A Valentine Love Renewed: Recycled Crafting.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

I wanted to share one more valentine decoration before the day passes by.

Frames seem to be a weakness of mine.

When I see them at yard sales or second hand stores,

if they are unique and sturdy,

 I tend to want to pick them up for future projects.

 This frame held a unique piece of artwork: a paper crafted quilt (maybe paperclay?)

It was dated.

 It reminded me of when my sister loved making quilts back when we were teenagers in the 80's.

It was hard to think about just throwing it away,

so I thought I'd try to revive it for Valentines Day.

Using markers, I started carefully changing the quilt colors.

(Wouldn't it be nice if we could do this so easily with real quilts when they fade or our color scheme changes?)

I also painted the mat and background bright colors to go with our living room.

The finished quilt in a frame was set on one of the living room tables.

This addition was a lot less work than creating a new piece of artwork;

and it is kind sweet to think that somebody else's lovingly created piece

is given a second time around to be loved.

Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine's Day Decorating: True Love.

For some reason, Christmas seemed to go too quickly this year,

and the thought of taking the Christmas things off the mantel was disheartening.

I was ready for my everyday things I had in the summer.

So I thought we'd make the winter a bit more fun with some Valentine's Day decorations.

 I noticed that my kids seem to learn verses better when they see them around the house,

so I thought I would create something from some wonderful verses I wanted them to know in 

I Corinthians 13.

 

To create the verse hearts, I started by folding a paper in half

and drawing half a heart shape on it,

pushing the pencil hard so that the pressure of the line would go through.

I then outlined the lines of the heart to complete it.

Depending on the verse I was going to work on,

I used fatter hearts for ones that needed more wording in the middle of the verse,

or thinner hearts for verses that were shorter and could be broken up more.

I lightly drew some lines with a ruler to help keep me somewhat straight while lettering,

and began trying to place the wording in,

(this took several tries, not such an easy task)

 using letters at the beginning and end of words to make curls and swirls

to form the outside edges of the heart.

When I had the verse the way I liked,

I rubbed charcoal pencil on the back of the verse page,

laid it onto a larger sheet of good art paper,

traced the letters so that they would copy onto the good paper,

and then worked the lettering with red copic markers.

 

 The largest one, I did on a canvas with paints because it had a lot of wording in it,

and I knew it would be impossible for me to try to fit them all on smaller paper.

When finished, I took pictures of each so I could shrink them to whatever size I needed

and then printed them onto cardstock paper.

 

I had picked up frames from yard sales, the charity store, and an aunt who was getting rid of some,

so I used gold rub-on gilding paint from a tube to turn the two that were different colored into gold

and to touch up a few chipped spots on the others.

(I also rubbed it onto the decorative hearts also on the mantel).

 The other pieces on the mantel were all things we found at the second hand charity store for a very small price.

(I was actually going to paint the birds like peacocks since I have a thing for them right now,

but  my daughter liked them as they are.

It's nice to have the daughter's impute...sometimes. :) )

I have one more simple project I did to decorate the living room for Valentine's Day,

so I'll try to post that in a few days.

Thanks for stopping by!

(If you would like to use these verse prints below for yourself for decorating or cards,

I am happy for you to copy and print them;

just not for resale, please.)

 

Sharing at:
www.abowlfulloflemons.net
Tipjunkie.com

Using a Light Box to Transfer Doodles: Free Valentine Cards.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today I wanted to share a trick with you that I find very helpful for creating art from sketches.

I do this with some of my kids' sketches as well and make cards with them.

Sketches are often done on any paper that is handy.

I was sitting somewhere and wanted to get my kids' Valentines done,

so I used the paper I had available.

When I was ready to put them onto good paper,

I got out my light box: it is just a plastic box type thing with a light in it that plugs in.

Once I put the drawn image onto the light,

I put the good paper down on top of it.

The image shines through.

 Then I can trace the image onto the good paper.

 Once the image has been transferred, I usually outline it with a fine-tipped Prisma liner

(or any good fine-tipped pen or marker will do).

Here is how the images turned out.

(You are free to use these images as well, if you'd like,

just not for resale.)

Here are some colorized versions that are also free for use.

I did these with Copic markers.

 

 Here is how I used them for Valentines.

The light box is such a handy tool to have around.

Have a sweet Valentines Day!

(To copy these pages, click on the image, right click, and then click on "copy".

Open up Microsoft Word and right click on the screen, and then click "paste".

 The image should paste onto the page.

You can then click "print".

If you have difficulties or suggestions, please let me know.)