Art Lesson: Watercolor Painted Vintage Wall Art

I was feeling the need to make my mantel sing of spring,

so I dug up these old wooden oval pieces I had once painted on and decided I did not like.

I decided to paint the edging of these ovals in black.

I found some vintage images on the Graphics Fairy of birds and printed them up in the center of each page by pasting them into Word and situating them to the size and place that I wanted them.

 (We've had a visiting blue jay to our yard in the last 2 weeks who is as blue of a blue jay I have ever seen).

I wanted to add a bit of color, so I splashed water all over the page with a paint brush

and then added some blue

and then some touches of red.

 Once that had settled into the paper a little bit,

I began painting the bird with a darker and less watered down blue.

 I filled in the leaves, branch, and flowers as well.

 Once the jay was done, I followed the same process for the Robin picture.

It is always a nice break to just paint an image that is already all drawn up for you.

Who doesn't love a bit of coloring-book style painting?

 I let these dry thoroughly and then cut them to fit into the oval shapes

(I did this by tracing the full oval shape onto the page and then cutting it down evenly on all sides until it fit, but a piece of tracing paper would also work to be more precise.

Laying it into the frame and running a pencil around the inside edge carefully should work).

Once I had them cut, I spread glue all over the backs of the images and then pasted them into the ovals, using paint containers to hold the image down on all the edges.

 Wanting a more vintage look, I heated some water and, using a damp teabag,

dabbed the warmed tea bag all over the image until it was stained as I wanted.

(This could also be done before gluing the image into the frame).

 The teabag was so used up, it cracked at bit and shed some bits of tea onto the images,

but I left them there to dry to add more character.

Once dried, I painted two coats of Mod Podge, allowing the first coat to dry completely before applying the second coat.

I then applied a squeeze of Martha Stewarts all purpose gloss paint from the bottle it comes in around the edges to make them look sealed in to the frame.  I used a paint brush to carefully brush it in and a few damp q-tips to clean up any smears.

Here they are all finished.  Can you see the difference with the Mod Podge?

The shine makes them look more like framed pictures.

I then put some frame wall hangers on the backs of the bird art

and hung them over the mantel in the living rooom

They added a touch of quaint, older looking decor to the wall with no expense at all:

I just recycled and used the supplies that I had...

aren't those the best kinds of projects?

Have you added any spring to your home this season?

I am still working on the bee picture.

It is coming along pretty well, but I am trying to wait until it is all finished before I share the processes I tried with it.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Purple Polka Dot Wreath for Our Spring Door.

Hello!

Have  you been enjoying the weather in your part of the world?
I have been busy digging up plants from my gardens.

The long winter made their appearance even more enjoyable this year.

I decided to stop for a few minutes and update the wreath on the door since it was still wearing a Christmas wreath: it definitely needed some spring colors.

My daughters helped me pick out some purple polka dot material that caught our eyes.

Our wreath was a simple project that cost us less than ten dollars:

• 1 yard of material for $2.99 yd

• burlap wired ribbon 5 yards at $.69 per yard

• two flower bunches that were on sale for $1.39 each.

I began by cutting a circular shape from a large, unfolded cardboard box,

cutting the inside of the circle as well.

I then used some packing tape to secure bunched up plastic bags to the front of the cardboard circle.

I also cut strips of the polka dot fabric about 4 inches wide.

I then wrapped the strips around the bag-faced circle,

tucking the ends in underneath itself to secure.

When the circle was completely covered, I then wrapped the burlap ribbon loosely around the fabric covered wreath and then tucked the flower sticks securely into them.

I attached a bit of wire to the back of the wreath and hung it on the door.

With the left-over fabric, I tore small square to set on top of an old bench I painted with left-over purple paint from my daughter's room.

(Of course, they thought the bench was BEAUTIFUL!  They never tire of purple.)

    

A purple polka dot wreath is a diversion from digging in the dirt...

and certainly makes the place look more welcoming of spring.

Thank you for stopping by.  If you can, be sure to make some time to bring cheerful colors of spring to your home.  They are moments well spent.

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Art Lesson: Painting Vines, Leaves, Flowers on Furniture.

Hello!

Last time I showed how I got the veneer surface off this piece of furniture.

Today for the art lesson, I am going to show a simple vine, leaf, flower combination I have painted on tables and chairs and other surfaces that I have sold.

 

Each person has their own style and ability, so I am sure there is a million ways to do this.

Here is how I went about it.

First I measured the top of the surface I was painting.

 
This, generally speaking, is the hardest part for me,
trying to figure out exactly how many inches to put in each section so it is even.

Eventually, it gets figured and I step back and look at it to make sure it looks like it is supposed to.

I used chalk to lightly draw the lines.

 Once I had the lines right, I started laying down the Frog tape.

(Frog tape works great because it makes a very clear edge without bleeding
and without pulling up the paint underneath).

I find this can be tricky because there are two sides to a line so one has to either lay the tape right down the center line or choose one of the sides to lay it on.

When chosing a side to lay the tape on,

there are points the will have to be adjusted,

such as the smaller squares on the inside of the larger ones here.

I just add a slight layer of thickness because I felt the squares would look slightly off if I laid the tape right down the middle.

Of course, there is probably some mathematical way to fix this,

but I figured my vines and leaves once painted would hide any slight differences.

 I gathered the acrylic paints that I needed and mixed up some brown for the vines.

 For the vines, I begin painting "C" shapes and curly cues in a grouping.

I have found that less is better because if it seems empty later, more can be added.

Too much is harder to remedy.

 (Some of the vines are more red and some are more green, depending on how well I mixed the paint together, but I don't let that bother me too much...

I tell myself it looks more realistic if the vines have variation of color.

Please tell me I am not the only one who talks to themselves while painting.)

 Next I take a light green and randomly paint leaves along the vines.

 By the time I get the leaves done,

there are usually some dried ones to start with when I am ready to paint some flowers on.

For flowers, I start with a circle of dots for the petals.

Once the petals are dried, I go back and paint in the centers,

yellow or orange or a dirty yellow brown for some.

 To give the leaves dimension, I go back with a slightly darker color green and dab a little in the center or to one side of the leaf on some of the leaves.

I step back and look as I work, adding more vines, leaves, or flowers wherever I think some are needed until it looks done.

 After waiting twenty-four hours, I then take a rag and dampen it with stain.

With gloved hands, I wiped it onto the surface.  I then rubbed it around,
 being sure to cover the entire surface and edges,

and then wiped it off.

I sometimes use a brush, but this usually gives a much darker look to the stain,

and I wanted a very light look for this piece.

This piece is going to be used to hold all the videos and DVD's we have for the television.

 I love how they stack up so nicely on their sides and are easy to locate and to put back.

It is nice to see some progress in this room and this piece really gives some good storage and charm that the pressed board book shelf that was here before did not.

Here is a video of painting the vines, leaves, and flowers

if you are life me and enjoy watching things done
(Sorry about the jarring ending...I am still trying to figure out the videoing on my camera).

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have some fun renewing a piece of furniture or something creative for your home or room or wherever you are.

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Christmas Trees from Coffee Bags.

Last year I was desperate for some new winter trees for my decorating,

but I didn't want to buy them: I wanted to create some trees with recycled supplies.

I rummaged through the cupboards looking for inspiration.

I had some empty bottles of paint, found some coffee bags with a pretty silver lining,

 grabbed a few rags from the rag bin,

and heated up the glue gun.

 I covered and glued the old bottles with rag that I wrapped around it.

I fitted and glued a strip of cut coffee bag around the base,

silver lining facing out.

After cutting more of the silver lining into strips, I fringed them;

I glued them in place as I circled the strips around the ragged bottle.

I fitted these all the way up the bottle and finished off the top row to look like a tree top.

 I made another tree with a  second empty, smaller bottle of paint,
and an empty coffee bag

(relocating the beans to a canister).

I followed the same process with this bottle

except the strips for this one were cut into pennant shapes.

These made fun, different trees for my Christmas decor...

without having to buy any supplies to see them made.

 Isn't it great when trash can be turned to treasure with a few snips and drops of glue?

Have you made any recycled decor for your Christmas decorating?

I would love to hear about it!

Thank you for stopping by.

 
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Christmas Home Tour: Home-made Christmas

Hello!

It is the time of year that many bloggers are sharing home-tours of their festive houses for Christmas,

so I thought I would join in.

Welcome to our home.

To say that I love our 1850 stone farm house is to say that I actually never dreamed I would live in something like it.  The story of how we came to own it is a host of answered prayers.
I need to write it down sometime, especially for the kids.

Of course, having all these animals wandering about is just icing on the cake:
such sweet feathered friends

(well, maybe not so much in the summer when they scratch the mulch from my flower beds).

 The quaintness and quirks of old houses seem to go hand-in-hand.

The thick outside walls and the fireplaces (which were built inside the home to help make the house warmer) uses up more inside space, making this living room smaller.

Of course, this also makes those wonderful deep window sills.

 This room has become a variety of things:
living room, wall cupboard full of school/art supplies,
music room,
and there is a little table on the other side of the piano for my daughter to do her schoolwork.






Isn't it funny that when young, we have ideas of how we will do things.

I remember thinking that someday I would have beautiful store-bought Christmas decorations,
leaving behind the colorful home-made creations we'd made to cover our tree as kids.


Then I grew up and found that I prefer the home-made ornaments over those that are either too fancy or too plastic.

This year, my 11 year old daughter helped me make the snowflake garland out of heavy paper, glue, and glitter: we'll wrap them carefully when Christmas passes and see if they can be used again in coming years.

The red horse bookends were picked up at a charity store: their gold color had chipped paint,
exposing the plaster they are made of.

(I mixed up some red paint with plaster-of-Paris to cover the slight gauges and painted them a cheerful red.)

  For the Christmas season, they put on some old greenery I had from a broken candle garland.

I painted the slate for the craft sale this year and hung it here when it didn't sell.
It is painted from an old image I found in one of my vintage books.

(I will post the image in a few days for others to use: it is too pretty not to share).

The white trees on the mantel are made of cereal boxes.

 

They were cut and pasted, painted with several coats of a thick mixture of white paint and plaster-of-Paris,

allowed dry for about a week, and then painted with glue and doused with glitter.

They were last year's craft.

The green pine trees in the old silver sugar and creamer are artificial moss covered cardboard cones.

I didn't want to part with the sugar and creamer, so they were salvaged for these trees.

The grapevine star was decorated with a rusty canning jar lid,

rimmed with red paint.

The stars are made from toilet paper roll cardboard.

I sliced them, painted them red, crinkled them into star shapes,

painted glue on them, and then covered them with clear glitter.

(I hope to post how to fold these star shapes easily in the coming days.)

We got our tree from my sister who planted about 100 of them a few years back.

I left it unpruned, opting for the natural, wild look

(If I admit that it just slipped my mind until I saw these pictures,

does that count as wanting the natural look?)

The kids helped me decorate the tree with our 'colorful' variety of ornaments.

There is an assortment of canning jar lid ornaments.

Because we can so much of our food, it is hard to just throw away all those little discs when I pop them off the jars.  Some of them usually end up getting made into something.

(I hope to share a post in the coming days of my canning jar lid ornaments...

for any of you out there who are as much of a pack-rat.

I am sure many of the same ideas could be used for regular jar lids).

(The striped table in the center of the room was one I found for free by the side of the road and painted up.  The rocking chair was my husband's grandfather's chair.)

The snowman painted cupboard door was another craft sale unsold item that my daughter claimed.

It sits on the window by her school table.

The old frontier house was created by my husband's grandfather.

These silver trees are made from something recycled.  Can you guess?

 I have a visual step by step I hope to post sometime soon for these as well. 

The snowman was made from a styrofoam ball covered with newspaper papier mache'

and then painted.

These music-box carolers are in the window near my daughter's school area.

I got them somewhere and the head was broken off of the child.

I crafted a new head as well as the baby in the mother's arm from some clay a few years back

so that they would better fit our family size.

 They were a gift to my daughter who likes musical decorations.

(Don't look too closely: it was my first attempt at crafting with that clay and it is a bit rough.  She liked it, so we keep it).

 This little dresser was one a friend gave to me to refinish.

The sled is from a yardsale and I filled it with some greenery.
The older lady I bought it from said her son had made it for her.
I love that it was home-made.

Let's go in the room that gets the most use.

In our kitchen, I used real evergreens pieces.
It's funny because the lady who used to own our farm just sent a Christmas card today.
She mentioned that they used to cut a tree from the farm every year for their Christmas tree,
but that they were probably too big now to use for that.

Yes, they are about 20 feet tall now,
but I trim some of the branches for use in here, so they still make it inside to spread their cheer.

By the time Christmas gets here,
they may need to be replaced or their cheer may be shedding needles,
but I have found it is just as easy to clean up the mess and throw it outside
than to store it all in the attic.

I have to admit also that I am usually so busy trying to get things done for Christmas,

I don't dust all these high places before I put up the boughs.

It will get done after Christmas because the dried boughs will make it happen.

The kitchen windows are so sunny in this house.

I love the kitchen.

I sewed the curtains from an old torn table cloth that was my grandmother's.

Isn't the color of old cobalt blue pottery stunning?

 I made the trees by the blue pitcher below as well.

Perhaps I will get that tutorial on here before this season is passed.

The red cereal cupboard is topped with old pieces from several relatives.

I change the plant piece in the old bottle

as well as the picture in the glass canning jar lid depending on the season.

I found this sweet candy cane image from the Graphics fairy,

printed it on tan paper, cut it into the circle shape,
and then crinkled and finished it by tea-staining it.

The top part of this cupboard was one my aunt found

 and gave me.  My husband found recycled cupboard doors that fit and attached them for me,

and then I painted it.

The bottom half was purchased at a yard sale.

(The top surface was badly chipped veneer,
so we pulled it up

and I painted a slate look on it with some slight images of birds and vines.)

Off of the other side of the kitchen is the office.

Two of the pictures on the wall are silhouettes of our children painted on the glass of old frames purchased at a yard sale.

I put just a few things in the bathroom to make it festive:
a gift from my father.






The house was a gift from my daughter when she was nine.
Her hard earned dollars were used to buy it,
and I think it is sweet next to a vintage tree.


(The dragon verse on the chalkboard hopefully will be changed before Christmas.
It was put on there for my son...one of his favorite subjects right now.
I hear him reading it every time he goes in there, so I hate to change it yet.)




The window in the office looks back on what used to be the back porch,
but it is now enclosed and our real "living" room.

(This small white tree was rescued from the charity store and put into a pot with some plaster-of-Paris to give it a new base.
I consider it my tree: I decorate it with some simple ornaments we made that have more of a the vintage look that I like.)

The back porch is big and sunny;
 It is my favorite room.

This table is where I teach school
and is most often graced with books and crafts.

We do clear it off and have holiday meals out here;
the table gets turned long-ways to fit more people.

 

The view is so peaceful.
 




I remember everyday for a month or more coming out here when we first moved in and pinching myself to see if it was real.





I don't decorate much out here except this corner
and the table when it is set for Christmas dinner.

My sewing machine sits in front if this window looking into the office.


I wanted snowflakes to hang here.
The plastic snowflakes looked too...
well, plastic,
so I made these from the cardboard in paper towel rolls.
I sliced and then curled them like quilling;
glued and painted;
then painted glue and dipped them in clear glitter.







Thank you for stopping by.

This was a long post:
I'm hoping it showed that even the simplest things can be turned into cozy creations for the home,
or at least personalized decorations...

all to suit your own style.

I love the things we have made and the home God has allowed us to live in.
The challenge of using little to create it has been rewarding...
and fun.

If you don't come by again,
I hope you have a joyous, Merry Christmas!





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