Jumbo clothespins and a sled

Well once the paintbrushes started to swish I really got back into painting sooner than later. Last year it was a lot later than sooner and I suffored for it. I had my dear hubs cut me out some more sleighs large and small and this is one of the sleds, and those huge clothespins are very popular to clip on recipes, notes or even a shopping list. I had those pins in my stash with something else painted on them and they were not  what I may say politely the best pattern, so I found a free pattern over at Renee Mullin's site and tried to download it. Well that was  a disaster, for some reason I kept getting a message saying IE couldn't find the page. Hmmm nothing blocked, I cleared my cache and cookies out so then I went to my most favourite group The Friendly Palette and those girls came to my immediate rescue.  2 girls sent me the pattern via email and 1 girl printed it off from work and it is enroute to me. What a great group of friends I have. Another painter always knows the stress it can cause if you can't have or get a pattern. Yikes, and you have to have it yesterday. LOL
So, to my Friendly Palette friends a huge thank you.
Til next time keep painting or creating or whatever it is that you do. Do with love and pride.
L

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A Terrye French Painting with Friends design

Well I am really into painting for my shows now and this one small 8x10 canvas is a very new pattern I found and purchased from the " NEW blog" Terrye French set up called Painting with Friends.

Terrye has been one of my favourite artists for Prim and Whimsical designs over the years I have been painting. Launching this new blog of hers is helping to promote those who love to paint her designs that she has created. Terrye sends the line drawing to another artist and she paints it then Terrye and the artist share the profits of the e-patterns sold. My friend Marie is one of the painters and has a few patterns already set up on this blog.
Anyways to make a rather long rambly story short I have a design I saw that I really liked and thought I would paint it on this canvas. I actually painted 2 of these so I would have some extra stock.

 I also have a couple more designs to do but I am just finishing up another small skinny sled and some Memo jumbo clothespin clips.I will post a pic of those in my next post.
Anyways if you are looking for some fun and primmy things to paint and want some hot off the press patterns, well E-patterns go take a peek at Painting with Friends, all the information regarding how to purchase them is right there on the blog.
Thanks for stopping by.
L

Some good news and some painting

First the good news, I finally heard that I am in  the Christian High School craft show this November. I had to find another outlet because of my show that I had been doing for years has come to an end. I have never been involved in a "juried" show so I was a little nervous as to what to expect. I had to get some pictures together to show the type of painting I do and submit with my paper work then wait and wait and wait. I finally heard last week that I was accepted and now I can carry on and paint. I don't intend to paint like a madwoman, I do have some physical limitations so I have to stretch myself out and rest between projects so for those who do shows and know the work and the stress that is involved, I have started early to get my inventory up and give me lots of time to organize and do things a bit differently from my Home Spun Hill show.
Even tho I wasn't sure I would be in this one ,I still maintained that I would be able to do a local community show down the road from here and so I had started a few things just in case.
You would think painting snowmen on hot summer days like we are having and humidity to drive you insane and thinking winter seems so long and dreary, I find it quite cooling to do these fellas and no matter what time of year it is, snowmen always make me smile. I paint a lot of snowmen and each one is different and never turns out the same twice.
So just relax, take a peek and enjoy my small collection I am about to share with you and please come back often.
I will be showing a few paper items in my next post, then I have considered taking a paper time out in August to just maybe paint and relax for the rest of the summer.
I hope you are enjoying the lazy days, bbquing and spending time with family and friends.


This is a Renee Mullins pattern that I have put onto a large canvas. I love the whimsical designs for winter and Christmas, they do sell well for me.

The next 2 sleighs are Monika Brint patterns. I adapted the original design to fit onto the sleds.  Hubs is going to make more for me so I can have several designs and colours to chose from. Yippeee

                                                                                

Next is a much smaller sled about 6 or 8 inches long with a Renee Mullins cat holding a red bird design. Her cats are so cute and being a cat lover I have to paint cats now and then

And last but not least a couple little paper mache boxes I had in my stash, every painter I know has a stash of goodies to paint on and I painted this Renee design. These would make a great teacher gift with some goodies, candies or even chocolates in them.

Thanks for dropping by and see you next time for some more arty fun. :)
L

Easy Masking Tape backgrounds tutorial

Well I haven't done a tutorial in ages and while my internet was askew I took some pics of a background I like to do for ATC's and inchies. This is probably one of my favourites, it is called faux leather, faux stone and probably a few other names besides. Most supplies you probably already have so let's get started.

First gather your supplies, masking tape, a work surface, ATC pre cut cards or inchies, I am using Twinkling H20's on one card, oil pastels for another, a tissue or soft cloth, a paintbrush some water and some paper towel for mopping up water from paint brush.

Take your masking tape and start tearing small pieces of it placing in on your card, overlapping and making sure you cover your cards completely.

Once the cards are completely covered with tape, take your scissors and trim the overhanging pieces so you now have a nice trimmed edge. you could just wrap the tape around and that is up to you but for ease here I have trimmed them.

The first card I am going to add my Twinkling H20 colours, as you know you have to dampen them to get them workable so you can add the water before you start ripping you tape, by then they should be ready to use. I have chosen 3 colours here, a dark blue, fuscia and a lime green. (sorry I don't have the brand colour names in front of me) you can do however many colours as you like.

I have more or less plotted the colours down but we will be blending them together to soften the hard edges with the paint brush. Clean your brush often and take the excess water from your brush by just touching the paper towel as you blend between colours. Running the colours too much together will result in a muddy paint colour and we don't want that.

Below is a close up of how the colours are blended. If you are happy with it at this point leave it and let it dry. If you want more intense colour, allow the original colours to dry then just spot the colours you want more intense in those areas and gently blend them.

The next card is done with oil pastels. I scribble around the outer edges but you can scribble anywhere on the card. I chose 4 colours, orange, pink, navy blue and purple.Select areas you want your colours, dont worry about being perfect as it won't look like this in the end. :)

Next now you are going to start blending the colours using your fingers. I use a different finger when I first start out for each colour. This helps to sort of lay a base of each colour down and then start blending edges so again you have no hard lines and one colour blends into the other. You will also start to see where the

colours go into the crevaces of the tape.

Next we are going to take a piece of tissue or soft cloth and I am going to show you how to hilight some of the areas on your card, this will lift some of the oil pastel but leave a lighter shade. Remember with pastels you can also scratch or scribble into them, this gives for interesting texture and visual interest.

Just randomly rub with the tissue here and there, you don't have to do the whole card but areas to give a light effect.

And last but not least I add a bit of a dark blue near some of the areas where the cracks from the overlapping tape are to give some depth to the background. It really makes the background pop.

Just add a very thin line of colour along some areas here and there and just blend it a bit with your finger.  And that is it. You now have 2 cards with different mediums to use for an ATC.

The cards below are examples I have made to show you what your masking tape background can do for you.

So go rob hubby's workshop or buy your own tape and get arty.

Thanks for dropping by.

L