It's been given a new life

Hi everyone,

well I have finally finished the cabinet I kept telling you about. It took me just over 2 weeks with many coats of base coating then painting the design.

This cabinet or whatever you want to call it came from a local school my hubs was working at and it was destined for the dumpster. It has been in the school forever one of the other Custodians said so my hubs asked if he could have it thinking I might be able to do something with it. 

I have a lot of pics here so please bear with me. 

Here is a sneak first of the theme I went with....

 This piece is so old, looks like it was from the 70's maybe. It sure is beat up, whatever could I do with it to spruce it up? Hmmmmmm

2 larger drawers to put craft tools in like heat gun, paper punches, rulers, stencils......and......more stuff.....

 Inside is really roomy with deep and wide shelves....

And

And what is this??? cat napping???, hey, there is work to be done here. No sleeping on the job. 

Rosie never left me the whole time I was cleaning up and painting this cabinet. She walked on it, interrupted me several times to get pets and wanting her whiskers painted. She just loved this piece.and of course the odd drink out of the paint water.....never mind if it had been used a bit.

 I added large sunflowers to the front and top as you can see and added some insects for interest and to make the eyes wander around. I also used a stencil I have had for years to help fill some of the space. 

 And a little bumblin bumble bee here and there because I know for a fact they love sunflowers when we plant them....

 And here is the final pic of the finished piece. I painted the sides the same colour as the drawers and it looks really sort of artsy fartsy. The sunflower on the front right corner goes over the side and it looks really nice against the Straw colour I used. I also shaded the drawers and sides along the edges. I did not however paint the inside as I will be putting things in and taking them out a lot so no need to paint then have it all scuffed up. I may find some liner paper to line the shelves with. The drawers are painted and I hope I won't regret that down the road. The base colour is an off white but it really looks white here. I was thinking of antiquing it a bit to tone it down and I may still do that. 

It was brutally hot here when I was doing this and I have never experienced in all the years I have been painting how fast the paint was drying. If I made a mistake or put paint somewhere I didn't want it I had to have a damp cloth int hand at all times because there was no real give with this much heat. 

I am happy with the results and poor Rosie is missing it being in the middle of the kitchen. It is nicely stocked with my scrap paper, Cuttlebug, and all my other crafty stuff. No bags of this  and containers of that sitting around in neat piles. 

This was fun and so glad hubby saw this, he is a great guy that way. 

Thanks for looking and take a peek around, if you can still use something give it new life. We have enough stuff going to the trash these days.

Next project, some primitive cats on canvas.

Have a super weekend...

♥♥♥

So long SOC-wk6

Hello friends. 

I cannot believe week six of the Summer of Colour is here and this concludes the Ice Cream Inspiration challenge that our graceful host Kristin has created. It has been fun, inspiring and so wonderful to see many types of art and craft work done by so many talented artists.

This last weeks colour inspiration is....Watermelon Ice

apparently the black chunks here are bits of chocolate. Doesn't this look so refreshing.

 And here is my take on this weeks colour. It sure looks very pink here in the photo. I painted water colour paper using a mask and water colour paints. I added some brown using a sequin waste piece and acrylic paint. I found this anonymous quote over at the Quote Garden under the crayon heading. 

I have really enjoyed this challenge and it is so much fun to see some of my sketches transform from graphite to colour. 

Thank you everyone who has dropped by and left wonderful comments over the last 6 weeks and a special thank you to Kristin for organizing each week of colour prompts and the weekly prizes we are all eligible to win.

I am going to take a break from challenges now as I start to prepare for my fall craft shows. I am starting early this year.

I have also been working on upcycling an old dresser and I finally finished it today. It has been almost 2 weeks of painting but I am really happy with it. It will be part of my craft storage for all those bits and bobs that pile up and stashes you need to hide away when company comes.

It has been brutally hot and paint was drying very fast but it is now done and I can't wait to share with you the final result. 

Stay tuned.....

♥♥♥

A Couple Altered Tags

Hi everyone,

on the weekend I was playing with some shipping tags and thought I would share with you what I made.

I used Distress inks for the background, white acrylic paint, Stickles, dripped and dabbled Ditto Shimmer sprays (they have a nice shimmer to them), added some glossy accents, dyed some seam binding and gathered it on the mermaid tag.Sea shells, and micro beads were also added.

I miss doing tags and ATC's so when I do them, I really go for it and enjoy it quite a bit. I think because they are smaller canvases and they don't take days to do, although some ATC's I really think about them for a while to conjure up an idea.

This tag is for the Yahoo group Gecko Gals Paper crafting Group, Bathing beauty challenge. I just snuck her in on the deadline.

I used a bit of sandpaper at the base to give some texture and interest. And a real mini sea shell on her head. I also coloured her bathing suit with pencil crayons and gave her some rosie cheekers.

 I still need to think of something witty for this one. I am thinking something about turning into a prince if you kiss me.....I know weird sense of humor. I am in a tag swap over at Tee's The Altered Paper later in the month which prompted both these tags so this one is probably going to my swap partner, not sure who that is yet but it will be fun to send. 

I am also working on a mini hutch my hubs was able to bring home free from work. It is old and has been around the block but he salvaged it for me and thought I could put my piles of craft supplies in it. I think he was hinting to put it away. Being in a small house, space can be limited but I need to keep it all together and more organized, so, I am all finished base coating it so just thinking what to put on it for design. I need to finish it up soon. I have to start painting for my shows and need to start a little earlier this year.

Thank you for stopping by.

♥

SOC week 5, Wild and Reckless

Hello everyone,

wow week 5 of Summer of Colour and it will be over very soon. This has been a fun and very creative experience for me as I am working with wonderful colours and putting my sketching skills to use. I did another ice cream girl for this week. 

Look at this colour prompt Kristin chose for us to use this week...isn't it yummy?

It is called Wild and Reckless, another Baskin Robbins special.

I drew this girl in my sketch book recently and decided I would scan her then print her on script scrap paper. Well after she came out I noticed the paper was upside down, no big deal, you can't stress when things like this happen, it just makes for more interest and makes people think, why is it upside down? No reason, it just happened. So I took all these yummy colours and painted the girl and  the background in washes of acrylic paint, I more or less pounced on the colours for easier blending. into one another on the background. My lime green wasn't bright enough for my liking so I got out the watercolours and painted right over the lime green and it really made the lime green pop more. I also dripped some of my new Ditto ink sprays which have a nice shimmer . I didn't want to spray the whole background so I just took the sprayer out of the bottle and dabbed and dripped a bit here and there then smudged with a tissue. I also pounced some of the other acrylic colours on to add interest. As you can see I also had to add my homemade texture to this using a dollar store sticky back stencil. The girl's dress has scrap paper that had these same wonderful colours and I added some jewels to her neckline and painted a white flower lime green and dabbed a bit of ink on it. I really love how this one turned out. She will be going into my SOC Ice Cream inspiration mini journal. 

Thank you for stopping by. Don't forget to visit Kristin's blog for links to lovely art and creations during this very creative SOC Ice Cream Inspiration.

TTFN 

♥♥♥
Not sure what is going on with the white background....this has happened  before and is not intentional.

Summer of Colour Week 4

Hard to believe we are already at week 4 and here is the Ice Cream inspiration for this week for

  Summer of Colour ....

Strawberry Lemonade.

Never had this flavour but I bet it is yummy. That lemonade screams lush at me.

And here I have made 2 girls enjoying these 2 wonderful colours together, yellow and pink. When I was blending the colours together on my paper they sort of created a bit of an orange in places but I left it to add interest and a bit more splash of colour. I didn't go with a pale palette here, I chose bright bold colour and I do really like it. 

I have a little chipboard journal all ready to put my Ice Cream girls in so will be working on that after the challenge to gesso and prep the chipboard a bit.

Here I used all acrylics and drew my own faces because I am really loving my Suzi Blu inspired girls. I just did a bit of stencilling on the background, it needed something and I used my homemade texture paste and you can find the tutorial here for it. Someone asked me if it lasts very long and I can tell you I made it a week ago and it is still pliable and I did have to add a drop or two of water but it is just fine. 

And you think this week was fun....I can't wait for next week, I am crazy about this Ice Cream Inspiration for week 5....take a peek, doesn't it scream at you.....I could stare at these colours all day....

Wild and Reckless Sherbet......look at that turqouise, pink and lime colour, I even see bits of purple....

Thank you so much for dropping by and if you have a bit of spare time go take a peek at the links provided over at Kristin, our gracious hostess for this challenge, blog to see some amazing art and crafts inspired by these wonderful Ice Cream colours.

Til next time....have an ice cream and be creative.

♥