Friday Finishes!

I hope everyone faired well during the recent storms. We got hit with a lot of rain and wind, but so far our power has stayed on.

This week I made a couple of items. I got a book from a thrift store and wanted to make the flag pattern. The book is Handmade in the USA by Kindred Spirits. My original idea was to mount the piece on wood, but I didn't have any good wood so I decided to try it on a canvas frame. I used various vintage papers for the background, but thought it needed to be toned down, and basically, I ended up painting over it and then I did some stenciled stars.

First I antiqued the canvas, then I antiqued the flag and once it was dry, I attached it with a decoupage medium. It worked great, the flag lay flat and it is hardened into the background. The problem was, I had used a little of the black stain for antiquing and the medium made that run throughout the piece. The flag came out too dark and the background lighter, so not the look I was going for. I think another problem was, I rushed to get it all together and should have given the piece, a day to dry thoroughly.

I had to lighten it up, so you could see how the flag looks, so the stars are lighter than the actual piece, as well.

Another piece is a lavender sachet, using Kathy Schmitz's newest pattern, from the stitch club. I have a lot of items in boxes, so I can always use more sachets, though this one is so pretty, it is a shame to hide it.

Last weekend we got out for rides, but no eagles. Of course I found some new, old graveyards and a wonderful old church that will be perfect for an art piece or maybe a new punch needle pattern. I do not show photos of items I will be using in art, but I took a few of the unique graveyards.

And the only bird that I could capture this week was a turkey vulture. I thought it was the hawks at first, but this is what I got a shot of.  It was good practice with the new lens, I wasn't sure if I could get good shots of birds in the air and this guy was also far away, so I am pleased with the results. The good thing about getting a better quality lens is that you can get a better result when editing the photo.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and find your own adventures.

Friday Finishes!

This week I worked on an art piece. Something I have been wanting to try and practice a few techniques on. I decided to go with a small 5" x 7" canvas board. I used a new product, Liquitex matte medium. It went on a lot easier and nicer than the heavy gel, but I noticed bleeding right away.

The end result for my transfer was a bit more faded than the usual, but I did use plain copy paper and a design from one of my photos, that I put through an art filter. So, it wasn't that bold to begin with and gave me the effect I wanted as a background image. Once I cleaned off the paper, most of the red went away, so I was happy with that, as well.

This is how it looked, I did enhance the buildings with colored pencils.

I decided to further enhance some details by painting over the buildings and some of the surf. Then I started playing with things I had in my beach finds. First was the driftwood log, then I found a rock that looked like a body with an arm and some shapes and rocks that I liked and it became a little scene of me at the beach. I used wool for the hat and gloves, small pieces of glass and a shell. It was fun to do and when done, I added glass gel beads to the sand and under the boats. The boats are also my photos, I printed them out and cut out the boats.

I also finished my rug, I decided to stop since I was running out of the dark blue and truthfully, it is hard on my arm and slow going. It is 36" x 26" and I decided to put it at the top of the stairs. I gives a nice pop of color in a dark area and Bean can lie on it when he is waiting for us to get home.

This was done with precut wool, that someone had given me. It is a bit thinner than I usually work with, so the next one I will do in thicker coat weights.

And of course we went beach hunting last weekend. I am trying to keep from over doing it and making sure I get some straight walking in, great exercise and gives my back a rest. We found some nice pieces on Saturday.

And Sunday we got a bit more. I will definitely be making more mixed media art and using some of the fun pieces I find, as well as the glass.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Finish!

This week went by, way too quick, two weeks to go and I still have a lot to do. One thing I did do was, finish my little painting. I messed it up since I couldn't follow the video very well, it kept stalling out on me, so I watched bits and pieces and did my own thing where I had to.

I also used products I had, so the crackle medium I had wasn't right for this technique, so I will have to find the right brand. This one is small, so hard to really watch a video with big strokes and emulate it into a small version, and I just slapped the papers on, so not as neatly done as the larger one. I will have to find a better store for patterned paper, most of the ones I used where too plain and didn't show through. But, I am happy with it anyways, it was fun to do and I will be able to do the larger one and practice with the video this time, so it might take more tries, and I learned a lot about techniques and things I would like to do to expand on it, with my own designs.

I found this old frame and I like how the white makes her pop more. The angel is from the class, Angelic Strokes by Teresa Kogut.

I also worked on my stitchery, getting near the end, but I still have to make the little quilt in the middle and a border, this will be a quilted wall  hanging. A pattern I bought with my winnings, from Kathy Schmitz.

And I traced on the design for the piece, The Greatest Joy by Kathy Schmitz. I am glad my son got me the larger light pad, I needed it and still had to do it in two halves. This will be for our trip, something I can work on at the camp, since it is one color, so less supplies to carry.

I had a hard time with the bottom halves, for some reason they did not line up, so I had to trace and then move things around, hopefully it is straight. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have on and off rain but it will be nice to get out for some adventures and take a break from thinking.

Friday Finishes!

This week I decided to finish a piece I made up for camping, and never did. I had two and decided on the angel saying and realized it was the perfect gift for a friend who is going through a tough time. I was thinking while I worked on it, that it is a good idea for me, to make up some different stitcheries with sayings that I can give to others, so I will be working on some ideas.

I like the pillow idea since it can be displayed to look at, used to comfort when they need something to hold and something they can  use to ease pain after an operation or injury, so I will think about that when I design them too. I made this one large enough, but also soft enough for her to use as a cushion.

I forgot to measure it before I sent it out, and sizes will depend on sayings too. They need to be something I can make in a day or two. This one I used a saying from Jan Patek's angel book and a free angel, I found on the web.

I also worked on my painting from the class I won, by Teresa Kogut, Gather, Dream Create. I finally made time for myself, by cleaning and getting things done, but of course, the day did not go as planned. First it was my tooth, it has been bothering me so I made an appointment for today, but yesterday it got worse so my mouth was one giant nerve pain. That along with phone calls, made me lose track of what I was doing and I got frustrated when the video kept stalling, so I just started painting the small one myself. I did use her technique and tutorial for the face, the first time I made one that looked nice, but I decided the small piece is too small to work on with the tutorial, so I will just do it my way and use the large one for the tutorial. This is what I did so far, a few details, but mostly base colors to get the overall look.

On top of that, my son called, my DIL's dad died the other day and I will be watching Nick while she is gone, while my son works from my house. So, he will be stealing a room to set up his computers and Nick will be with me, during the day for 4 weeks. Today I had him while he drove her to NY to get a flight at a better price, so I am still waiting for him to return. That would be ok, if I had any sleep last night, no sleep at all, I have been up since yesterday and then the dentist where I got the tooth removed, but the pain of that is so much better than what I had. So, I am waiting for Nick to be picked up and then I am going to sleep, lol. 

Tomorrow I will have a day out, I need to enjoy doing something fun and different and then I can start reorganizing the house. I hope  you all have a wonderful weekend.

As you can see, my angel is not finished, and some things are off, but I fix those as I paint. This is 5" x 7", so not a lot of room for shading and the techniques that Teresa uses.