First Day of Fall

I believe it’s the first official day of fall and this is the last hot day we’ll have for awhile. It will definitely feel like fall later tonight and tomorrow. We were under a severe thunderstorm watch all afternoon with a chance of tornado but it bypassed this area. However, there was a tornado east of here with lots of damage….and quite close to where one of my daughter’s lives. Luckily they are all okay. Scary weather for sure.

Today I’m posting a painting instead of a card. I found this pattern on the Internet years ago and just had to paint it. It hangs on our front porch every September.

 

        This is about a 9’ piece of plywood that was first primed with a light coat of Varathane. This is a must if painting on wood or the paint just absorbs right into the wood. Unfortunately I’m not sure what paint company had it on their project list and it’s been so long now it’s likely been removed. I use acrylic paint from various companies and they all work just fine except the real cheap ones...Apple Berry is one...their paint is so thin its more like a stain so I avoid that one. Once it was dry I put on another light coat of Varathane; let it dry; lightly, very lightly and quickly, sand it and then another coat of Varathane…sometimes three coats with a quick and light sanding in between. The sanding makes it very smooth but you need a light touch.

So Happy Fall everyone! Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back on Monday with a card.

Cheers

Violet

Happy New Year and New Project Finished

Happy New Year! Here’s wishing everyone the best year ever!

Still Cold in Canada! We cannot remember this many bitter cold days in a row and it’s not going to end for about another week yet! It’s -13C (-8.6F) right now but feels like -22C (-7F). The lower studio (aka the basement) has been too cold for me to sit there for long but I did manage to paint another skating snowperson welcome sign….but short sittings at one time so it took several days to actually finish it….and this is not how I like to work but at least I got it finished. Now this is pretty basic tole painting – not fine art! A friend gave me some of her snowpeople patterns but no instructions or coloured copies so I pretty much just made it up as I went along. Here it is:

This is an old piece of slate. It’s very hard to drill the holes through it and I had to buy a special bit for my drill but I do manage to get through them. If you are working on slate I strongly suggest you drill the holes before painting in case they shatter or chunks peel off…yes, it happens.

I do more refined art pieces on occasion. Here is an old milk can I painted for someone.

He wanted the Blue Water Bridge between Sarnia, ON and Port Huron, MI. the way it looked back in the 60’s when he was a kid there. I found an old postcard, sketched it out and painted it for him. I have two milk cans of my own that my daughter gave me that are waiting to be painted but for some odd reason, I have not finished them. Maybe this year….maybe.

I painted this mirror for the downstairs bathroom. Yup, that's me in the reflection taking a picture of it! 

That’s all for a cold and boring New Year’s Day…..neither one of us likes football so the television has not been on at all today. I’ll be back on Wednesday with a card.

Cheers

Violet

Remembrance Day and a Cheery Card

Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada. I attended the service at the cenotaph along with a lot of other people – in spite of the fact it was cold, windy, raining and even thunder and one bright lightening flash. It was my intention to walk there like we normally do but I just got across the street and the wind gust changed direction and my umbrella went inside out and it was raining pretty hard by then so I gave up and drove down. Joe woke up feeling like he was coming down with a cold so I suggested he not attend and for once he listened to me. It was a long cold hour standing there but worth it. I go to honour and remember all the veterans but especially for my uncle, Frank Harvey Willett, who died in action right near the end of WWII at age 23. I painted this slate sign that hangs by our front door every November.

 

I parked the car right by our local scrapbook store and then walked to the cenotaph from there. They called me Wednesday to say my order was in. Yup, blew the budget again! I ordered two dies and picked up another one they had on sale. Next week I’ll have some new card ideas to share.

I do have a card to share today too. One of my sons-in-law has an aunt in Georgia that I’ve become Facebook friends with. She is such a nice person I’m sure we would be real friends if she lived near by. Anyway, she fell and broke her leg very badly and needed surgery and pins put in so I wanted to send her a thinking of you card. I wanted a card that was bright and cheerful. This is what I made.

I know she loves hummingbirds so I found this free digi stamp on the internet and printed it out. If you want free digi stamps just Google it, narrowing your search for want you want and then save them to your computer. They can be resized in any Word program but if you use a jet ink printer like I do, be careful of what you use to colour them. This one was done with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol (chalked sky) but I was very careful not to get too much gamsol on the black ink part. Experiment first please. Clear Wink of Stella was added to the flower and bird but it’s hard to see in the photo but it gives a nice shimmer in real life.

Anyway, once it was coloured it was die cut with my new stitched rectangle die and then glued to the green paper; then to a stitched die cut pink paper. Part of the background was a new technique for me. First I sponged pink, blue and yellow Distress inks all over a piece of white cardstock, blending them a bit and then I splattered water over it to get that lovely texture look. I’ve done this before I know but then I decided it needed something else so I grabbed a stencil – broken wire look – and used Distress Ink Broken China to sponge over it just here and there. Wow, did I ever like it. This was my experiment piece but it was a keeper.

I glued the coloured image on an angle and before gluing the background piece to the white card base I wrapped some light green glitter thread around the card three times; taped it at the back and then used a gem to hold it in the centre. I liked this card so much I made another one just like it for my own stash.

  

That’s all for a cold, windy, rainy November 11, 2016. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Cheers

Violet

Painted Items and Some Painting Tips

Sticky snow! That’s what my sister called the snow we had last night which is a pretty good description of it but not one that most people use to describe snow. She said she really had to scrape hard to get the snow off the windshield this morning because it was wet snow that then froze. It was wet snow here today too and much harder to shovel than last week. Now it’s going to be freezing cold for four days before warming up to 0ºC (32F) next Monday. I’m so sick of winter!
 

I had another question about painting on wood which was good timing because I just finished a piece so I have an example to show you. Before I start painting on wood I give it a very light coat of Varathane which is a sealer and finisher. If you don’t put that coat of sealer on, the paint will just absorb into the wood. Now, sometimes you want that look – it’s called ‘pickling”. Here is an example of pickling.

This is my wooden Halloween candy jar that I painted several years ago. This is the pen and wash technique. The wood background was just slightly painted with tinted Varathane. Then the drawings were added and outlined with a waterproof pen and then the paint was added as a wash – which is just watered down paint. It gives a very pastel look. It was fun to do. Here are the other sides of the container. The wooden stem is the handle of the top that lifts off.

 

Now, when you want to have total coverage of the wood, then you seal it first. Then put a very thin layer of paint on each part – blocking it in. For example, here is the birdhouse Joe’s cousin made and asked me to paint for him. He wants to make several of these to sell at the church’s auction sale this fall and wondered how they would look painted.

Excuse the fuzzy photos – bad lighting. So, the main part of the birdhouse was given a thin layer of the dark brown wood; the roof and door (on the other side) the raw sienna colour; the sign on the door and windows a very light blue (one other big window on the other side) and the posts light brown. Once they were dry then I went back over them with more layers of thicker paint until I was happy with the coverage.

The windows and door was outlined in the same light brown as the posts. The windows have curtains. Here’s a close-up

Once the light blue was dry, I made a wash (watered down white paint) and painted in the curtains from the middle to the inside….several brush strokes which do not show up well here but in real life it looks like creases in the curtains from being pulled back. The sign on the door says, “gone fishing”.

Here are some other angles.

 

 It is straight - my camera was on an angle.

So, hope this helps out anyone who wants to do some acrylic painting. There is no shading or high-lighting on the birdhouse but that's another method that takes practice.

That’s all for a cold Wednesday in February

 

Cheers

Violet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donations for a Church Fund Raiser

The summer-like weather is coming to a brutal end starting tonight…..and to add insult to injury, they are predicting two days of rain. The farmers have been working like crazy trying to get their crops off and this is not what they need right now. Joe had to cut the grass yet again today and I did some of the fall clean up. Cleaning up in the fall is no where near as much fun as planting in the spring! I watered the garden too which Joe thought was a waste of time seeing it is calling for rain but I figured if I watered today, we won’t get rain; but if I don’t, we will…so I’m trying to buy the farmers some more time.

Joe’s cousin who brings us all the organic veggies is looking after the fund raising auction at their church. Last year I donated some Christmas stockings and some other things to them but this year I decided to donate two small slate paintings and a mixed media piece. They go to a small country church with a small congregation so I don’t mind helping them out.

Here are the two paintings.

Nothing too complicated but cute and I hope someone buys them. They are irregular in shape because they are broken pieces of slate that a friend of mine gifted me. They were painted with acrylic paint and then a couple coats of varnish were brushed over the top to seal them.

 And then this piece I just finished last night:

The cousin also brought me some wood pieces left over from carpentry jobs he did and he figured I could “do something” with them! He can’t believe what I do with odds and ends. I decided to use one of his pieces and give it back to him – but altered! So this piece is about 4” wide and about 13” high. It is indeed a mixed media piece. Lots of layers of cardstock, stencils, stamps, paint and ink. Then the tree branches were added at the top by mixing up stencil paint and paint and spreading in on over a stencil and letting it dry. The tombstones, ghost, bats, and owl were Sizzix dies and the haunted house is from a Quick Kutz die. I wanted the owl to be sitting on a branch so I took a piece of brown cardstock and ripped it into a branch shape, painted it dark brown to match the other branches and twisted it into shape. Then the owl was glued to it and then all glued to the wood. Not sure if this is anybody else’s cup of tea but hopefully someone will buy it.

That’s all for a Thursday,

Cheers

Violet

Lest We Forget

LEST WE FORGET

There will be no post today in respect for all the soldiers who died fighting for our rights and freedom. My thoughts are especially with my uncle, Frank Harvey Willett, who died just before the end of the war at age 23. He is buried in Italy and if I ever win the lottery I am going to go to Italy to visit his grave. Unfortunately because of my brain disorders I am not allowed to fly so it will be very expensive to go by ship and train. That is the only thing that is on my bucket list.

This is one of the few pictures we have of him. He lived with my parents, as did his mother and siblings, and their house burnt to the ground two weeks before I was born, a year after Frank was killed so only a handful of photos survived.

 

 

Last year I painted poppies on a piece of slate and it hangs on our front porch from Nov 1 until Nov 11 in his memory. This is the painting.

 

My thoughts and prayers also go to all the innocent civilians who perished during the wars. When are people going to learn that war and violence is not the answer to any problem.

 Lest We Forget

In Peace

 

Violet

 

The Friendly Witch and a Mixed Media Piece

It’s a pretty nice fall day today but of course that will end in the middle of the night when it starts raining….and it is expected to rain for 24 hours. Sounds like its going to be a wet Halloween night. Hate it when that happens on Halloween. The kids so look forward to dressing up and going out door to door. One of my former co-workers told us that when her daughter was about 5 or 6 she came upstairs dressed in her Halloween costume about November 10^th. Her mother asked her why she was wearing it and the kids said she just finished the last of her Halloween candy and needed to go get more. I guess there was a major meltdown when she was denied the pleasure of going trick or treating in November. Kids are so funny.

Today’s post is a tole painting I did a few years ago and never posted. My youngest daughter’s mother-in-law is also a tole painter as is her sister-in-law so we, and a few more of their friends, got together one Sunday afternoon and painted The Friendly Witch. Who says witches have to be ugly!

 

One of the husbands of one of the ladies present cut out all the pieces. The wood is about ½” thick. The hands and pumpkins were separate and added at the end. We made the straw broom ourselves. It was definitely a fun day when we made this one.

This is a mixed media piece I made last year…and it was posted last year too but I thought I would share it again for any new viewers. Hubby’s cousin shows up once in awhile with left over wood and says “I’m sure you can do something with these!” Yes, I can thank you very much!!

 

Don't forget if you want to see more of one kind of craft, simply click on that heading under LABELS to bring up just those postings.

Time to go get some crafting or quilting done. Can’t decide which one I feel like doing today.

Cheers

Violet

 

What's on Your Desk Wednesday

Every Wednesday a lot of bloggers play “What’s on your Desk” and they show a picture of what they are working on, messy desk and all. Well today I decided to post one of my desks and what I’ve been working on off and on. This is a small, very old, metal office desk that is not anywhere near big enough for what I do so things are stacked up a mile high – not efficient, especially for a Virgo who likes everything organized and neat but it is what it is.

My husband’s cousin has a large garden and he brings us extra veggies all summer, which is great seeing that we are vegetarians and eat a lot of veggies. So a few weeks ago he says the church is having an auction in the fall and he has made two small wooden trays with handles and they are going to put jars of homemade jam in them to auction them off.  He is a woodworker and does excellent work. In fact he made our new kitchen cupboards for us…and I loved this trays. I may go and bid on them myself..........but then the said they would bring more money if someone could paint something on them!! Well, I can take a hint so I said sure I’ll do that. He said I could paint what ever I wanted. Of course, I told him that I had painted two large happy faces on each end just to get a rise out of him. I know, I’m bad. But here’s what I actually painted.

 So I decided if they are going to hold jam why not paint some strawberries so that’s what I did…and some vines along the sides. The butterflies were just stamped on with Stazon black ink. Ignore the mess – I warned you things are stacked up!...and hung up!

Here are some close up shots that show a little more detail. I guess they look like strawberries.

 

Here is the side of each one

 

And above the desk are mixed media works in process and some finished ones that I liked so I hung them up there. Actually when I look at the picture I can see more then mixed media - a small mirror I glued shells onto, a paper Christmas ornament made from old Christmas cards, some tol painting and who knows what else lurks there!

That’s it for Wednesday!

Cheers

Violet

 

Skating Snowlady Welcome Sign

Another year has passed! Happy New Years everyone. Here's wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy and Creative 2013!

We have a lot of snow here right now and although I'm not a huge fan of snow I do think it's quite pretty - as long as I'm on the inside looking out and not out shoveling! I love to watch the birds in the backyard in the winter. The Northern Cardinals seem so much redder against the white snow. We hang a small beaded cup on one of the stands and fill it with peanuts still in the shell. The blue jays come and sit on the pole and reach down and grab a peanut and fly off. Sometimes there are 4 or 5 blue jays waiting a turn for a peanut and the poor blue jay that is last and the peanuts are gone will sit there and ruffle his feathers in disgust before he flies off.

Well, we have a new welcome sign up for January. This is just your typical tole painting. No fine art applied here but still fun to do.

This is on slate. I have so much more to use up and I'm determined to do so this year. There is obviously some camera glare on this but in real life it is not faded at the bottom.

Memories of Christmas 2012 & A Snowman Plaque

Well, Christmas is over for another year. Today the malls will be filled with bargain hunters buying more stuff they don't need and probably can't afford! Fortunately Joe and I are of the same mind when it comes to finances, we both hate debt, we want a nest egg, but we want to enjoy the comforts today as well. Luckily we are able to do that and I feel sorry for those who get caught up in the madness of spending.

So, I thought I'd post a few or my memories of Christmas 2012.

Best moments and memories of Christmas 2012!

The best “Christmasy” moment was coming out of the Christmas Eve service at 8:00 p.m. to a light snow fall. Large fluffy flakes of snow just swirling around which made the street lights glow; the church bells were ringing and everyone was calling out “Merry Christmas” to each other.

The best moment for sure was thanks to technology. Our son-in-law in Kuwait was able to see his wife and sons open their presents and talk to them over the computer. 7:00 a.m. in Canada was 3:00 p.m. in Kuwait and they luckily ended work early over there so it worked out fine. He’ll be home end of January and it can’t come soon enough for Barbi and the boys.

Funniest memory – Finn’s monkey giving Grampa “5s” on Skype! What, you say! Let me explain. Grampa always teaches the grandchildren to “give me 5” right from when they are babies. The first time we used Skype he held his hand out in front of the camera and said to Finn, “Give me 5” and I said to him “He’s not going to know how to do that on Skype”! I was wrong. Finn pretended to give him slap his hand. Finn is 2-1/2 by the way. So, we talked to him Christmas morning; he ran and got some of his smaller presents to show us and he gave Grampa “5” again. Then, his aunt came over in the afternoon and one of his presents was a very large stuffed monkey. He kept asking to see Grandma on the “puter” so she Skyped me again. Apparently he wanted me to see his monkey because as soon as I answered he ran to get it. When he came back Grampa was beside me and said hi to him and we watched Finn grab the monkey’s arm and slap it down. He did it a couple of times before I clued in to what he was doing – he was having the monkey give Grampa “5”! As soon as Grampa said thanks to the monkey Finn just stood there and laughed. So darn cute that kid!

I'm also posting a small painting of a snowman on slate that I made and gave as a gift.

Nothing much to say about it because it is just a painting on a small piece of slate. Slate is very hard to drill thru! I had to buy a special drill bit and it's still takes a lot of pressure and time to drill each hole. I learned the hard way if you try to drill too close to the top, the slate flakes off. Still, I love painting on slate and I have a huge box full to use up.

Quilted & Painted Christmas Items

One more day to go! Hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas. After the hockey game last night I came home and whipped up a batch of sugar cookies to bake today. They always roll out better if they are nice and cold.

Before I post the photos of the quilted items I want to put in a plug for our local equestrian precision team. The horses are on their way to Pasadena as we speak...or write! TJ Stables in Chatham have been asked to perform in the Tournament of Roses Parade before but it is very expensive to transport horses down there, as well as all the riders. This year they had a big fund raiser and did it. If you watch the parade, look for a sea of riders proudly wearing red and white on beautiful horses.

Here are just a couple of quilted items I made.

Place mats! I made these last year and the corners fit perfectly around our table. These are just for show. We don't eat off them! Too much work to have spaghetti sauce slopped on them!

I made this one a couple of years ago. It was a mystery challenge at our quilt guild so we didn't know what the final project would look like until completed. I think I would have used more contrasting colours if I had known ahead of time....but it's OK. The book sitting on the right corner has Father Christmas painted on it and it opens up to hold our Christmas cards. I painted it about 10 years ago and I still love it. Picture of it to follow at the end of the post.

Here's a closer view of the table runner.

And here's a photo of the Christmas card holder book sitting on the table.

Took a class at Shelley's Painted Treasurers to paint this one.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Mr. & Ms. Santa

There is still snow on the ground so we just may have a white Christmas after all. Today I made chocolate cupcakes for Joe and I'll probably take some over to the neighbour who fixes our computer when it goes bizarre. He always jokes that he works for me for my cookies and cupcakes so I have to keep them coming!

 After a delightful luncheon out with the Aqua Fit group yesterday I decided to try something new. I have a huge bucket of small strips of cotton fabric, in various widths and lengths, from quilt projects and I usually use them for string quilts or crazy quilts but this time I decided to make crazy quilt bookmarks. They turned out OK but still in the planning stage. I zig zagged around one of them and ran one thru the serger to see which one I liked best. I think I'll go with the serger. Everyone in my family, including the sons-in-law are readers so I need to make lots.

 Of course I'm still making microwave potholders for the daughters but we won't be getting together for our family Christmas until later in January (big pout) so I have time finish them. Have you seen microwave potholders before? They are curved, quilted squares with batting in them that you set a bow into before you microwave something. Then you just pick it up and the potholder saves your fingers from burned. Works great. A quilting friend of mine showed me how to make them but I did find this tutorial on the Web. Check it out if you want to make one - easy, easy to make.

bhttp://syzygyofme.blogspot.ca/2012/06/microwave-bowl-potholder-and-tutorial.htmleing

But I'm not showing quilting today. Instead I'm posting Mr. and Ms. Claus that I painted many years ago.

I love Santa and the old Father Christmas dolls. I have quite a selection of them in various medias, painted, ceramics, tall skinny ones and more. These are on 1/2" plywood and I made a pair for myself and all the girls too. Although we celebrate the real meaning of Christmas, we all still love the fun part as well.

Three Angels

I've had those poor 20 angels on my mind all weekend so today I'm posting three angels that I painted several years ago at Shelley's Painted Treasures, now in Dresden. They adorn my tree every year.

I really love angels and these were fun, but persnickety to paint. The blue one in the middle was the hardest. At one point I looked at her face and told Shelley she was beginning to look like Tammy Faye Baker (yes, it was that long ago I painted them). That really cracked Shelley and the class up but she assured me to keep going and she would be fine in the end. She was right.

Snowman Stack

Today we took a quick trip over to Port Huron Michigan to visit our friends there. Believe it or not, I did not go into any craft or sewing store. We made one quick stop at Kroger's to get a few more packages of vegetarian food we cannot buy here and that was it! Our friend is fighting lung cancer. Please, if you are a smoker, quit!

Actually the day was pretty uneventful even with me along! Nothing bizarre to write about at all so I think I'll get right to the post.

This is another quick and simple little snowman set I painted a few years ago.

Not sure what the original name of it was but I call it the snowman stack. Another friend of mine who is a wonderful tole painter decided she only wanted to paint animals so she gave me a couple of these stacked snowman that she had already cut out. I painted one for me and one for one of my daughers that also loves snowmen, I mean snowpeople! There was no coloured pattern to follow so I just did what I felt like doing. There is a little more shading and high lighting on this one compared the ones I posted the other day. Experience helps. This actually stands just over a foot high. The sign is separate and attached with wire and I added beads to it.

Mr.Snowman and Ms. Snowlady

What a wet miserable day it was here. The dampness just chilled right thru us. Once again, I wasn't up to doing much so we did a few errands, ate lunch out, did some more Christmas shopping because I forgot one thing, and stopped to visit with the sister-in-law. All that pretty much took care of the morning and into the late afternoon. I just realized that I didn't post anything today so it's a little late but here it is.

This is a Mr. Snowman and Ms. Snowlady that I painted many years ago. I actually painted a pair for all the girls too. It's pretty simple tole painting, not fine art, but once in awhile it's nice to do something quick and easy. This would be a good project for kids or people just getting into tole painting. Not sure where I got the pattern from so I can't give you a link and it was so long ago, it would be out of print.

These started out as 1/2" boards, not sure what kind I used but I think it was some pressed type. I cut them out myself up at the senior centre's wood shop. It seams no one in my family, especially hubby, wants me to own saws! The guys at the wood shop let me though - of course, they don't know my background of being a klutz and I sure didn't tell them. Like I said, these are years old and done when I first started tole painting. I would have done a little more shading and highlighting if I was doing them now but they're OK.

Snow People Card Box

I finally ventured out of the house today. First Joe and I went for about an hour's walk "around the block"! Yeah, it's obviously not your standard city block but it's what we call it when we just want a short walk. After lunch I had to go to the library and to the scrapbook store, The Paper Pickle (which is only open Wed, Thurs. and Sat. now) and on the way home I decided to go over to the Value Village for a quick walk thru. So glad I did. Someone decided to give up card making and I scored big time. I picked up about 5 bundles of 12x12 paper and two 81/2x11 bundles, each one was $5.99 except one of the smaller ones was $2.99. And I'm talking about BIG bundles. One of them had two complete packs of Christmas papers that sell for at least $24.99.
Whoot! Whoot! Cha Ching! Cha Ching! This made my day!..and week!

So, now I'm in the process of sorting it all out. Yes, I'm a Virgo and I cannot have my paper all mixed up. So, first I separated the Seasons and theme paper and now I'm sorting the rest into colour groups. The next thing is to find storage for it all! When all piled on top of each other it likely measured about 15" or more - like I said, BIG bundles of paper! This one problem I am happy to deal with.

I love snow people. I love painting them too. This is a box to put Christmas cards in that I made. I made one for each of the girls and a couple of extra ones and this is the left over one. I like to give them choices so I make extras.

                       This is just the regular acrylic paint for tole painting.

Here is a different angle. And the colour is much better (different camera used). Still playing with getting the colour right on my older camera. After painting the bottom red I used white paint on snowflake stamps and stamped them around the edge. Not sure what to do with this one but hubby gets after me to take some of extra stuff to a craft sale so I may do that. I wonder if any one would pay me $5.00 for it? I think I worry that no one will buy anything so I shy away from trying to sell my items.

April and May Calendar Paintings

It just dawned on me yesterday that I did not get around to posting the painting I did for our wooden calendar for April, and May is getting close to being done. So, today I'm posting both. These were both painted many, many years ago when I first started to tole paint. These are NOT fine art pieces, strictly fun tole paintings.

Here is April on the entire calendar.

My daughter's father-in-law made the calendar for us. Her mother-in-law is also a tole painter but she just painted one scene on the top of hers. I wanted to be able to change the picture so I went to the lumber yard and found some very thin wood, got it cut out to the right size at the senior centre and painted one for each season.  This one is obviously for which ever month Easter falls into.

Here is a close-up.

And here is the one I did for May.

Hubby doesn't get this one. He wanted tulips, just tulips. I found this pattern in a tole painting magazine and decided to do it instead. He doesn't like the folk-art tulips. I'm getting tired of all of these anyways so I may get some more wood and re-do them all...including tulips.

Leprechaun on Slate

I found this pattern for a Leprechaun and just had to paint it. It hangs by our front door.

It is painted with acrylic paint on a long piece of slate. Tomorrow I'll post a different version of this same pattern, with a different media.

Calendar Pictures

Whenever we have a blizzard here, I get the urge to either (a) Quilt (b) read a book (c) cook (d) craft.  Yesterday (c) won out. Most of the afternoon was spent in the kitchen and now the freezer is well stocked with red cabbage and apples (yummy) and barley/mushroom soup..and a lemon pie - but not in the freezer. I seldom eat desserts (hubby is a cookie monster but not me) but once a week we usually have a piece of pie - mostly fruit pies - but yesterday I saw a box of lemon pie filling and decided to make it too. Not much cooking today -the blizzard has passed but its now (d)'s turn - crafting!

Because the computer was in the hospital for most of January I didn't get a chance to show you the picture on our calendar for January. This is one of those wooden calendars that you can change the month and date.
Like this one.
Most of them have one picture painted on the top but I thought that was too boring so I painted a picture for each month and/or season. Keep in mind these were painted years ago when I first started to tole paint.
Here is January's picture.

No pattern for this one required. Just a group of snowpeople and I tried to give each one their own personality. Some of it worked, some I would do differently.

This is February's Picture.

I did get this picture from a paint magazine I picked up. I didn't want anything too mushy - hubby has to look at these too and lets face it, mush is not a man's thing. I think it worked OK for February.  I used to have a Raggedy Ann doll when I was a kid (who didn't back in the 40's and 50's) so it was a reminder of my childhood too.