Painting again!

Well it was another sunny day today, and I just had to take advantage of it and do some more painting out in the garden.

I managed to get all the coasters varnished - they look great.  I have tried various varnish/sealant mediums for acrylics, and I must say the one from Crafty Crocodiles gets my vote, it is a lovely consistency, touch dry in less than 30 mins.  Yes I know I do samples for them, but their acrylic satin varnish is really fantastic, and really brings out the colours, and as it is water based, it washes out of the brush very easily.   It says it is weather resistant, so think I shall be sealing my painting with it when I paint my hanging baskets.  Here is a link if you are interested:

http://www.craftycrocodiles.co.uk/crafting-pens-c30/acrylic-satin-varnish-p272  I used their one stroke wash brush to apply it - lovely coverage - glad I invested in it!

Right that is the end of the useful information - back to what I achieved today!

Artificial Candle



This is a candle I bought in the Pound Shop - it is an imitation one which takes batteries, so thought I would "give it a whirl" as the saying goes. According to the wrapper it is supposed to have a vanilla fragrance! What will they think of next?   The Holly leaves stamp was one of Sheena Douglass's Paint Fusion Christmas Stamps.  Not sure I have done justice to the holly - looks more like oak leaves to me!  More practise need on holly leaves!



Shade of Grey Candle

This was an experiment using shades of grey on a small candle I bought from Sainsbury's - completely freehand painting on this one.



Ball-shaped candle

Another candle using Sheena's Christmas stamps.  Although I forgot there was a stamp for the fircones, and did those freehand!   Not sure where I got the candle - think it was Sainsbury's again.  That's the trouble with sneaking stuff into the trolley with the food shopping!



Ceramic Candle holder



I couldn't get a very good photo of this candle holder, which has pink and white free-hand roses and leaves on it with pale blue sprays of dots.   This was an unvarnished candle holder, and I used the Crafty Crocs varnish on it to seal it.   I think I bought the holder in Wilkinsons, don't think it was the Pound Shop.



Side 2 of Fan



and finally I painted the reverse side of a fan that I started back in August.  I had been putting it off, as it was a bit of a nightmare to paint with all the folds - but it has turned out quite well.   The background is blue pearlescent acrylic from Craft Crocs, and the roses are white and pink pearlescent paint (the pink is a Docrafts one I bought at the Glitter Pot recently.   You may recall the other side of the fan that I painted ......



Side 1 of Fan - Paint Fusion Poppies on pearlised turquoise that I created mixing paints



I hope you have enjoyed my little selection.  Thanks for looking.

Mags

Coasters

The Four Sets

The weather today has been glorious again, and having done all the gardening yesterday, I spent a lot of the day sitting outside painting these coasters.  (I had already done the background painting a few weeks ago).  I have to do it outside as I seem to make so much mess in the process!  You would think by now that with the practise I have been getting, I would have got a lot better at Paint Fusion, but I felt today that I was going backwards!  

They all need to be varnished and the edges painted, which I shall probably do with gold/silver pens, although I do have some acrylic pens that may do the trick if I the colours I have compliment the colours of the coasters.

Here are a few close-ups of the four sets:



Pink and White Rose



White Daisy



Pink and White Clematis



Mixed Selection:  Daisy, Fir Cone, Christmas Rose
Clematis, Poppy and Yellow & White Rose



I am now keeping my fingers crossed that it will be fine again tomorrow - I think they have forecast a little rain very early and then sun again.  I can then give them all a couple of coats of varnish, and I have some candles and other bits I want to paint.

Thanks for popping by.

Mags

ps for Rita - the coasters are wooden ones with cork backing from Crafty Crocodiles.

Bit chuffed today! - Updated

As some of you know I have been playing with various products from Crafty Crocodiles for samples for their catalogues. Well I haven't seen the latest hard copy Autumn catalogue yet so don't know exactly which of my samples have been included, but browsing their website I found one of my samples shown!

http://www.craftycrocodiles.co.uk/fun-with-wood-c17/wooden-wardrobe-style-jewellery-box-p26

To say I am a little chuffed is an understatement. I had so much fun painting this. It was crackle finished to start with, and then because of the small scale I stamped the rose and leaves using a couple of Joanna Sheen's pressed flower stamps for the doors as a guide for the painting. The drawer was painted using one of Sheena Douglass's techniques for quick roses.

Mags

Update: New catalogue arrived this morning - have been playing "Spot which samples I made" whilst drinking my coffee! ;-)

Sunny Afternoon Painting

Well we had some sun again today - so I spent the afternoon trying to get ahead with some painting, of some of my Crafty Croc products.   Apart from the following bits, I painted the backgrounds of another 18 coasters ready to "fusion" for Christmas presents.  My poor brain was very confused working on Christmas gifts and Easter samples at the same time - but no doubt those that know me will say "What's new - you are in a perpetually confused state"  - LOL!

A Wooden egg painted with pearlised green acrylic and a painted Daffodil/Narcissus.  (Trying to get ahead with my samples for the Easter catalogue!)

Three egg cups for my granddaughters for Christmas (they do have their initials on, but have hidden that side so they can't guess who is going to get which one!)

A pencil holder - I like the finish of the gold pearlised paint.

and finally, I touched up the topper I painted of the Fir Tree - painted in some shadows and grounded the tree and added some snow - am happier with it now.

Thanks for popping by.

Mags

Paint Fusion Ivy ....

.....  or not as the case maybe !

One set of my new Christmas Stamps arrived today, so this afternoon I cut them out and had a play.  I have had some little tealight holders from Crafty Crocodiles waiting to be painted, and as I got a bargain offer in Hobbycraft yesterday - 32 pots of ceramic paint or less than £16.  My daughter had tipped me off that they had a load in the sale at our local branch - so nipped across and "filled me boots" as they say.  I got a mix of large and small pots which were marked at 99p - but when I got to the till they were on bogoff!  RESULT - particularly as the large pots are normally £3.99 .  No idea what the small ones sell for - but it looked like they had already been reduced from £1.49 to 99p, when I pulled the sticker off!  

I will say it wasn't easy - firstly stamping on the glass with Stazon - but Sheena's tip about taking it off with nailvarnish remover was an Ace one!  Evenutally I got an image I was happy with.  Then to the painting ..... - erm never having painted with ceramic paints before I didn't know what to expect.  I found I had to do a couple or more coats.  Anyway I got a result, and it will be interesting to see what it is liked when it has been baked.  (I could have painted it with normal acrylic paint - but then it wouldn't have been dishwasher proof).

I then thought I would attemp a canvass for the first time, and use the new ivy stamp again.   painted the background with the wet on wet technique - with three colours - magnolia and oak green emulsion and blue pearlescent acrylic, then stamped a spray of ivy leaves.  Well what can I say - I made a complete and utter mess of it - the Ivy was awful.  (How come I could paint free-hand Ivy last week on that tissue box, but using the stamps I muck it up? !!!! ).

I was ready to start again by repainting the canvass with emulsion, but decided to paint some roses over the top instead - of course if my other set of christmas stamps that I ordered had arrived today I could have painted poinsettias or fircones on it instead!  hey ho!  If at first you don't succeed - rethink!

Mags

Craft Day with Granddaughter! Part 1

I had my eldest granddaughter for the Day today, and quote from her "I like coming here - you are fun".  This first part is our Paint Fusion session.

This was my main project today - a clock.  Ellie has "bagged" it as a Christmas present from me for her bedroom!   The background and the rim are painted with metallic acrylic paint.

Ellie came armed with this little box to paint and a coaster.   This is her first attempt at a rose.   She didn't want to try a free-hand "Stephanie Weightman one, so she stamped the open rose from Sheena Douglass, and then I persuaded her to have a bash at doing the centre.   Result - she can now paint roses.  Didn't she do well - she is only 9!  I then helped her edge the box with a gold pen.

Inside of the box, which I confess I painted for her with a little freehand rose and leaves.

This was her first project today - a little coaster in metallic acrylic paint.  It's actually more purple and silver in real life.

I had bought this pencil box from Crafty Crocs for her to paint.  Having mastered the rose on her little box, she then did the Daisy and the two roses on the side of her box.  No doubt another day will see her doing more on the other sides.

Ellie preparing the paint ready to do the roses.

and finally in this part - my second project - work in progess.  This side is metallic blue, and the reverse metallic green.   I shall probably add some Ivy to this side when my new stamps arrive.   Haven't decided yet what to paint on the reverse.   Daisies. Roses or Clematis - decisions, decisions!

All in all a FAB day - and if you want to know where we purchased the bits to paint - google Crafty Crocodiles.

Playing with beads

Spent my birthday quietly in the garden yesterday with my pal Sassie doing some crafting.   We had a lovely day.   Sass was working a cross stitch sampler she is making for a wedding, but we also did some paint fusion and I taught her how to do Steph's roses.

I played with some beads:

Keyring trying out the ladder technique

A little christmas tree decoration with painted beads and button, a bit of felt and tinsel.

I also tried painting my plain beads - as you can see two-tone ones done with pearlescent acrylic and also some purple ones.  Made this into a key charm for Sassie and using my Crafty Crocs acrylic pens, wrote her name on the plain wooden beads.

One of my presents (from my daughter) was a necklace kit with a sort of french knitting machine - so watch this space for the end result using that.    I was hoping for a beading loom - but my husband is going to get that for me as he hadn't bought me anything.    (if I had known would have ordered it last weekend when it was free p&p from Beaders Companion - duh!)

right must got and sort myself out - we are off to favourite Chinese Restaurant again this week - this time Sassie's treat!

Beaded Charms

I had a link in a craft email to a video about how make a daisy bracelet and thought I would play with some of my wooden beads from Crafty Crocs again and make some key/handbag charms.  They only took a couple of minutes each.  I think the flowers are very effective and so easy to do.  Confess I didn't get around to painting the plain beads yet (one of those jobs I would prefer to do outside in the garden and the weather this weekend hasn't been conducive to that!) and the ready painted flower beads are supposed to be for my grandchildren to make things with - good job there are loads in the pot!

I can see that once I have painted some of my plain beads, I will be using that daisy flower idea again.  When I have a bit more time, might make a proper bracelet with glass beads and incorporate the circle idea as well as in this charm from an earlier posting:

Playing with beads again!

Yes fidget fingers has been playing with beads again!  (and you all thought I was going to put a picture on of the cake I made for my husband's 70th next week didn't you? - well I will do that tomorrow!)  I mosied out after I had finished the cakes and had a little craft spend and wandered around the French Market that was in town.   Probably my best decision of the day as the forecast for rest of the weekend is horrendous - pity those poor market stall holders, and I bought a lovely tablecloth for the patio table into the bargain!   

Of course I wanted to play with my craft purchases, but I was very good I decided to leave those for the forthcoming wet weekend! 

Anyway I thought I would use some of my crafty crocs bits instead and made this little key ring, using the same idea I practised the other day.   Gosh that was hard work - took me all of about 10 mins to make (if that!).   I am making some little bits to put away for the girls for Christmas - although this could always go in to my samples box for Crafty Crocs.   This is such a simple pattern I think I might make a few more variations.  I have some plain beads that I was going to paint to make key rings with ...... erm ...... watch this space!

BahHumbug - inspired by C&C

Yes - I am making Christmas Decorations in July!

Reindeer and snowflake/star

I have watched some of the jewellery shows recently on C&C and have been inspired to try out some of the ideas (albeit I haven't bought the kits).   However, I have in my Craft Crocs stash some beads I bought with the idea that I would make some bits with the grandchildren.   (I made the two youngest stretch bracelets with these pre-painted beads on Saturday - they had fun choosing the colour combinations they wanted - but I forgot to take a photo).

Anyway I saw the demo of the reindeer today - and just had to have a play.  So with pipecleaner, beads, some googly eyes and a heart jewel, my version of the reindeer was born.   The snowflake is even easier - just silver pipecleaner and beads! 

The plain beads I used for the reindeer head can actually be painted, so watch out for some variations - I am thinking along the lines of using my pearlised acrylic paints for the snowflake!  Might have to make it a tad bigger as the beads are bigger. 

close up of the reindeer - will have to get some nice oblong beads for his head.

Spiders!

Had a little crafting session with the two youngest granddaughters yesterday, whilst their Dad was putting in new disk drives in OH's computer.  As I was sitting in the garden painting when they arrived, obviously they wanted to start off by doing some painting - the 2 yr old had the water colours out, and I allowed the 5 yr old to use the acrylics.  She painted a great picture of her sister's old fashioned boy doll (shame I didn't get to take any photos).  I also showed her how to do some Paint Fusion berries, pencil rubber flowers and the little swirly flowers!   I do believe I have a convert!

They then discovered my Crafty Crocodiles stash and the eldest one wanted to make a spider - I got to do the messy part of painting the cotton-covered ball  (my choice I might add for my sanity!)  so this is the 5yr olds spider!  I attached them to some stretchy cord.

Naturally the 2 yr old wanted to make one too, and this was her choice of colours (thankfully she wanted hers white).  By the time this one had been jumped around on the cord - I think it looked more like an octopus than a spider!