Art for the Kitchen: Woodburned Wooden Spoons

The kitchen holds so much of our lives:

cooking, eating, washing dishes, chatting and laughter, playing games, singing...

It makes sense to fill our kitchens with things that we love, don't you think?  Since I can't always find those quirky things I have a liking for, creating some becomes the only option.

Having a Russian father, I have a special place in my heart for Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka dolls), which aren't always easy to find, so I decided to wood-burn one on my spoon..

Making Borscht will be extra fun now, I think.

Here is the process I use to go about wood-burning wooden spoons.

First I sketch the design I've chosen lightly with pencil.  I then begin wood-burning as if I was using a pen.  (There is not way to erase with a pen, so that is why it is more like drawing with a pen rather than a pencil.  There is no room for error so having a steady hand is necessary.)

Being careful 

1. not to let the wood-burner sit too long on any spot: this makes a deep, dark burn;

2. not to accidentally touch anywhere on the spoon with the tool where marks are not wanted because it can make marks rather quickly.

These are two tips that I had to learn the hard way.

When the burning is finished and you are satisfied with your burning, turn the wood-burning tool off and set it aside in a place where it can safely cool; it stays hot for a bit of time (and be sure to stop when you like it as it is: better to stop when it is satisfying than to continue and possibly make an un-fixable mistake).

Once you have made sure the spoon is also cooled, erase the pencil markings from the spoon.

Next I use coconut oil and rub it into the spoons.  I also have some beeswax around, so I rub in a small bit of that, too.  You just want to rub in an oil that wouldn't be harmful to eat as some will come off when you use it in cooking.  I have found rubbing coconut oil into my wooden spoons every few months helps to keep them from cracking.


The backs of the spoons are also fun to burn but be sure to do them before you rub the oil onto the spoon's front.

I enjoyed doing these spoons more than I expected, so I bought a selection at a kitchen store and burned them to sell at the Christmas craft sales.  These were fun to work on in the evening when the kids were in bed and I was sure to have quiet (and no bumping).

I got some ideas from Pinterest, some from calendars or cards, some from things I have enjoyed drawing before.  The scope of ideas is endless!

 

 

 

I think these chickens were from a design I saw on a piece of material; I liked their quaint simplicity.

 

 

 

 I did not sell all of the spoons, so some were great to give away in Christmas gift bags.

 I had fun making these and I'm sure you might, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

Photo Christmas Ornaments

Personalized gifts are always great for giving smiles.

This year I created a bunch of picture ornaments for friends and family using facebook pictures that they posted.  Of course, the pictures are not ones that are copyrighted, and most of them were profile pictures at one time or another during the year, so I figured they would be good choices.

I thought I would explain the process, in case somebody would like to make some themself,

even though there is only a day left to get em' done...

so sorry!

Plan ahead for next year, I guess. :)

I posted a video of it, because it is much easier to explain and understand that way.

I hope the video helps.  If it doesn't or you have any questions,
please let me know,

I printed up a bunch of pictures I wanted to use.

Let me just say right here that if you plan to create photo ornaments,
using photo paper is definitely the best choice.

Below I show what the images look like three different experiments.

The one furthest right is regular all purpose paper and I set the printer for fast print.
The image is obviously faint.
The middle image was done on photo paper, but the ink was still on fast print.
It is much better, but still not as clear as I wanted.
The one to the left is photo paper set to normal printer setting.
This image was great so I made the pictures using this.

As soon as the pictures are printed on photo paper, I take them to a well ventilated place and spray a good misting of aerosol hair spray on them.

I do this because I find that even the slightest touch on these images on the photo paper makes some of the ink rub off.





That misting of hair spray will not affect the picture at all,
but helps the ink be a bit more stable for handling.


Once the hair spray dries,
I prefer to mod podge the pages of images before proceeding with cutting them out.

I did not do this with my first few photos:
I actually glued them to the canning jar lids I was using first
and then Mod podged them.



This is perfectly fine to do, but I just find that Mod podging them first guarantees that the ink will not smear when cutting and gluing them to the ornament,
and it also is much easier to paint on a whole page than to paint a bunch of smaller ornaments.

When Mod podging, the secret is to be quick and smooth about applying it to the photo paper.
Mod podge dries quickly and if you happen to put mod podge over an area that is mostly dry but not completely, I have found it can make a slight haze on the image.  Paint the Mod podge on and then leave it alone to dry for a half hour. If you see any areas you have missed, do a second coat once you are sure the first coat is dry.  This will prevent any haze on the picture.



Because we can much of our garden foods and fruit,
we have lots of lids that are great for these ornaments.
Other jar lids work well also.  I made a few of them up as well to show you.

First though, we need to make a template to cut those photos out to fit the lids.



I found some plastic from some sticker pages we got and traced the jar lids on them
(I had base-coated the jar lids with some durable paint:
I use Martha Stewart's glass or all-purpose paint
and I also used some acrylic paint mixed with just a touch of Plaster-of-Paris.
Both of these worked well.)


After I traced the jar lids onto the plastic,



I cut them out, slightly smaller so as to fit on the lid with a small border around.
I then traced the outer edge of the plastic so I could better see the outer edge
(Also, I have a tendency to drop these plastic guides and then can't find them as they disappear from my eyesight.)

I then trace the circle size I want onto the photo I want for that ornament.
(Yes, this was the first circle template I made and DID NOT color the outside edge
which disappeared shortly thereafter somewhere in the unknown near vicinity).

After getting the image to the size I wanted,
I applied a good layer of tacky glue on the underside,
positioned it on the ornament,
and then placed a weight (a bottle or paint or nail polish works well) on top to help it adhere well while drying.


Once dried, I then added a glitter border or whatever I felt would help make it look more festive.

For some of these, I used ribbon to attach for hanging.
For most, I used a nail and hammer and carefully tapped a hole in one side,
then tapped the nail in carefully through the same hole from the back side.
(This helps make the hole evenly open and helps to dull the rough edges the first puncture makes of the metal on the back side.)

A string or wire can then be strung for hanging.


Here are some examples:

For our own family,
I printed up a few of my favorite pictures from the year
and glued one on each side of the ornament.

(These were all created from regular jar lids in this picture above).

It will be nice to have those memories remembered each year when we get the ornaments out to hang on the tree.





They look fun hanging from the tree.

(This one was also a regular jar lid).

I had some artwork that I sold that I had taken pictures of
and created an ornament from one of those pieces.

Printing up vintage or other fun images from sites that post free images is a great option, too.

(The vintage ice-skaters is an image from the Graphics Fairy.)



Because I have 12 nieces and nephews, buying gifts for all of them can be a pretty hefty effort,
so I try to find something little each year.
This year, I made them each a personalized ornament.

Because my 2 sisters and I don't live near each other,
using family pictures from facebook made creating ornaments for my parents much easier.

Of course, baby's first Christmas is always a good one to have:
friends and family always love these, and
it is nice that there are lots of great photos of that baby right there on facebook albums.

These ornaments are easy and very inexpensive to create
as well as a lot of fun.

(Make sure the images you use are not copyrighted, of course,
and that the person you use them from will not mind).


Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by
and may you have a Merry Christmas!




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Free Illustration: Vintage Snow Scene.

Hello, friends.

In my previous post of the Christmas Home Tour,

I mentioned a slate that I had painted using a scene from an old book that I had.

This is the scene above from a late 1800's publication.

I cleaned it up in black and white:

Here is an antiqued version as well.

It is such a great image, isn't it?

I just had to try coloring it in with my Copic markers.

Here are the markers that I used (for Copic fans who are like me and just want to know crazy details like this).

Here is the way it turned out:

The picture turned out a bit dark so I lightened it.

Here is an antiqued version of the photo editor fixes:

I liked it, but wanted a bluer version of it for a craft I was making:

I am making some Christmas cards with this image,

so I kept playing with it in different colors.

Here are the ones I liked best:

You are free to use any of these images as you'd like since the copyright was not in effect in the late 1800's.

I printed up small versions of these and glued them to magnet backing

and then Mod Podged the images.  That way when people get the card,

the picture can be removed and used on their refrigerator, if they wish.

In a day or two, I will show how to paint/draw a simple nativity scene,

like the one I did below on this magnet on a card.

Anybody can do it, so come on back if you'd like.

Thank you for stopping by!

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