Friday Finishes!

I finally finished my angel. The design is by Teresa Kogut and was an extra offering for her angel tutorial. Of course I changed the look and went with a patriotic dress and I have to admit, I lose focus when watching videos so to finish her face, I just went for it and did what felt right.

This is the finished angel, before I aged her. I really like how the background came out, I mottled it by double dipping the brush and patting it with a paper towel. In some ways I like the softer look, before aging, but If I was leaving it as is, I would do more detail.

And this is the angel, after I aged her. The process is from the tutorial, so I cannot explain it to you, but I did use crackle and antique medium for this look. I was happy that the crackle worked this time. Before I add the aging mediums, I do sand it, to get the worn look and expose some paper.

Here you can see the crackling, it is a nice effect for primitive pieces.

In this, you can see a little of where the paper got exposed, with the sanding. I use different colors and prints. I really had fun doing this and more fun when I just went out on my own, so I might start trying more of my own paintings with my photos. The class really helped me to explore a new medium for painting.

I had another project, but it was giving me fits, the blue marker would not come off, but I finally got it to come off, but I need to rework the colors that faded, so I will finish that, next week. I did work on a new punch needle project. I found the pattern in a thrift store for only 50 cents. It still had the printed weavers with it, but I wanted it larger, so I redrew it on my own backing.

The pattern is by Pine Mountain Designs. I went with a patriotic look, seem to be doing that a lot lately. The original has more muted colors, and I wanted it to pop more. I think this would be fun to do for a babies room too, making it without the stars and adding the babies name to the top or bottom. I also have wool floss, so making the sheep pop with fluffy wool, would be fun.

We were also able to get to the beach last weekend, an hour after a storm, was the perfect time to go. Lots of glass in with the rock piles, so we got a nice haul, this time.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Seems another flu is going around and the kids are sick again. I really wanted to take the boys to see the mermaids this weekend. so hopefully I feel better tomorrow and do a little beach combing, till my hands go numb;)

The Ugly Angel: Free Pattern!

I wanted to try an angel and I found a wonderful pattern by CatNap Primitives. She also has a free bunny and other wonderful patterns are reasonable prices. It is a freebie offered on her site, at Patternmart.  If you click on the main menu for patterns, click on free and you will find a lot of other free patterns. I like the idea of making my own but I wanted to try some simple dolls and techniques to get some practice in, it's been a while since I have made dolls.

The original pattern is for a tree top angel, but I wanted to make it for spring, so I changed it up a bit. Then I decided to make a satchel bag to hold flowers, but I made a mess of that. I plan on making a calico one to replace it. It was fun to make, but I definitely need practice on my stitched mouths. I think it would be fun to make them as gifts and customize them, to fit the personality and tastes of the person who receives them, so I will have to work on some of my own ideas. I do have doll patterns and a doll clothing book so I can do different styles.

Another mistake I made is, I forgot, if you wet the piece first, do not saturate it with stain, it tends to pull up in blobs. I was able to tone it down a bit by rinsing it back out.

Tomorrow we are getting a storm. It was a blizzard, then a storm, then it went from 15" down to 6" in our area, so I am not complaining. But, we all know weather has a mind of it's own, so we shall see how bad it gets. Of course I had to get out for supplies, crafting ones, lol. Today we got food items so we are all set. I hope everyone stays safe and warm if you are in the storm's path.

Friday Finish!

This has been one of those days. This morning I decided to trim Bean's nails and misjudged, so I had to   try and keep him still while I held a compress on it and Bill ran out for a septic stick. Next time I won't attempt it without someone else holding him, while I cut;)

Then I start cooking and while the cookies are baking, I get all the apples out for apple crisp. I need water to rinse them before I cut and my water is coming out brown. I check the other taps and they are all brown. It seems the town was putting in new sewer lines and broke into the pipe that runs into our house, ugh. So, I had to wait most of the day for the water to run clear and then run all my taps to clean out the pipes. I finally was able to make my crisp and clean the house.

I wanted to make a punched piece to go with a piece I made, as a gift and finally finished it tonight. I still have to fill in a few spots that I missed and I also need to redo the greenery in the snow basket, it needs to be a brighter green to show up. I enlarged the design and think I got carried away, it is 7" x 6".
Now I have to decide how I want to finish it. The design is by All Through The Night. I did the piece in 6 strands of dmc floss.

Bean has been keeping me busy, most of the time. He has toys to play with but after a while, when I am not looking, he grabs something off a shelve and starts chewing, so I cannot take my eyes off of him. This is what happens, after a few seconds of quiet, I found this on the floor with him. I just bought it yesterday on sale, but still, I would have liked it to last the season, lol. I hope everyone had a fun halloween, no one stopped at our house, all the kids in the area, are grown and gone.

New Stitchery Pillow!

I started my second block, but am so busy with the house, that I am tired at night, so I started a simple project for fun and I think it is a nice gift for friends too. I am also working on a new punch needle design, so hopefully it will turn out well and I will have a new pattern available next week.

This pillow was made with a design by Tiffany of Primitive Blessings. I really like the simpler ones with a saying, great for a prim home and nice to have sayings to remind us of the important lessons in life.

I really think I will make another, except that I will do the angel in wool and then stitched hair and saying. Maybe make it into a framed piece.

If you like this design, you can find under Patterns: Stitcheries: Angels. For the price of a design, you can stitch, punch or work it into a quilt or wool appliqué, not a bad deal for a wonderful design.