Wine & Canvas Girls Night Out

About a year ago I read a post about some bloggers in Houston that got together for a Wine & Canvas party and I thought it sounded so cool, but I quickly discarded it as anything that I could do. My sister got the artistic talent (although she vehemently denies it. She’s wrong) and I got the love of words and language. Art and painting was never something I had a natural talent for, but I did still enjoy it, I just did not enjoy not being good at it.

I’ve never considered myself a super creative person, I would be lost without Pinterest and sometimes I think I will make the worst elementary teacher because my room will probably not be all cutesy homemade crafts all over the place (well, except for what the kids do!).  But, what I can do is follow a model (I’m a pro at tracing!) and follow directions.  I may not be able to come up with the idea or see the vision in the first place, but I can sure copy what you do! (Ha.)

When one of my good friends asked me if I wanted to do a Wine & Canvas party, I was kinda skeptical. What if my painting looked terrible? I don't know if I can paint those pretty pictures I always see online. Well, I was dead wrong when I thought I could not do it. Someone asked if I could follow directions and when I said yes, he told me that I would have no problems.

And, you know what? He was absolutely right!

Last Thursday night about 25 people showed up to Mimi’s Café in West Des Moines for a night of wine, painting and fun. I went with three close friends of mine and, like the teacher’s pets that we all were (not) we sat right up front and (im)patiently waited for the hosts to get started so we could paint this:

Cue nerves. 

You want me to paint that?? You are not serious. I thought we were painting a tree? I can do trees. My sister and I practiced “happy trees” with Bob Ross all the time back in the days when the only channels we had were on basic cable. I don’t remember doing “happy flowers” …

Luckily, my friend was right, and after about 2 hours of following directions I ended up with this: 

 

Do my flowers look happy?? :)

Wine & Canvas really was as simple as "following directions" and as long as you paid attention, you were fine! Also, they use all acrylic paints and couple that with the canvas and the paint can be pretty much "erased" with water and paper towels if you make a mistake. I actually had to do that once, because one of my brushes was too wet and it dripped across my painting and spread! I cleaned it up and voila! I was fine. 

In addition to great directions, the artists used measurements such as the brush handle or fingers instead of inches. This made it much easier to gauge where to begin painting. 

 

The four of us hard at work on our masterpieces!

But, besides all the painting stuff, we had the best time giggling over flower petals that looked like inappropriate male parts (we’re immature) and drinking $5 wine flights (score!) we all left declaring that we wanted to do it AGAIN and SOON. 

 

Another shot of us hard at work. 

Wine & Canvas just started in the Des Moines area and I highly suggest you GO. I guarantee you will have a great time and you will leave feeling like the next Picasso! Wine & Canvas would be great for a girls night out or a date with your husband or boyfriend (I swear, guys would enjoy this!). There was a couple sitting near me, and at the end of the night, the woman looked at her boyfriend and said, "If you had done this for our first date I would have married you by now!" I cracked up!

Read other reviews of Wine & Canvas DSM here and here.

 Cannot wait to do this again!