Musical Chairs 2016

Here is a chair that was done for a charity event, Musical Chairs, benefiting the Northern California Symphony. Basically chairs are donated and artist give them a new life. Some chairs are made from scratch, like metals and wood and are completely lovely. Mine is a simple take on refinishing and giving new life to an old chair. This chair was done with chalk paints and napkins. I remembered that I needed a "before" pic after I already started painting so here it is.

Here are the after pictures.

Canning Peaches

Oh, I just can't stand the cuteness. Every year I do some canning for the holidays. This year I'm on a peach kick. Then while trolling through Pinterest I saw the cutest little tags for canning jars and I knew I just had to have some! So break out your Sizzix and let the fun begin. These are so much sweeter looking with these little tags attached don't you think? Needless to say all my canned goodies will be sporting these darling ID tags.

American Gothic? ACEO Watercolor Painting

Here is another ACEO, ACEO's are Art Cards Editions and Originals. They are the same size as a baseball cards and just as collectible.This is an original (also known as an OOAK "one of a kind") watercolor painting.  I have a whole slew of these little bird paintings I've done with just about every theme imaginable. This one just happens to correspond with some recent events and people in my life so I thought I'd share.

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Yellow Roses and Grapes on a Porcelain Platter

I haven't made anything new in a few days so I thought I'd post this pic that shows part of the process for doing porcelain painting. The first shot shows the line drawing done with a green Sharpie with the first layer of wet paint. The second shows the platter after it has been kiln fired, the ink from the Sharpie fires off in the kiln, there is also a bit of new color added. The platter is then fired again. The painting process continues in this fashion of layering and firing until you achieve the effect that you are looking for. The last shows the finished painting. I wish I had more pictures between the 2nd and 3rd painting. I'm guessing there may have been 2-3 more firings before achieving the final look but you get the idea.

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Magazine Rack / Table Makeover

I found this cute little magazine rack with a table top that was very unloved. It was wobbly, needed some minor repairs and a face lift. I knew right away this was a perfect piece for me to bring a  new life to. It was also a perfect piece for me to work on my brush stroke work.

I glued her, sanded her, painted her a nice robins egg blue. Trimmed her in a nice cream color and accented her with neutral colors. A little rough sanding around the edges, some antiquing, and a bit of varnish brought this sweet little table back into the fold.

I still need to apply another coat of varnish but I couldn't wait to share.  I don't know how I ever learned to paint without first learning brush strokes...but I did, so now I'm going backwards and learning some stroke work. This is the first piece that I tried the technique on. The pattern comes from a book by Maureen McNaughton.

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Cute Little Hand Stitched Lumbar Pillow

I've been crazy busy but I managed to make this cute little pillow. Following the theme of green and lavender I thought it was time to add some type of textile to the mix. I thought a little lumbar pillow would be a good choice. Something small enough for just about any chair in your home or office...maybe even in the car.

When I finished it, it seemed a bit plain and it needed something special, something out of the ordinary added to it. I'm not a ruffle type of girl, besides that would have been too typical, so I decided to add a primitive touch to the pillow with some cute little hand stitching that mimics the floral pattern. All in all I'm satisfied with this little piece. Cute Cute Cute!

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Porcelain Perfume Bottle with Roses

I finished another little lavender and green trinket for my upcoming display. It's been a while since I've painted open roses on porcelain. It's an adorable shaped bottle though, small, round and squatty, kind of like me. ;-)

I'm thinking my display needs something to soften the look so maybe I'll work on a small pillow or quilt to round things out. I think after that this mini display project will more than likely be complete but we'll see.