My latest canvas, Joy to the World Christmas Wreath. It’s painted on a 5×5 inch square canvas with acrylic paint and is accented with red glitter. It’s sealed with a matte finish and comes ready to hang.
Most of you may recognize this little guy from my journal. He looks like he’s not quite ready for the holidays, sounds like me this year, lol.
I brought him to life on a 6×6 inch square canvas. He’s painted with acrylic paints and sealed with a matte finish. I added a little glitter for that Christmas magic and is is available for purchase in my Etsy Shop.
What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts.
I’m really loving abstract art more and more. This is my newest piece. It’s similar to my other one but painted with brighter and very happy colors. This piece is simply titled “Happy.” Would love to hear your thoughts.
I wanted to share with you some fun Halloween decorations that you can easily make. I love vintage images and had purchased these at a show I was at, but you can find tons online. Please read the instructions first before beginning so you have an idea of what you will be doing. The supply list is at the bottom of this post.
Instructions
Decide how you want to hang your plaques. Based on the type of plaque you have you may want to attach a picture hook to the back or you can drill 2 small holes in the top corners and sand them if needed.
Apply a good coat of gesso to each plaque, front and back.
Find images online and print them on cardstock. Cut them out and set aside.
Paint each plaque in a coordinating color. Let dry overnight. Sand edges for a worn look and wipe off dust.
Steps 6, 7 and 8 are the instructions for hanging with wire. If you used a picture hook in the back of your plaque, skip steps 6, 7 and 8. Another alternative to the wire is to use a piece of fabric or yarn which you would also skip these 3 next steps.
Cut 11 inches of the jewelry wire. From the back of the plaque, put one end through the hole, coming out of the front of the plaque and coil the end with the pliers to knot it.
Slightly off center at the top of the wire, wrap the wire around a pencil, 3 times and slide the pencil out.
Feed the other end of the wire through the second hole from the back of the plaque, coming out in the front. Cut off any excess wire and coil the end as in step 6.
Glue your images on to the plaque with Aleene’s Tacky Glue.
Add a piece of torn autumn fabric to the top of the wire and that’s it!
Supplies:
3 Vintage Halloween Images
3 Wood Plaques fitting your images
Gesso
Acrylic Paint: Black, Orange, Red or any of your choice
Last week I shared Page 1 of my journal with you. I had a lot of fun making these tiles using coffee as the background. This flower tile is slightly bigger than the other one as it’s a full 3″ square.
I loved creating with Shrinky Dinks when I was a kid. So I found this heart that I had made quite some time ago and thought it went well with the page as I made it part of the quote “True Love Always comes back.”
Supplies
Watercolor Paper, 140lb, Cold Press
Micron Sakura Pen 003
Assorted Bright Watercolor Pencils
Coordinating Acrylic Paints
1 Cup of Coffee
Ephemera/Embellishments of your choice
Posca Pens: White and Black
Pencil for shading
Instructions
Make a cup of really strong dark coffee.
Cut your watercolor paper to the desired size.
Using the Coffee, paint your watercolor paper. Let dry.
Paint the pages in your journal with acrylic paints, let dry.
Using your watercolor pencils, draw and color in your design. Activate the colors with a little water but try not to over mix the colors. Let dry.
Using the Sakura Micron 003 Pen outline your design on your tile and glue it to your page.
Add doodles, embellishments and ephemera to pages.
Add shading with a pencil and highlights with the Posca pen.
I have a tendency to make little pieces of art, then put them away until I’m ready to use them. I read an article where they made art using coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker but I do love the smell of coffee so I decided to give it a whirl.
I used watercolor paper for my 2.75″ x 3.5″ tile so I could be heavy handed with the coffee and get a nice background color. The trick is to make really strong, dark coffee then paint your paper.
Once the coffee is dry, you can create your art. I used watercolor pencils to make my drawing and activated the colors with water. After the paint dried, I went back over my drawing with Sakura Micron Pen 03. As always, I couldn’t resist adding that little bit of sparkly magic with glitter to the tile. (Note: When painting your tile, don’t be afraid to go bold and bright with the watercolor paints because they become muted and toned down when the colors mix with the coffee.)
For this journal page I used my Strathmore 5.5″ x 8″ Mixed Media Journal. I started by putting a good coat of gesso on my page and let it dry. Next, I used assorted acrylic paints that blended with the tile but at the same time made it stand out. After I was happy with the page, I glued my tile in place, added a few doodles and that was it.
I’ll post the second page of this layout next week so stay tuned as the adventure continues!
I participated in a free online class over the weekend in Art is Magic where they offer a year long mixed media course taught by 28 artists. This class was a preview of what is available in the full course.
Jodi Ohl a very talented artist, taught this class. I’ve tried abstract art before, thinking it was easy and it so wasn’t. Not to mention, I never liked what I created and would always just reuse that piece of art in other projects. This is the first abstract I created that I actually like and I’m happy to say it will not be recycled, lol.
Creating this was using new techniques was challenging and quite an adventure. So a BIG thank you to Jodi for making it so much fun!
Growing up, Easter was a fairly big day of celebration. I remember how excited I was to color Easter eggs with mom the night before. Easter morning we started our day with breakfast and then off to church we went. For us kids, the highlight was getting back home to the Easter baskets filled with all kinds of goodies.
Mom would always get us something new to wear. Whether it was a new shirt or swimsuit, it was always exciting. Then it was time for the infamous Easter Egg Hunt in the garden which was a thrilling event! I held on to these wonderful family traditions with my kids and we all have a lot of fond memories and more in the making!
My kids are grown now but I still make them some type of basket. I’ve switched it up and gotten pretty creative over the years. This year I was going to try making these cute wafer decorations which can be found at SmartSchoolHouse.com. My Pinterest Easter Board is full of inspiring ideas on celebrating this Easter holiday.
What are your Easter Traditions?
I wish you and your family a Joyous Easter!
Thanks for stopping by. Share the Happy!!
“Easter is the only time of the year when it’s safe to put all your eggs in one basket..” ~Unknown
I found this wooden cut out in the Art and Craft store and thought it would be fun to make it into a Halloween Decoration. It’s fairly easy to make with minimal supplies and would be a great project to make with kids, supervised of course 😉
Supplies:
Wooden “Spooky” cut out with hanging wire
Gesso
Folkart Crackle Medium
Acrylic Paint: Red, Black
Acrylic Paint Pens: Red, White
Stickles: Xmas Red
Inkssentials Glossy Accents
2 Black glitter pumpkin bell ornaments
Instructions:
Paint the wooden cut out with gesso. Let dry.
Paint cut out with red acrylic paint. Let dry.
Paint cut out with Folkart Crackle Medium. Let dry.
Paint cut out with black acrylic paint. Note: While this layer dries, the paint will start to crack and you’ll see the red paint underneath show through. Make sure to let this completely dry before moving on.
Using the white and red acrylic paint pens, outline the letters a little to make them stand out more. Note: If you don’t have the pens, you can also use a liner brush dipped in white and red acrylic paint to make the thin lines.
Add drops of blood to the letters with the red Stickles. Let dry.
Using the Glossy Accents, go over the Stickles blood drops. Once dry, this will give the droplets a 3D effect.
Last, tie on your pumpkin ornaments to the ends where the wires are and that’s it!