which I told you about on Wednesday. Affiliate links here and below.

I enjoyed coloring this set of State Quarters using the Gansai Tambi. I love how easy it is to get deep pigmentation or a light wash depending on how much water you use. Other than swatching, this was my first time using this paint, so I was learning as I went. As with all the other paints I've used, painting in the tiny letters on the quarters was a major challenge, but that's certainly not the fault of the medium.   

Including these four, I have now completed 46 of the 50 State Quarter coloring pages. Here are the art materials I've used previously:

• Ohuhu Kaala markers (Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Wisconsin)
• ink and Prismacolor colored pencils (Connecticut, Idaho, Missouri, Montana)
• Flair pens (Delaware, Indiana)
• Sharpies (Maine, South Carolina)
• Stabilo Woody 3-in-1 (Colorado, New Hampshire)
• Folk Art acrylic paint (Wyoming, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Michigan)
• Crayola crayons (Florida, Maryland, South Dakota, Vermont)
• Himi gouache (Iowa, New York, Utah, West Virginia)
• Derwent Inktense pencils (Arizona, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana)
• Ohuhu Pupe markers (Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Washington)
• Koi watercolors by Sakura (Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oklahoma)
• Prismacolor art markers (Minnesota, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Virginia)

I'm down to the last four State Quarters!

Celebrate Card with Heart Balloons

Remember that yesterday I told you I dropped sequins onto my heart project? It occurred to me that, in addition to being a pretty piece of art and a functional set of swatches, I could also use my color chart as a fun way to randomly pick a color palette for a project to challenge myself. Sort of like throwing darts, but without putting holes in the wall. 

Once I had my color palette, I made this card.  

Celebrate Card with Heart Balloons (affiliate link)

So how exactly did I pick my color palette? When I dropped the sequins, one landed on a pink heart with a teal background. (Kuretake calls those colors "Rose Madder" and "Turquoise Deep Green.") The other sequin landed on "Imperial Violet." I was really happy with that trio of colors. Pink, teal, and purple are beautiful together. That would be an easy challenge. 

Too easy. So I decided to add the next closest color to the sequin ("Lemon Yellow") to make it harder. I went through my cardstock to find the closest matches I could to the four colors. I used the teal as a background, punched a bunch of hearts from the yellow, pink and purple, then arranged them into a bunch. I added embroidery floss strings and glued a pre-cut sentiment over the top. I thought I was done at that point and scanned the card...

... but I decided later that my balloons needed highlights. After a few quick marks with the Posca pen, my card was done. Much better. 

I had a lot of fun with this challenge. I will definitely be using my color chart as a color selector again in the future!

Heart Art Color Chart

Check out my latest heart art! Isn't it pretty?

Each of the colors I used for the project is in its particular place for a reason. I didn't choose the colors, nor where I placed them. Why? My heart art is actually color swatches from my newest paint set, Kuretake Gansai Tambi (affiliate links here and below). The hearts are the first four rows of paints, in order. The background squares are the next four rows of paints, in order. (For this project, I didn't swatch the last row, which is white and three metallics.) 

Gansai is a type of Japanese watercolors. It comes in large pans (perfect for the large brushes used in Japanese painting) and is designed to work well with Japanese rice papers. There is a wide range of colors so that the artist doesn't need to mix their own. Although they are water-based, gansai don't behave like other watercolors. They require very little water and are designed to stay in place instead of flowing on the paper. There are different brands of gansai, just like there are different brands of western watercolors. Kuretake's brand name combines the word gansai (watercolor paint) with the word tambi (aesthetics).

I had never tried gansai before, so I thought this project would be a fun way to experiment with my new paint set. I started by using 1/4" painter's tape to create a grid on a 9" square of watercolor paper. You can eyeball it, but using a centering ruler makes it really quick and easy to get perfect squares. Be sure your painter's tape is pressed firmly to the paper so no pigment sneaks underneath and spoils your white lines. 

Now fill in the squares with the paints in rows 5-8. So pretty!

While the base is drying, use a heart squeeze punch to make 16 hearts from watercolor paper. 

Paint the hearts with the colors in rows 1-4. Beautiful!

When the paint is completely dry, glue the hearts onto the background. 

I plan to hang my project on the wall so I can both enjoy it and use it when I need paint swatches. But first, I put it onto the floor and dropped two large sequins onto it. 

Why? I'll tell you tomorrow. 

An Update on Brayden and Tulip

Today's layout features the photo from the first time Brayden and Tulip met. 

 

This page earned three points for my Bash Bowl team, Twisted Scissors: 1 point for the tags, 1 point for the full-length border, and another point for using three or more words. Once again, I opted not to use metal on the page just to claim the extra points for that and using punches. I could easily have used metal grommets on my tags, but I don't want that bulk in the album. 

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I'm way overdue on an update about Brayden and Tulip. Bonding rabbits can be a long and difficult process, which we knew going in, but we never expected it to be this difficult. We had high hopes at first that we'd get them bonded after a few weeks. After a month of us working with them with no progress, my anxiety was sky-high. It was clearly time to try something else, so we ended up hiring a professional who has tons of experience bonding rabbits. She boarded them for a week and worked closely with them, during what she calls a Bunny Moon. They were showing progress, albeit very slowly.

Unfortunately, as soon as Brayden and Tulip returned home, there was a fight. I got bit trying to separate them, which obviously made me even more anxious about the whole process. The buns returned for a Bunny Moon #2. Again, there was some progress, but once the week was over, they were nowhere near ready to coexist. We brought them home to separate spaces. It was disappointing, to say the least.

When we traveled to Southern California, she took the buns again in hopes that a final intensive stay would do the trick. They made progress, snuggling happily together for significant blocks of time (supervised). Each day we got a report and it was sounding better and better. Brayden and Tulip clearly like each other and want to spend time together, but they never got to a point where she felt comfortable leaving them together unsupervised. 

Again, we brought them home to separate spaces. However, this time we completely rearranged our furniture so that they wouldn't be living in what was Brayden's territory when he was an only bun. Our hope is that they can learn to get along in the neutral territory. 

The separate spaces are fine for now, but it's not what either of them deserve long-term. We're trying to stay positive and keep up hope that they'll eventually be bonded. We obviously want what is best for both rabbits.

Jones Family Photos

When the Estajonesiers get together, we are pretty good about taking group pictures. We're especially good at taking photos of my parents with all three of their grandchildren. But it's been 19 years (!) since we took a picture with just my parents, me, and my sister. I used that photo, plus two others from 1981 and 1995, to make this layout. 

Jones Family (affiliate link)

Here's a closer look at each of the photos, along with a few others that I didn't use on the layout. 

1981 

1986

1988

1991

1993

1995

2024

I made this page for Game 2 of Bash Bowl. 

I earned three points for Twisted Scissors: the tabs, the full length border, and the words and phrases. I didn't feel like adding metal to the page just for the point, even though that actually translated to a loss of three points (if I'd added metal, I would have been able to count the two points for the touchdown technique since I used a punch). Ultimately, I have a layout that I like and that's obviously what's most important.

Biodiversity Museum Day 2025

On Saturday, Steve and I attended Biodiversity Museum Day on the UC Davis campus. 

 

Biodiversity Museum Day is a free annual event that serves as an open house for the many biology-related museums and departments on campus. Trevor and I attended last year and had a great time. Steve had to miss it due to a Scout event, so he was eager to attend for the first time this year. 

We started our visit at the California Raptor Center, where we bought a CRC t-shirt.... for the person who sold it to us. 

We spent some time looking at all of the Ambassador birds. This is Kalli. She's one of my favorites at CRC. 

Several of the birds were out on the glove. I think this is Whistler. 

This is Sul Wita, CRC's first glove-trained bald eagle. Billy was casually feeding him while speaking to the crowd. 

Our next stop was the Robert Mondavi Institute. This facility houses a winery, a brewery, a food research plant, a milk processing lab, the UC Davis Olive Center, the Honey and Pollination Center, and a lot more. We started by learning all about microbes. They are much more adorable in stuffed form than in the microscope. 

This was absolutely fascinating. Have you ever heard of yeast art? Yeasts naturally have different colors, so you can "paint" tiny amounts onto an agar plate and then allow them to grow for a few days to reveal the pattern.  

Next, the brewery tour. It's an impressive facility. 

  

Then we toured the winery. It's also very impressive. 

Did you notice the open doors at the back of the winery? They lead out to the vineyards. 

We made a short stop to view the Nematode Collection...

.... and learn about sampling for the Herbarium at the Center for Plant Diversity. 

Then it was over to the Botanical Conservatory. It's most famous for the corpse flowers, but there are many other interesting and beautiful plants to see. 

  

  

Pitcher plants. 

I like the freedom of choice offered here.

Students were on hand to explain all about the various plants and their most interesting features. I was amazed by a demonstration of explosive seed dispersal. If you ever visit the Conservatory, ask for a demo. 

  

  

Bats and butterflies. 

After the Conservatory, Trevor joined us for lunch and then we headed to the Design Museum. I don't necessarily see a connection to biodiversity, but I thoroughly enjoyed their newest exhibit of Visual Journals. 

There was a cool hands-on area that looked really fun. 

Then we hustled over to the Museum of Fish and Wildlife Biology. It's housed in the same building as the Bohart Museum of Entomology. 

We only got a peek before the event ended and the museum closed. We'll make it a priority at Picnic Day or at the 2026 Biodiversity Museum Day. 

If you live near Davis, I highly recommend attending a future Biodiversity Museum Day or Picnic Day. Most of the museums have regular visiting hours, so visiting when there isn't a major event going on is also an option. I love how much there is to see and do at UC Davis.