Hello beautiful readers! Have you been looking for a fun & different activity to do with your friends or significant other?

Are you eager to channel your inner Bob Ross?

Look no further - enter Canvas & Cocktails! #happytrees

denv.her. was invited to Canvas & Cocktails and we decided to make it a family affair by bringing our husbands along and making it a double date night!

Happy husbands = happy trees? They're so scary lol.

Canvas & Cocktails has two locations in Denver. The original is the Cherry Creek location and the second is the Southglenn location in Centennial.

Class prices for C&C range from $25-$40 dependent on the class/painting type, day of the week, and time of day. C&C offers numerous classes including Open Painting, Mimosa Mornings, Sangria Saturdays, and the traditional evening classes which is what we participated in!

Upon our arrival at C&C, we were greeted by lines of blank canvases and most importantly, A BAR (score & thank you baby Jesus!). I'm not the most artistic and needed all the liquid courage I could get.

The thing about Canvas & Cocktails' drinks? They are V reasonably priced. Snaps for Canvas & Cocktails!

You can get a bottle of wine for $18 (*gasp I'll take 5), a glass of wine for $5, or a beer for $5. We opted for the bottles of wine so we could focus on our paintings and not have to worry about getting refills throughout class.

Bottles of wine in hand, we were then shown our canvases, the apron station, and the paint refill station; we then were ready to begin our night!

Once we had our aprons on and our paint plates ready to go, our instructor, Emma, began telling us about the painting we would be creating. The scene was called “Wooden Colorado”. Emma had just painted this piece earlier on in the week and our class was the first to paint it. #whoopwhoop!

Emma led us through initial instructions for the painting and a description of all the brushes and paints we would be using.

Important note when painting at C&C: keep your wine cup AWAY from your water/rinse cup that you use for your dirty brushes! Unless you want to drink dirty paint wine... #YUM. Jk. Please refrain from drinking dirty paint wine.

Emma diligently guided us through each painting step and exuded enthusiasm from the podium throughout the duration of our class - we could really tell she enjoys teaching at C&C!

Step 1 - create the outline of a “C.” Since drawing a perfect circle is more or less impossible, we were instructed to use a paper plate as a stencil! Then we created the board background by using the edges of our brushes to keep the lines straight. We then formed mountains and painted in the sky.

Step 2 - start filling in your mountains and your C with the instructed colors

Step 3 - fill in the mountain landscape in the center of the “C.” This was an intimidating part to paint as the snowy landscape on the finished painting we were aiming to duplicate, seemed pretty detailed. Luckily, Emma guided us step by step through our brush strokes so we had thorough instruction to not totally biff it.

While you paint, the C&C employees have music playing to jam out to. The intermittent music also allows time for your paint to dry in between steps - you don't want to smudge your masterpiece!

While waiting for next steps and our canvases to dry, we browsed through the retail section of C&C. They have the cutest stuff! There's jewelry, clothing, and cute miscellaneous home items (side note - shopping is V dangerous when buzzed).

Then it was time to start painting again!

Step 4 - start adding in wood detailing across the canvas

At this point, my Bob Ross-ness was really nowhere to be found... and let's be real, I wanted to paint my dog, Forbes lol (#furchildprobs).

C&C encourages creativity so me diverting from the planned painting wasn't frowned upon, TG! The instructors even swing by during breaks and help the divert-ers with whatever creation you have in mind.

The husbands took the creative/rebel route as well with Ross opting to paint our dog (#secondobsesseddogparent) and Cory opting to paint the Raptor logo (#obsessedvehicleparent).

Ross def had a Picasso vibe going on for his painting of Forbes and I dig it!

Isn't that cool?!

We were soon finishing up our paintings by creating the ridges in the wood planks and signing our initials at the bottom & voila! Treslyn had a beautiful finished “Wooden Colorado” painting!

The rest of us were left with our interesting improv creations lol.

You can find more Canvas at Cocktails events at local bars and breweries such as Infinite Monkey Theorem, Lone Tree Brewery, and 38 State Brewery! A lot of these painting events are themed such as a Star Wars painting that was featured in January or an upcoming event called Paint with Your Pup at 38 State. #YAS #PUPS

Now when do we ever leave you all out of the fun?!

Thanks to the team at Canvas and Cocktails, we are giving away a free C&C class! Go to our Instagram (@denv.her) for details on how to enter and good luck! The winner will be announced this Friday, 2/23/18.

So check out Canvas & Cocktail's calendars online and find a painting that you want to create while sipping on some vino! Buy your tickets today and make sure to tell them that denv.her. sent you!

XOXO