Beers and Brushes--keepin' it country! ha!

You know the new trend, Cockails and Canvas, Sips n Stokes, Dips n Dabs, Dips n Sips, etc.. you get the drift.  Well, these businesses are turning up everywhere!  Basically, every night has a certain painting that everyone learns how to do.  The instructor stands up front and shows you step by step, color by color, how to paint.  Meanwhile, you get to sip your wine and eat your crackers (hence "Sips n Strokes").  It's so much fun to go out with the girls and learn how to paint.  We went for my birthday last year and it was great, however, it wasn't easy on the wallet.  And, was hard to see at times b/c the place was packed.  After spending $30 a person, we knew there had to be an easier way.

So, for my friend Kristyn's bday, we each chipped in $10 for canvases, paint (most of which we already had), and brushes.  We covered the table in old towels and newspaper, cut up old milk jugs and filled with water to clean the brushes, and filled paper plates with dabs of primary paint colors (you know those colors you learned about in grade school...).  We used stands to hold up the canvases (had to get creative on this one).  Then, we googled fun pictures we knew we could paint based on our "expert painting skills."  :)

We found a simple tree painting on google (I think we searched "abstract tree painting), and kept the painting on the computer screen for all to see.  The computer was our instructor :)  Then we jumped right in to painting and worked our way trying to figure out how the painting was done. First starting with the background, then adding the tree, then the white for highlights.

This is what we came up with.....  Considering we had only painted once before, we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!