If you have been following me for awhile, you know that I loooove temperature projects. A temperature project is a piece of art (crochet blanket, cross stitch, watercolor, etc.) that you complete over the course of a year by just doing a little bit each day. The thing that makes this different from a normal project is that the color you use is dependent upon the weather of the day. You pick colors to go along with a temperature chart, and you use the color that corresponds with the high temperature for the day. I have made several temperature crochet blankets as well as several cross-stitch pieces before, but I’m going to show you a new project that was a first for me! A temperature watercolor! This may be the easiest of all the temperature projects that I have done because you only have to paint one little circle a day! Let’s get in to how this works!

Materials

Watercolors. I have this set HERE from Amazon. The tray is blue (as opposed to my white tray), but the colors are the same. I like this set because it has a good selection of reds, pinks, and blues. It also comes with paint brushes. You can also use a set with less colors and just blend your paints if you need more colors.
Watercolor paper. I bought mine from Hobby Lobby and it was about $3. You want this to be fairly large so that you can fit a whole year. The sizing of my paper is 22”x30” and I have the cold press 140 lb. The exact paper I bought isn’t available to link to online, but this one from Hobby Lobby is similar.
A yardstick. You can use a 12” ruler or a measuring tape, but a yardstick is really nice with this large piece of paper because you can draw a line all the way across.
Pencil and eraser.

How To

Begin by creating your large grid on your paper. I wanted to divide my paper as evenly as possible, while still getting close to 365 days for a full year. 365 doesn’t divide very evenly, so I ended up creating a grid with 15 squares across and 24 squares down. This gave me 360 squares. I am five days short, but I figured that could give me a little wiggle room in case I missed a day, or I could just end five days early. With my paper measuring 22”x30”, I calculated how large each square needed to be to give me 15 across and 24 down. Each square ended up being about 1.25”. Make sure to measure for your paper though! You want to make sure that your squares are fairly even. Draw your grid using your yardstick and a pencil.

Create your temperature color chart. I have a wide range of temperatures where I live, so I separate my weather into five degree increments. If your weather is a little more consistent, you can shrink your ranges so that you can still fit a lot of colors into your chart.
Match each range with a color from your palette. I numbered my watercolors (in my head) starting at 1 with the top left then moving across and down. That is what those little numbers on my color chart represent. Sometimes it is hard to tell which color is which on your chart, so numbering really helped me.

Begin painting! Look up your high temperature for the day (I like to use wunderground.com), then paint a circle in the color for that temperature. Your circles don’t have to be perfect. Mine definitely aren’t! But I think that gives it character.
At the end of the year, once you have all your colors filled in, carefully erase your grid lines. Even when dry, the paint can still smear, so be careful while erasing.

Now you have a totally unique work of art that can help you remember your year! My sister had the great idea to make one for each of her sons’ birth years, then she could hang them both in their playroom. That would be so fun! And they really are unique because my finished art will be different from yours. This becomes a journal of sorts to document your year.

I want to see your finished projects! Make sure to tag me on social media if you make your own!