Painted Headboard

I've needed a headboard for ages. I've wanted this one from Ballard Design but it was out of my price range. I found a headboard in a thrift store that had a shape I liked. It had a water stain, so I didn't feel too bad about painting. I did a distressed/antique paint technique and then stenciled a French poem in silver and added other silver accents. I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

2015 Craft Update

I seem to have been some what remiss in posting updates on what I've been making.

It wasn't an overly productive year. I picked up cross stitching, because you can never have too many hobbies!


I wanted to learn cross stitch so I could make this:


I also made some cross stitch presents this year. A keychain for my mom, and a bookmark for my dad.




I did a little sewing. I made an a line skirt, which I did write a post about, and made a pair of linen pants. I also made some shower caps for myself and friends out of laminated cotton.

I painted a snowman ornament which I taught at a program at work.

2015 The Year of Finish It or Forget it

A woman in a group I belong to inspired me to make this the year of finish it or forget it. Part of finishing it will be starting it though. :-)

I'm really going to try and incorporate a 15 minute rule this year too. Just work on something for 15 minutes a day. It's amazing what can be accomplished in 15 minutes especially over time.

Here's the list of what I'll be working on:

Knitting

• In Progress--Hedgerow mitts. I've been working on these for several years. I think it's time to forget them, but we'll see.
• Ilse skirt. I would like to finish this one. It just languished after a bit of drama with the yarn)
• Flowers for my felted bag. I made a felted bag ages ago and ever finished it by making the flowers.
• In progress--A week in the life of a knitter's cat--7 lace scarves. I haven't made any of these, but I happen to have 7 skeins of lace year. I'll use this to see if I still like lace knitting.
• Deco ribbon jacket--I think I need to let this one go. I tried two or three times and can't get the gauge right, which means it won't turn out the right size. My mom gave me the yarn as a present one year, and that makes it harder to give up. Plus it is a cool project.
• In progress--Felted rose trellis bag. I've had the yarn to make this for ages.
• Hemlock Ring Blanket. I've had the yarn to make this for ages.

Painting

• Finish santa
• Finish Mary Wiseman landscapes
• Paint the stool
• Paint the chest
• Paint landscape for over the bed

Embroidery

• Embroider states
• In progress--Make winter stitch club placemats

Misc

• Finish calligraphy for flower pirate piece
• Forget--Finish Christmas tree skirt
• Make holiday ornaments
• Make snowman decorations
• Finish travel collage

Sewing

• In progress---Finish shark costume
• Finish a-line skirt
• Make Washi dress
• Make skirts you have fabric for
• Make Dahlia dress
• Make towel cover up
• Make shower caps

Encaustic

I took an encaustic (wax) class a few years ago. I haven't done anything since, except buy supplies! :-P I took an encaustic class tonight at a cute little place called Craft. It was taught by a fun instructor, Christine. We did this on artist trading cards and postcard sizes. It was loads of fun, and my head is swimming with lots of fun possibilities.

Dining table and chairs

So during my kitchen remodel LAST YEAR!! I bought an unfinished table and chairs. I didn't start painting it until late September. It's been a giant pain in the arse. Lots of fiddly details to paint around, and I have no desire to ever paint such a thing again. :-P I put the final coat on this past weekend. I'm not overly happy with it. I did a sloppy job for starters, but no will notice that but me. The colors somehow aren't quite what I had in my head. It's not bad, but I think in the end I would have been happier with stained wood. Ah well. Maybe in a few years, I'll strip it and stain it. In the meantime I have a put together dining area. Woot!

Lemon tree in the kitchen

I finally did it! I painted an art deco looking lemon tree in the kitchen.

Gran in Texas--reflection

One of the thinks I like about Ros' style is that she freehands a lot of things in. In decorative painting you often work from a pattern and a set of instructions. With Ros, she'll give you color options, and you are not always working with a pattern. It's a nice stepping stone for me. I'm trying to branch out more as an artist (ooh, I still cringe to type that word, but I am working on being able to say or type it without cringing!). It's nice to have a pattern to fall back on for a building or structure, but it's also good to know I can paint trees or flowers with out a pattern.

I learned so much this week, and feel like my self confidence continues to grow. One of the things I like after taking a good painting class is how it opens your eyes and you see things differently. On the drive home, I kept looking at the trees and shrubs and thinking about what colors were in them, and the shapes they made, and how I would paint them. It's fun.

Ros is also just a lot of fun. She encouraged us to be loose, bold women in class. She was referring to our painting, but it's good advice always to not be shy of color or paint and keep things loose (or at least some things! ha!).

We were awarded a certificate today into the L.O.O.S.E. Women Society, which stands for Ladies of Originality, Style and Elegance. The best part though is where it says that it is "an annual event to develop and maintain skills in giggling, tapping, flicking, shoveling and the general slinging of paint with gleeful abandonment."

Gran in Texas--Day 4

Poppies were up for the last day of the seminar. We painted them on burplap-like placemats. I do not recommend that material for painting at all. Ugh. It was awful...the loose weave, and they seemed to absorb even more of the paint that "normal" fabric. I was pretty whiny today, and struggled with the surface.

However, I really liked painting the poppies! They were fun. I didn't finish the placemats as I just needed a break from the fabric. I need to do a little more work on the centers, and there are some bluebonnets that go in the design too. This whole design was freehanded in, so that was pretty darn cool.

Gran in Texas--Day 3

Day 3 was a challenging day. I was bit worn out from Day 2, and boy is painting a reflection a brain bender!! There were some interesting logistics to this, but I got the hang of painting wood, and for once my building isn't leaning! I have a tendency to have leaning buildings when I paint. I didn't finish this that day. We took a break and got some dinner and I did manage to put the glaze of color on the water section. Ros had to work her magic with the water ripples for me the next day. The first picture is without any water done, and the second is the finished painting.

Gran in Texas--Day 2--part 2

After the fruit painting we took a dinner break, and ate some good Cranky Frank's BBQ, and then painted a small beach scene. The downside meant this was a 13 hour day!! The plus side was a pretty awesome beach scene. These are a bit challenging too, but I'm looking forward to trying it again and seeing if I can get the waves right without Ros' touch ups! She has a way of making two or three strokes on your painting and bringing the whole thing together.

Gran in Texas--Day 2--part 1

Day 2 was fruit...strawberries and kiwi on a tin box. I decided to multi-task and also paint the fruit on a set of coasters, and paint some strawberry pins. It was fun until we hit the leaves. Leaves are my painting arch-nemesis. I don't know what it is about them. They make me grumble and whine almost every time. However, I got through it and wound up with some nice leaves. Again, a finished project at the end of the day!

Ros Stallcup--Gran in Texas Painting Seminar--Day 1

Ten years ago I took a week long painting seminar with Ros Stallcup, and had the best time. I've been wanting to take a seminar from her again, but she stays on the East coast a lot, and I just haven't been able to make it happen. I was so excited to learn she was coming to Texas, and I am so happy that I got to go. It was a wonderful 4 days in Fredericksburg.

The first day we painted this lovely flower cart on a wooden tray. We painted the background and then traced the cart on; everything else was freehanded. The best part was finishing the project that day! :-)

Paper Mache

I finally made it to a painting club meeting this summer. The project was to paint paper mache santas. I made my Santa over 4 years ago, along with a bunch of other things. I painted the Santa and two of the snowmen. I just have some Halloween themed ones to paint and then I can "close" out that project!!

Pottery Painting

Back in the middle of February, I went to a paint your own pottery place with a couple of friends. It was a fun night. I had never done the pottery thing before. I finally picked up my piece. It's a trivet.

Colored pencil--vision in yellow

I took a colored pencil class for the first time today. This design was taught by Kelly Hoernig. I really didn't know what to expect. I found the butterfly quite easy to do. It felt like coloring only on steroids. I almost had a meltdown with the flower because it was different...strokes instead of coloring in. I went to lunch and came back it was all good. It was a lot of fun!!

Rock star painting

Man, today was kick ass awesome. I took a watercolor batik class with Kathie George. I did this technique once before and really liked it. I learned so much. And most important of all I trusted myself. The flowers in the original were pink, and that's not really my favorite color, so I went with orange (well a pink orange) instead and kind of wound up with red, but I'm so happy. Every step of the way, I stopped and thought about things and then decided on my own (mostly) if something needed more color or whatever.

This is a big deal to me, because I'm usually very much the pattern follower and if the pattern says this color then that's what I use. I also think it was a good lesson to learn that I do understand color, value, and shading. Three cheers for me. I'm so unbelievably proud of this painting!

Watercolor--blue abstract

I'm at the Artist Expo in Houston for the next few days. Today I had watercolor class with Carol Spohn. The background was pretty cool to make...we used gauze, plastic wrap and waxed paper to create texture. Then we hit it with a little gold spray paint and waited ever so impatiently for it to dry. After it was dry, we peeled all the stuff off and there was a cool background. Next we added some lines and circles and voila.

I enjoyed the class, but am still struggling to find that happy medium of wet. I'm either too wet when I shouldn't be or too dry. Sigh. Ah well. Good fun nonetheless.

Watercolor Batik

I had to get up ridiculously early for this class, and I'm not a morning person. But it was soooo worth it. Thanks Wendy for a great class!!

How absolutely fun this was. We painted this Kathie George design on rice paper and used watercolors and wax to create layers of color. In the end we crumbled it all up, added one more layer of wax and voila. Well okay just a little more watercolor to finish it off. :-D Dead easy, loads of fun, and once again I'm playing with wax!!

Once Mural

And here's my lovely once mural on the wall, complete with an Italian biscotti wrapper lamp shade next to it. It's like I have a portal to Tuscany in my living room. So very cool.

Mural Repurposed

In 2008, I painted this mural for the niche in the house. When I moved out, I really couldn't bear to leave the mural behind. It was such an achievement for me in painting. So, I took it. My Dad offered to cut it down and build a frame for me. It took a while, but it finally got done. So now I have my lovely once mural repurposed into a picture. I can't wait for the varnish to dry and get it on the wall.