Musical Leaves Tutorial

When we were in one of our favorite shops in Snohomish a couple of weeks ago, Joyworks, I spotted some leaves they had hanging above their check-out area. They had been cut from music sheets from a song book. For some reason they struck me as a fun project to do, so here we go:

On a trip to town a few days ago, I cruised some streets, looking for trees with pretty leaves. I was in a residential area and felt a LITTLE conspicuous parking in the street, jumping out and ripping leaves off of trees, but sometimes one has to sacrifice dignity in the name of "art"! LOL!

Now, FYI, It would have been easier to use these leaves if I'd come right home and jumped on this project! But no---I waited a couple of days before I got to it, and the leaves were curling and getting kind of crispy! So, I smoothed them out the best I could and used a fine point marker to draw an outline around them. If you're really creative you could just draw your own leaves and leave out the hunt, but I enjoy looking at fall leaves, so it was kind of enjoyable cruising around checking them out.

This one was especially challenging!

This huge one is a Sycamore leaf. That's the kind of tree that has the big green prickly looking balls on it that fall all over the yard in the fall, along with the leaves!

So, I've now got a tracing of all the leaves I collected. I'm not much of a leaf expert, but I do know that I have a Sycamore and an Oak---not that it matters! Now the fun begins---I cut around each of the tracings so I would have a nice flat pattern for tracing onto the music sheets. Then I did just that--traced around the leaves onto the music.

I used my flash in this picture because for some reason, even tho I have every light in the kitchen on, including the under counter lights, the pictures seemed a little dark.

I like the darker pictures better!

Next I got busy with my scissors and did some more paper cutting. Kind of takes you back to grade school, huh? Aren't they pretty?

But now what?! The ones we saw at the shop were attached to a gnarly tree branch, but, having just moved to a new house with absolutely no landscaping and nothing remotely resembling a tree, I have to come up with some other plan. I'll go on another scavenging trip soon and find a tree branch, but in the meantime--------

I decided they'd look pretty on my kitchen cabinets! Now I just need to do several dozen more!

Old is New Again - Vintage Owls

I don't know if you've noticed but old is new again! Yup... one of those popular "old" items is owls! They are everywhere and we have several in our Etsy shop and our eBay store!

This is so cute, it's a measuring spoon holder for your kitchen!

And a toothpick holder!

This little guy has been "upcycled" with a fresh coat of blue paint... he's a candle holder!

A cookie cutter!

I just love this little guy's BIG eyes, he's a planter!

And a cookie jar!

Anyone out there have an owl collection? Send us a picture of your collection, we'd love to see!

Monroe & Snohomish, Here We Come!

This coming weekend is our bi-annual (May & Oct.) trip to Monroe, Wa. & Snohomish, Wa. http://www.antiquesnohomish.com/antiquesnohomish.htm What started years ago as a trip to the Monroe Swap Meet for my husband, http://www.aarcbellingham.com/ has developed into a swap meet and antiqueing trip. On one of those long ago trips to Monroe, we drove down the road a ways and discovered Snohomish, the antique capital of the Northwest! http://www.myantiquemall.com/starcenter.html Things haven't been the same since ;-) My DH likes to gripe about it but I think he enjoys it. Besides, he gets to stay at the swap meet and my daughter & I go to the shops and a huge craft store that's in Monroe, so he isn't subjected to more "shopping" than he can handle!

My DH and I used to go by ourselves but somewhere along the line Tania discovered where we were sneaking off to! So now it's a family affair. Her DH comes along to peruse the rusty antique auto parts at the swap meet with "Dad" and we make a perfunctory cruise thru the meet to see if there's anything we can't live without. There's one building with "girl stuff" and there's some of it scattered throughout the many booths and stalls of car parts. Then we leave the men to themselves and we head to town.

Sometimes one or two of the kids come along. This time Nick, Tania's stepson, and Sydney, Tania's daughter (my granddaughter!) will be joining us. Hopefully there won't be too much whining about "not ANOTHER antique shop!" from sweet Sydney!

Last trip, in May, we were thrilled to discover there was an outdoor antique show in the center of old downtown Snohomish. I don't thing that will happen this trip, though. However, there's plenty to see and do without that. Almost every building lining both sides of 1st street contains antiques, or fun merchandise. We usually just hit the ones that really "speak" to us, looking for something we can't live without.

So, come Friday morning bright and early, DH and I will be heading over the mountain. Tania and her entourage will be joining us later in the day, to accomodate work and school schedules. I'm definitely looking forward to a getaway---DH and I have been working our heads off getting a rental house ready to rent. It's the one we lived in for 35 years or so, till we built a new house. Since it's such a pain to work on a house while you live in it, we put off a lot on needed repairs. Then we painted the whole inside AND outside, altho we did have help with the outside. So we're definitely looking forward to this weekend!

I'll be taking a few photos and hopefully have something to show on our return.

Interesting Scenery On The Way To Portland

I have a few photos of the scenery we encountered on our trip to Portland, Oregon last weekend, that I thought might be of interest. The terrain can be pretty stark in places but majestic at the same time. And there's no shortage of interesting things to see.

These wind turbines take the place of trees on the hillside near Goldendale, Wa. and the Columbia Gorge (Columbia River). There's quite a bit of controversy among environmentalists regarding these huge wind machines, but there's no denying they are an impressive sight!

Here's a short video with some neat pictures of them that really gives you an idea of how huge they really are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIX3SXHyvs

There are quite a few of them on both sides of the Columbia and further east. There aren't many visible further west along the river.

This is Washington's version of Stonehenge, built by a fellow named Sam Hill. He also built the Maryhill Museum, an impressive castle down the road a few miles. It was built as a private home & later became a museum. I didn't get any pictures of it this time, but here's a site with some information. http://gonw.about.com/od/attractionswa/ss/maryhill.htm

Annual Outing

Last weekend (Thurs. thru Sun.) I attended an annual decorative painting convention in Portland, Oregon. Every year my friend Lynn and I go to one of two conventions. One year it's in Seattle http://www.nwtoleliners.com/ and the next it's in Portland http://www.raindropchapter.org/ . We meet another friend when we get there and sometimes we add a fourth friend to the group. The more the merrier and the smaller the hotel bill! LOL!

This was the one and only class I took this year. It's a little dark---it was propped on top of a light in the hotel room! I procrastinated a little too long and the rest of the classes I registered for were full. I thought I might pick up another class when we got there, but just decided to stick to the one.

This painting is kind of a mixed media, with a wallpaper border strip applied the length of the canvas, texture paste all around that, calla lilies painted over it all and "Believe" stamped in the corner. It was a fun class. I took some ornaments to work on in the room when we weren't shopping on the trade floor or just visiting and catching up. We all only see each other once a year, so there's quite a bit to catch up on!

I did take a couple of pictures of Lynn & Karen but they might refuse to room with me again if I publish them! (You can thank me later girls! LOL!)These are the ornaments I took to paint in my spare time. There are two of each. The top two designs are done. The bottom ones still need highlighting.

On Saturday evening we attended the banquet and at each place was a box and painting book. When we opened the boxes what was inside them but six JOY ornaments! I think I'll see if I can come up with a different design for them. I'm a little tired of candy canes! Our fourth friend Jill was able to join us for the banquet, a buffet which was yummy! They have a raffle at the banquet and we all had fingers crossed, hoping to win one of the beautifully painted pieces. Unfortunately, it wasn't our lucky night :-( Oh well, better luck next year!

Sunday morning we painted a little, packed up & loaded the car, hit the trade floor one last time, had hugs all around and headed for home. It was a fun few days and over way too soon.

Halloween Pumpkin Heads Tutorial

Supplies:


3" styrofoam balls
1/4" dowels, 12 to 14" long
tacky glue
Paper Perfect
palette knife

acrylic paint:
burnt orange
crocus yellow
black
burnt umber
country red
hot shots red

short pieces of tree branch
rusty wire

I have my supplies all gathered and have actually already glued the dowels into the styrofoam balls.
Using the palette knife, spread the paper perfect over the styrofoam ball, as thinly and evenly as possible, while still getting good coverage. It really doesn't matter what color of Paper Perfect you use (it comes in several colors). You'll be painting it all orange anyway.

Two down and several more to go! Once the balls are all covered with Paper Perfect, they have to dry at least 24 hours. Check carefully to see if they're dry before proceeding. Once dry, apply a basecoat of burnt orange acrylic paint, using a foam brush or old bristle brush. Even when you get a nice coat of Paper Perfect on the styrofoam, it's still rough, so it's a little hard on a brush getting the paint into the uneven texture. Don't use your best brush! Next, glue the short pieces of tree branch into the top of the styrofoam balls and allow the glue to dry. While the glue is drying you can paint the dowels black. A foam brush works best for this.
Now it's time for the fun to begin! Basecoat the mouth and eye shapes with antique white acrylic paint. (I just freehand the shapes in, but you could draw them in with a chalk pencil if i makes you feel more comfortable!) It will take at least two coats for nice coverage. I usually do all the white and then go back and add noses and details with black acrylic. But if you want to do one at a time, that's fine! The noses, eyeballs and details on the mouth are added with black. Also outline the eyes and mouth in black. When the black eyeballs are dry, add a small triangle of antique white at the top of each. With Crocus yellow, add a thin line on the angled side of the nose.

They're coming along!

I've added a couple with a toothless grin. They're a little quicker to paint, without all the toothy details! Just base in a mouth, triangular eyes and nose, in black and outline in crocus yellow, with a dot of yellow in the eye for character.

Now add red cheeks at the corners of the mouths. I use a round brush for this.

Now highlight the tops of the cheeks with Hotshots Red. It's pretty bright! We'll tone it down a little, later.

The basic faces are done, so now we need to add shading for depth and interest.

Using burnt umber acrylic, side load a flat or angled brush.

Begin outlining all the features in burnt umber, using the side loaded brush. Keep your brush moist. You'll find that the Paper Perfect pulls the moisture out of the brush so you'll have to re-moisten and re-load often.
Once you've outlined all the features, shade between the top and bottom teeth with the side loaded brush, shade under the upper lip, and around the black eyeball (on the white of the eye). Keep these sideloads less intense than the rest. You don't want to end up with brown teeth & eyes!

You can see the difference here between the face without shading and the one with it. With your sideloaded brush and a watered down side load of burnt umber, soften the bright red of the highlighted cheeks.

Here's the whole gang, all finished---well as far as the painting goes!

Now it's time to add the finishing touches. Using rusty wire, insert it into the head slightly, beside the branch on top. This just holds it in place while you curl the wire around the branch. Curl it around several times and cut with wire cutters. Bend the cut end so that it doesn't stick out. It's sharp and you don't want to get scratched!

The next step should be spraying the balls and dowels with clear acrylic, but that makes them difficult to photograph, so I'm skipping it for now. Later I can move the bows out of the way and spray them.
Now we'll add their bowties. Using torn strips of fall colored fabrics, tie bows under their chins. The strips are about 16-18" long, depending on how long you want the tails to be.

And here they are, all decked out in their spiffy bow ties and ready for the Halloween party! These are available in my Etsy shop, Toletally Painted: http://www.toletallypainted.etsy.com

Treasures!

Saturday was a good yard sale day! For one thing, it wasn't as hot as it's been the last few. There were lots of sales and we came home with treasures. One stop was an estate sale and we found all kinds of goodies. We couldn't believe how much STUFF there was in that house! A lot of junk with a few gems mixed in. We had to find sacks to put things in---we couldn't hang onto it all!

I love old patterns. I especially like the one with the pillbox hat and muff! An apron pattern--always a happy find! Strawberry Shortcake panels and old craft kits.

Holly Hobbie finds galore! An adorable little sewing machine and a doll pattern. I also found a couple of collectible HH plates at another sale on Friday.

Cute mushroom clock. I put a new battery in and it's ticking away as we speak! I found three of the lucite grape clusters, each one a different color.

I've got a few things listed on eBay and Etsy already. Keeping my fingers crossed that someone else will find something they can't live without among my purchases.