I am loving spring with all the beautiful scents and colors. I love seeing the trees budding and all the beautiful spring flowers popping out everywhere.
All the beautiful spring flowers have me playing with Quikwood again (see Flower Canvas). I thought it would be fun to create these flower hearts. They are a sweet little gift for mom and/or anyone special in your life. They would also be fun to hang on someone’s door as a little surprise.
Well I guess if we are going to have “Egg Peeps” for Easter we need to have an “Egg Bunny”. For this bunny we are using a 4″ Styrofoam egg, dowel sticks and Quikwood. To make it easy for you the project steps are demonstrated through a series of how-to videos.
Egg Peeps might seem a little strange unless you have been following my blog this year. Earlier in the year we made nativity ornaments / place card holders out of paper mache eggs. Then we made snow people also using the paper mache eggs. If you would like to see the older posts click below:
I always enjoy spending time with creative friends. These times usually involve food and catching up with what’s going on in our lives. Some of the things I really about being with my creative friends is sharing ideas and creative brainstorming. My creative friends help fill my well when it is dry, they encourage, and they get/keep me excited about my art. Sometimes we have so many ideas I think my head will explode…and I love it!
The other day I was with my creative friend Glenda Payne and she suggested each of us do a large floral canvas. One thing lead to another and we decided to do 10 floral canvases and hold each other accountable.
A number of years ago I bought a book where the artist painted the picture in acrylics and then went over her picture with a few accent lines in oil pastels – I loved how it looked both because of her happy colors and the looseness of the added lines.
Even though we are all looking forward to spring, especially those of us in the Northeast, I think our love of snow people will allow me to sneak in one more project. I think the flower in her hat means she is a Spring Snow Lady at heart. 🙂
Nothing says “Love” like a dozen roses…so I thought I would give them to you this Valentine’s day in the form of a pattern…and also a video on how to paint them.
This is a fun little project inspired by those little heart candies that come out for Valentine’s Day with the sweet messages on them. It is a project that can be enjoyed by any age.
This year at Christmas we created Nativity characters made from paper mache eggs and Quikwood. If you want to see them you can go here – Egg Nativity. They were fun to create and we added a hook at the top that could be used as a hanger or a place card holder. On that post I also had step-by-step videos.
As I was packing them up I thought this same concept could make some great snow people…and so I started playing.
I was talking to my cousin about her Christmas dinner and how she would like to have the “Reason for the Season” somehow on her table. As we were brainstorming, the idea popped into my head to make nativity characters out of papier mache eggs and Quikwood. The characters could be place card holders for dinner and then be taken home and hung on the Christmas tree. Each year that ornament would stir the memory that was made with it.
Words are powerful. They can encourage, inspire, and help us to believe in ourselves. So why not put those words on a Christmas Ornament where they can be seen over and over.
A number of years ago I wanted to create a stone glitter house for our niece Emily and her husband Phil since they had just moved into a new stone home.
Today is the SECOND day of the Ornament Exchange Blog Hop.
I think some people are confused by what we are doing. We have a group of 12 artist who also have a blog. Each of them have designed an ornament and have put the instructions on their blog so that you can create the ornament.
I am so excited to be a part of this Ornament Exchange Blog Hop with all these other amazing artist. I hope you will take the time to check out all of their wonderful projects.
When I was making the last glitter houses (See Fall Sunflower Glitter house and Fall Pumpkin House) we wanted to have some fall trees. I was just going to buy some that come with the Department 56 or similar villages, but when I started looking they were either really expensive or I just didn’t like how they looked.
One thing that I love about fall are all the beautiful fields of sunflowers. So they became the inspiration for this fall glitter house.
This flower canvas can be painted to suit any season or décor. I had painted it before in pinks (you know me) and since I am showing you how to create it now I thought it would be fun to paint it in fall colors.
As I shared previously about my summer art class with my kids I wanted to show them different surfaces and mediums that they could use to create. (See more here – “Living with Art” Classes). This week we created a necklace using Shrinky Dinks and colored pencils.
“Isn’t it funny how you can start something and it just keeps growing. That is what happened for me with these frog pins.
One year my chapter was having a pin exchange and I came up with the idea to make these frog pins. I called them my Jump 4 Joy frogs, because my frogs were so happy that they wanted to jump for joy. As I thought about them I thought it would be fun to give them names. Fun names like “Cute Carol”, “Awesome Al”, “Sweet Sarah”, etc. Every one loved them and selected them because of their names. Continue reading Froggy Pins Fun-raiser
For those of you who are tired of seeing more glitter houses, forgive me….but I have been getting a number of requests for some spring houses and want to try to keep everyone happy… so here are three new designs for spring:
Last week I did a blog post on making glitter Easter eggs (Time to Paint Easter Eggs). I shared that I would show you another way to display them. After a little trial and error I created these stands using 2 different wooden pedestals and a round plaque from Michaels plus a few CD’s.
Spring is my favorite season of the year. I love how the days get warmer and longer. There is something magical about seeing everything starting to bud and bloom. You can tell by my painting palette that these are also some of my favorite colors….the soft pastels, and vibrant clear colors of spring. I also love the smells of the season from the smell of the earth thawing and coming to life, to the sweet smell of the blossoms. And then there are the birds….I love seeing them make their nest, lay their eggs, and then their little families learning to fly.
I hope that you are not getting tired of my glitter house posts. I have been teasing you with this Music Glitter House and feel that it could be nice for winter.
Last year I did a post on creating glitter houses which turned out to be very popular. Many of my friends and family were inspired to create their own houses or have me teach them.
This year I am up to my eyeballs in glitter. 🙂 Our family made glitter houses after thanksgiving dinner, I am teaching two full classes at a local shop, and I have made houses to sell in the shop which after a week are almost sold out.
A few weeks ago I took a 3 day seminar with Wendy Young, from Olde Moon Lane Primitives (http://www.oldemoonlane.com/). I learned so much from her and she got my creative juices going. I encourage you to take a class from her or buy a pattern from her (they are also loaded with so much good information).
A few years ago I was looking for something new to do with my grand niece Sheena when we went to visit her in San Francisco. I am not even sure where the idea came from but I decided to take some shrinky dinks along to play with. We made a lot of projects but mostly jewelry, and we made many trips to the craft store to get more supplies. 😊
Last Year I tried a new DecoArt Media product call Crackle Glaze. I had used it on a Christmas Tree and also some coordinating ornaments. (See Them Here) It was so easy to use and I loved the results so I thought I would make some pumpkins with it. I started with paper mache pumpkins from my local craft store and painted them Buttermilk, Spiced Pumpkin, and Mint Julep Green and the stems Khaki Tan.
When I was out shopping at Micheals I saw these cute houses. I immediately had an idea of what I would like to paint on them. When I got home I keep thinking about the cute flower cut outs they had and how they would make fun rooves on the houses. So back to Michaels and then I started working on my updated idea. If you don’t have a Michaels available to you, the houses could be cut from 2×4’s and the roof could be made out of scrape book paper glued to a heavier paper and cut out.
One of the blogs that I follow is Jennifer Rizzo and she is looking for monthly contributors for recipes, crafting and home decorating. To find out more about the contest go to her blog post Jennifer Rizzo Contributor Call-Out
To enter you have to do a post showing your three best posts. Since I do all three, I will show my three best post for each.
It is fun to take smaller canvases and turn them into a tabletop canvas by adding feet or a pedestal, a finial and/or other elements. I thought I would show you how I took the donut canvases in the Painted Donuts post and turn them into tabletop canvases.
I was moving some things around in my basement when I found the starts to these clothes pin snow people and thought you might enjoy creating them. You will need a few clothes pins, toothpicks, doll stands, some twigs for arms, butterfly stickers for wings, paint, glitter, glue, ribbon and tulle and any other embellishments you would like. If you don’t have them already, you can get most of these supplies at your local craft store.
Our family was celebrating my nieces 50th birthday on New Year’s day. I wanted to do something special for her so I decided to make a mixed media Birthday canvas. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do and was able to find the needed supplies at my local crafts store. I started with a 5x7x2 wooden canvas (you could use a regular canvas), I wanted to put her age on the canvas, her initial, a crown, and possibly feet on the project so she could sit it on a table.
I posted a picture on Facebook of me and a young friend making glitter houses, a number of people seemed interested in how they were made so I thought I would show you. You are probably thinking this is too close to Christmas is she crazy…..but this could really be a fun project/ memory with your children, grandchildren or a special friend over vacation break. In fact in would be fun to do every year and watch how their art changes as they grow. When they leave home they will have their own Christmas village, much more valuable than any they could buy.
My friend Amy Mogish (visit her blog at http://classicamyjoanne.com/) and I went to a glitter class with Miss Mustard Seed aka Marian Parsons. We used MMS’s German Glass Glitter which has an extra sparkle, you can find it on her web site. It was such a fun relaxing class and the process is pretty simple:
It is amazing how many things you can glitter in 2 hours. I had painted a small house and put clear glitter all over it, plus letters for two banners, snowflakes and pine cones. These few projects added a lot of glitz to my holiday decorating.
Marian had given me some old music pages which I wanted to put my one set of letters on. Since the paper was fragile I glue it to some heavier banners that I bought at Michaels. I then glued the letters to them.
I love to display things on pedestals. When I was at Micheal’s (You can see by now that I go there too often) I found the little wooden pedestal and thought it would work with a cake pan on top. You could use any type pan. I wanted something with straight sides so it would be a little easier to cover with scrapbook paper. The pan I used is the 8″ tray available from Della and Company
I found this metal heart at Micheal’s and thought it would be fun to spell out some words with the heart symbolizing “love” or “heart”. For example you could spell out GRATEFUL “heart”, THANKFUL “heart”, FALL “love” or WHO “loves” YOU. I am sure you can also think of other combinations to spell out. So first I had to figure out what I was going to spell out so I would know how many pumpkin blocks I would need. I had my husband cut out 8 sections of 2×4, 4 1/2″ long and sand them with a hand sander. He then drilled a hole in the center top for the stems. I cut tree branches 3″ long for the stems trying to keep them all about the same diameter.
As you saw on my fall decorating blog post I have an “owl” thing going this year. I didn’t plan it, it just happen. I guess that means owls are big this year. See Fall house tour – the Beginning and Fall house tour- The rest.
I wanted a painting of an owl, but wanted to keep is simple so I sketched out an owl and sized it to my canvas. I used a square canvas 24″x24″ and painted it Lamp Black (I used DecoArt paints). You could scale it to any size canvas. I then positioned my owl and traced it on. I outlined him in chalk so that you could see him better. I decided I wanted him to sit on a tree branch and have a moon showing through the branches. I cut a circle out of white paper for the moon and laid it in place. Them using a piece of chalk I traced around the moon and freehand the trees and branches.
This year I have been seeing a lot of really wonderful looking pumpkins painted with chalk paint so I thought I would give it a try. I went to my local craft store and bought some of the craft pumpkins and some bottles of chalk paint in the colors I thought I would like them. I wanted my pumpkins to be a little funky and glitzy so I also purchase gold leafing and adhesive. I bought as many as I could in white so that the coverage would be easy.
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