Friday Finishes!

This week I was able to finish a few things. I am trying to do at least one UFO at a time, along with new pieces. I have so much that I never finished so I am doing the ones for Christmas first, then I can decide on the others.

This is a free design that I have been wanting to do and finally got a chance. I love making pillows that I can put around the house and this one was quick and easy to do. The original design was on a  wool background with snowflake stitchery, but I decided to use snowflake fabric.

The design is by Karel Hamilton and you can find it at her facebook group, Wool Appliqué Love.

I also got some new frosted paint and tried the oven bake method. The two jars in the middle have been baked. It does set the paint and makes it washable, but I think it looks dull and thick. It also emits a paint smell, while baking, so not a good thing to do, unless you can open the windows. The others are done with a mix of decoupage, one I added too much so it looks more spotty, so more paint and less decoupage, just enough to thin the paint and give it a bit of a sheen. The one I use is an antique decoupage, so it keeps the look of old glass.

You can see how the new blue looks, compared to the jade, which looks more green. They are more bright looking, than they are in person.

Another thing I finally finished was my snowman block from last year's BOM, from Buttermilk Basin. I am going to keep mine as is, with a fancy stitching on the lines, and a small border, so I can use it as a hanging on a curtain rod, for the front window.

My son sent a photo of the boys, Nick wanted to be a football player, so that is what they both went as. I think Alex fits the part much better, lol. He is such a character.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have rain again, so I doubt we will be able to hike up the hills, since everything is wet and slippery. The last of the foliage is coming in fast in our area, so I am hoping we can catch a few more places before it is gone.

Testing and Finishes!

This week I practiced on some glass jars and tried some new mediums. I previously used spray on, sea glass paint, but that only works if it is nice out and no wind. So, I tried another product by Ceramcoat, frosted glass paint.

I was able to get some at our local Michaels, but it is hard to find different colors in the store, so I ordered more this week from Create for Less. I had a green, called sea grass and was able to find Jade, which is more like a blue.

In the photo, the ones on the left and right were done with the glass paint, mixed with antique decoupage. The ones in the middle are done with just the glass paint. It is hard to see in the photo, but I found that the straight paint works best, with decoupage, the glass chipped off when I was working on it. You can also bake them, after you let the paint set and that makes them washable, so I will have to try that next.

Here are the results of the paint and the colors.

I also tried another product from Golden, called glass gel bead. It makes a nice sparkle on the glass, which looks pretty with a candle or lights in the room. I have been using flicker lights for now, later I will try a candle, outside, to make sure it doesn't cause fumes or explode, lol.

I loved the thicker blue shade and thought it was the perfect background for painting on. I used a design from one of my books for the ship and the lighthouse came from a free pattern at Artist's Club.  My sister is already trying to buy them from me, but she also is having a light weight flute made by a tribe member in her area, so I will make her a box of goodies in exchange.

I also wanted to try some simple ornaments. I was able to find the wood pieces at Michaels, I like the white tag the best, it is a nice size to work with and already painted. The angel on blue was another experiment with the glass bead gel. It shines when you move it around, so I think that will be nice to add to ornaments with the tree lights, shining on them.

I used a new glue too, tacky clear gel. It is not as thick as the regular tacky, so it took some patience to place things and keep them from moving, and on the brick, it does show where I moved the arm. I am also wondering how the glass gel will look on items like the white pottery dress, another thing to try.

We went out for some rides this weekend, but the foliage was being elusive. It seemed some areas had nice spots of color, while others were still green. Tomorrow is going to be stormy, so hopefully their will still be some foliage left on Sunday.

This is in Rhode Island, outside the village of Westerly.

In Connecticut, we saw some foliage at Goodwin Forest.

And we ended the day with a visit to Mansfield Hollow, with a view from the top of the dam.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, filled with your own adventures and experiments.