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!

Daisy Do...

This will be a short post. I have so many thoughts running wild through my spaghetti brain that I can't seem to decide on what to write about. That goes along with my low production this summer. Usually I am out working in the garage everyday. The last few months have been too hot and I can't seem to gather the energy necessary to be creative.

That being said, I have found a new type of creation that I thoroughly enjoy making!

Painting with stain on a wood canvas. It is so fun to see an idea come to fruition! Do things always work out how I see them in my mind? Definitely not. But I am just a beginner when it comes to painting with stain. There are a lot of techniques I want to try. 

This daisy and the carnation I posted last time, were drawn freehand. I found pictures I liked and then drew them out on a wood "pallet." 

I used a fine tip brush to outline the flower. In places I wanted darker, I added more stain. This can be time consuming, but it allows me to work on other things in between drying.

To shade the daisy petals, I used a cloth and very lightly dabbed the open lid of the can of stain. I then rubbed the cloth over the petal until it had the look I wanted.

I love it! Wouldn't this piece of art look fabulous on a gallery wall? (Not an art gallery, a home gallery. You know, the type with family pictures and the like?) Actually, it would look good anywhere! Maybe that's why I haven't taken my creations to my booth to sell yet...