Friday Finish!

I actually had two to finish, but life got in the way. I have been sick as usual and thought it was the lyme acting up, but it seems the tooth I have been complaining about, finally had it's last run. So, I had to wait to get in and finally had it pulled. Hopefully all the weird symptoms I have been getting are from that, for now I am waiting for the pain to wear off. You would think in this day and age, they would have come up with something with ripping teeth out with pliers, lol.

It is also a warning if you get a root canal and have it capped, to know that it can still get infected. In fact, it is more prone to get infected in the space that is left and since the nerves are cut, you do not feel the pain. It can go on for years and make you sick, mimicking a lot of other diseases, so something to consider if you have doctors telling you there is nothing wrong and it is all in your head;)

I was able to finish off my angel painting. This was the first one I started by prepping the papers and drawing on the angel, but I never painted it. I had messed up with the drawing, so I finally redid the lines and followed the tutorial for the face.

The problem was, my brain went on hold and I totally lost track of what I was doing and what she was saying, so I messed up on the coloring and shading. Since I did a nice enough job on the painting, I decided to just keep it simple and in a more folk art style. I added a hand and boat, and made stars on her halo, so a bit americana.

Then came the finishing and crackle. I had crackle on hand, so used that and it did not work, it actually blobbed the finish, so I used warm water and washed what I could off. Luckily there is a gloss finish on the painting, so it didn't do too much damage. I ordered the right crackle and finished it with that, and I got some nice crackling in some areas and blobs in others.

So, this is how she turned out, not like I planned but not too bad. This is my second one, so maybe the third one will be the charm.

You can see the way it blobbed up in the upper left corner. What you need to know when you use crackle is, buy the right product for the right job. The plaid crackle is to put on top of a painted object like a box, then you add another layer of paint, to get the crackling effect. For a painting, you use Jo Sonya's crackle, which goes over your painting. This is a technique that I learned in the online class by Teresa Kogut, of Gather Dream Create, so I cannot explain the actual process. I thought it was good to know for those who are using mediums, to read up on the types and what they are used for, before you buy.

This is a close up of the actual crackle effect, I love how it looks and hopefully the next one will come out as nice. I plan on doing a simple painting with my own design first, to try out the technique, then I will try another angel.

Friday projects!

This week was a bit of this and that, lots of thinking, doing, but no finishing. I made some more small stocking blocks and having fun, picking scraps from my stash. I have a lot of red and green, so time to add some new colors with the next batch.

I laid them out with a red I had been thinking of using, but it might be a bit on the orange side. I found another that is a deep red. I like the idea of a pop of color by using a skinny sashing between the blocks, but not sure if it blends well with the colors, might have to find some green?

Hard to tell in the photo, but the red on the right side, is a deeper red, but still brighter than the red in the stockings. I will have to see what shades of red and green I can find in the medium weight linens.

I also wanted to paint my angel. I won a class with Teresa Kogut and made a smaller version. I was having trouble watching the video since it kept stalling out, but now it is working fine. Well, I messed up with the lines, using a sharpie was not the best idea, but I can paint over the mess. Of course my brain decided to go on hold, I could not follow along, I was painting too slow this time so I paused and painted ahead, then realized I forgot things, so I made a mess of her face.

To fix that, I just redid the flesh and covered all the blobby, dark shadowing. Now it will be hard to do it in her style, since you go from dark to light. At this point, I will just paint her my way and try again with the next painting.

When my lyme is acting up, my eyes go blurry, so I tried painting in some base colors and gave up. Hopefully my brain will be back to normal next week and I can finish her. I am allowed to give them as gifts, so this will be gifted, if I don't make a total mess of it, lol.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. We have more rain coming, so hoping we get a break so I can get out for a little beach combing.

After she is finished, the piece gets done with crackle and stain, so that changes the whole look and covers up a lot of flaws;) It is also sanded, so that some of the paper designs will show through. You can check out Teresa's classes at Gather Dream Create. She also has a weekly lesson with different types of designs.

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.

Friday Finish!

This week flew by, seems I spent most of it, cleaning and shopping and getting ready for my new project, but I was able to make the newest block by Suzy's Sitcom, Words to Live by. This is a fun one to do and I think it will make a nice gift, so it keeps me motivated.

I also started my canvas boards for the painting class, that I won. It is offered by Teresa Kogut as part of her courses, Gather, Dream, Create. This one is called Angel Strokes and she also has one that offers several others. Of course my boards are different sizes, one is slightly smaller than the original and I also made a mini one for practice. I also cheated and used art pens to trace the designs, so they are wobbly and messed up, but paint will cover us those mistakes;) I am not at my best this week, so I will let them sit till next week and then start painting. The weekend is here and time for another adventure.

I took a photo at my art table, I think it is time to finish my room and start decorating the rest, so I can enjoy using it this summer. The room is a lot cooler and will be nice since I won't have to use the air conditioner. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, filled with adventures and creativity.

For some reason things look crooked, so I have to look at it, maybe we hung up a crooked, or the wide angle made it look off. You can see the mini board in front of the larger one.