Flowers for Fall...

I'm back! The creative side of my brain took a really long vacation this summer. It was too hot to be working in the garage. Aaand...let's face it...I was LAZY! 

I did finish some stained flowers, however. These are mini versions of the other stained flowers I have done. These measure almost 7" including the frame. It was really fun to paint these little guys. I could knock one out in a few hours. That being said, however, it seems to be easier to stain on the larger "canvases."

Orchid

Lotus

Stargazer Lily

I also tried something new. I added a bit of color to the plumeria flower. I painted the frame to tie it all together. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

Plumeria

A Portrait...

I am always up for trying new things (when it comes to crafting). I absolutely love painting/shading with stain, and I learn something new with every project I complete. My latest attempt at "new" was doing a portrait in stain. 

I first thought of doing this portrait about 6 months ago. It rolled around in my mind for several months. I prepped the 1" x 12" wood, which then sat around for a month while I gathered some courage. See, this portrait is of someone very special. I could not mess this up - it had to be perfect! This portrait is of my awesome, amazing, loving, passionate, hilarious cousin, Bryant. 

Bry lost his battle with lung cancer in October 2017. He was the oldest son of my Aunt Pam. The big brother to three sisters and best friend of his little brother. The uncle to 17 adoring nieces and nephews. The #1 BYU sports fan. The guy with the quickest wit EVER. The inventor of more games than anyone can count. The biggest Christmas enthusiast. (He had 7 individually themed Christmas trees, each with their own name.) 

My earliest and best memory of Bry was when we were young kids playing in the backyard of our Grandmother's house. She had a picnic table under a large cherry tree. The ground under the tree was a dark black soil. Our Grandparents always had candy and treats for us when we would visit. My favorite treat was chocolate Jell-O pudding pops. We were all eating our pudding pops outside, under the shady cherry tree. My pudding pop slipped out of my hand and landed in the soil. I asked my Grandma for another pop, but she said no. I was kinda' devastated. Bry said, "It's fine. I'll wipe it off and you can still eat it." He proceeded to lick the soil off with one big swipe of his tongue (and then swallowed)! I looked at him with awe and gratefully accepted the pudding pop back from him. Yes, of course I ate it. Small acts of service such as this defined the life of Bryant. He was loved by so very many people. Now maybe you can see why the portrait had to be perfect...

I made more changes than I can count, which is not easy with stain. However, I gained some new techniques on "erasing" mistakes on stained wood. One is that fresh (still wet) stain can sometimes be erased by - get this - an actual eraser! This technique is, unfortunately, hit and miss. Half of the time, an eraser did not work. I haven't the foggiest idea why. Maybe after more experimental crafting I can give you a good reason. The second technique is "erasing" with small pieces of very fine sandpaper and a gentle hand. After sanding, I found that using an actual eraser to clean up the area was very effective. Please be warned though, the sandpaper can also erase your fingernails!

It's not perfect, but after I was sure I hadn't completely screwed up, I made a frame with 1" x 2" furring strips, stained with Minwax Jacobean wood stain to match the portrait.

When I was talking to my family about this project, I realized just how crazy I was to attempt it. I have NEVER done a portrait. I have never even tried to sketch a portrait in my life! I don't know what made me think I could try a stained portrait, except that I wanted so badly to honor Bryant. I wanted to give his mom something to remember him, that would hopefully bring some comfort to her. I surprised her with it last weekend. She loved it (thank goodness!) and was so grateful.

Totally worth it.

Love you Bry!

Playing Catch-Up...

Wow. Am I glad that December is over! The stress of the holidays, kids out of school, and everyone getting sick (twice in some cases) is behind me.

I get the Winter Blues real bad. It starts around Thanksgiving and I don't escape the "fog" until around February. This year, however, the fog is already lifting! Probably because we have had such a mild winter. Hardly any snow to think of, although we are expecting a snow storm this weekend. The sun has been shining this week and the sky has been blue. I love me some blue sky! 

Since I'm feeling more normal (whatever that is), I actually finished some projects. And I realized there are a few things I've done that I didn't share on the blog. 

This last week I completed some signs for our Young Women's New Beginnings. If you are wondering what the heck that is, I'll tell you. New Beginnings is a time to welcome all of the girls turning 12 this year into the Young Women program. There are three classes of girls. Girls just entering and through to their 14th birthday are called Beehives. Girls ages 14 and 15 are Mia Maids, and girls 16 to 18 are the Laurels. I made each class a sign of their motto. The plan is to hang them up at the church.

I don't have photos of how I made the signs, but I was given some 3/4" plywood already cut to 12" x 16". I then stained the plywood. I found some clip-art, typed up the mottos, and printed them out. I used a projector to enlarge the prints and traced out the words with a white paint pen. I traced the clip-art with a white colored pencil and then painted them.

I used some 1" x 2" pine to make the frames. I sanded them and added some wood stain to the edges. Next, I used some wax in places I wanted the stain to show through and then painted them white. When the paint was dry, or mostly dry, I used a razor blade to scrape of the wax areas. This exposes the dark brown underneath and gives it a roughed-up or aged look. Everything was sealed with a clear coat. I am really pleased with how the signs turned out! Now I have to figure out where in the classroom to hang them...

I also made some simple Christmas gifts. My daughter's teacher is a major Harry Potter fan, so I made him a grouping of four small signs.

I sanded some cedar fence board, cut into 5" squares. I spray painted the squares black and used my projector to trace the words with a white paint pen. I added a bit of color with some acrylic paint. I also roughed-up the edges with my sander and finished with clear coat.

I made some small signs the same way, only using stain instead of paint. I free-handed these with a paint pen.

I also realized I haven't posted some of my other painting, or shading, with stain pictures. I love making these! FYI, I don't know the names of all these flowers, so I gave them names. Artist's prerogative.

Flower Blossom

Daisy Magnified

Hibiscus

Irish Daisy

The Irish Daisy above was fun. I used a knot in the wood to make the center of the daisy. That piece of wood was meant to be a daisy!

Belfast Blossom

I have used Minwax Jacobean for all of my art, but I wanted to try something different. I used Minwax Special Walnut and I had horrible results. The stain spread too quickly, so the flower looked fuzzy. You know, like when you aren't wearing your glasses kind of fuzzy. I was so disappointed because I really wanted to use a different color.

Open Rose

The rose above is a different color because it is a different type of wood. It was a piece of scrap I was given, so I'm not sure what kind of wood. It is also smaller and sold quickly, which means I need to make more of this size!