Happy 2023!

 

Looking forward to being creative in the new year!

On display in December

 

I was so excited to be part of the Focus Gallery at Noyes Art Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska for the month of December! I was at First Friday from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. My pieces were displayed all month.

Porch leaners

Hi everyone. It seems like Fall is in the air, I had to wear a jacket today and it is windy here.  I know I have been absent for a while but I started painting again! And it is so much fun!

Porch Leaners are so popular now, and I am just finishing up on this Snowman one.  He is 4 foot tall and 10 inches wide. I thought I would see if you had any ideas for a word or wording that I should paint on it.

 What do you think? Any great ideas you want to share? Thanks for looking!

Carolyn

My Favorite Corner Hutch

It felt like Spring today! Everything new and fresh :-)   I don't think I posted this before.

This has to be one of my all time favorite projects. I actually acquired this from a garage sale. Most of my things come from garage sales, sometimes I get things from the thrift store but usually the best items are things that are in decent shape and people are just tired of them or don't know what to do with them.

At the top where you see the little scene and saying, there used to be a horseshoe. This was a very rustic piece when I got it. I pried it off and decided to go this route with it. I had been listening to James Taylor and this was one of his songs. I always listen to James Taylor when I am painting. I also like Alison Krauss. It seems to relax me.

The saying is wood burned, and so are the outlines of this piece. I know they are not perfect, but if I got hung up with what is perfect, I would never post anything!!  

I worked hard at shading the back insets of the hutch. It's so much easier if you can make swooping long strokes rather than trying to match them up when the flow is broken up by a shelf. Again, the edges have wood burned outlining between the green and yellow, and the red and orange also. I did this after painting it all, but before the polyurethane protective coat.

More shading and swirls!

I actually did not want to sell this but I put it in a shop with a good price tag on it, thinking it would give people an idea of what I could do...but when I went back the next week to switch it out it had sold. :-(   I used the money to buy more art supplies! Lol!  

The bottom of the piece.

I found this nice little knob at Hobby Lobby, and I thought it was perfect for the door.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it was fun for me to look at all the pictures of this piece again. 

As you go through your day, remember..You were born with the ability to change someone's life. Whether it is a kind word, or just a listening ear when it is needed most. Remember, be kind.

Hey, could you do me a big favor? Be sure to put your email in to follow my blog-in the upper right hand corner-, that way you will always see when I post something new. Tell your friends to follow me too! Have a Fabulous Day!!

More Bird Houses!

I love weekends, don't you?! It's kind of rainy today and I am enjoying staying inside and dry.  So I decided it would be a good chance to work on my blog. I thought I would share some more bird houses that I did for my friend Pam. These are all little bird houses that her father in law built, and she had them sitting around the garage. She thought they would look cute with some color. 

This  little bird house was the smallest. Only about 6 inches by 5 inches. It was the last one I painted because I was thinking it was too small to do much that would be fun but it ended up being one of my favorites. Sometimes the simplest idea is the best.

I just didn't want to overpower it, and ended up loving the simple lines. 

What about you, do you like simple lines?

This bird house was bigger, and had a very rough textured roof. I actually loved the way the roof texture accented the paint. I like funky cats and thought this would be cute on a bird house.

This little bird house is more whimsical and free spirited. 

I love to do tiny flowers. It reminds me of a meadow of wild flowers and I always like to do the little birds flying in the distance too. 

This was the biggest bird house  and you can see the right had roof line is actually about an inch shorter than the other side. You don't have to start with a perfect piece for it to turn out really cute. 

All of these bird houses were just plain little houses, and looked really rough before I started on them. To see them, they would not be something that would even catch your eye or be special. You can do so much with paint, it is amazing. I can just hear you saying, "I wonder why she didn't post some before pictures?"  Of COURSE I wish that I had taken before pictures....but that would be too efficient now wouldn't it?? 

 I like to do variegated colors when I paint instead of just a  solid color, like the roof you see below. It gives it more depth and interest, and also ties in other colors that you are using for trim. Notice how the blue roof has a tinge of purple in it? That pulls the purple flowers below up and highlights them as your eye travels back and forth tying the purple together without you even realizing it.

I love dragon flies! 

So which one is your favorite? It is hard for me to choose, although I do like the simple little purple one. It took the most thought but was the easiest to complete. 

I hope your life is going well. I saw a quote I would like to share. 

"If you think you've blown God's plan for your life, rest in this. 

You, my beautiful friend are not that powerful."

If you like what you see, make sure you sign up with your email for updates when I post new things. I promise not to spam you or give out your email. The sign up link is on the upper right hand side. 

 Let me know which bird house is your favorite in the comments below. Have a wonderful day!

Mary Ann's Chair

Here's a fun little chair that my sister claimed as her own before I even finished it. She's kind of like like a spoiled kid, she whines around and I just can't tell her no....It was in pretty rough shape, so I started out like I always do..  by sanding it really well to get any shininess off  so that primer and paint will stick to it and be durable. It's all in the preparation. You can make it look good without prepping, but the paint will chip and scrape off if you bump it against anything hard. 

I wanted it to look really girly, and I think the polka dots, and red trim really did the trick. When I am planning a color scheme and can't decide what color.. I just start painting a base color, which in this case was the cream color. It's on the one lone brace that you see underneath the chair with some circle squiggles on it. That is all that was left of the base color after I got done painting the chair, because I covered it all up with the other colors- But it gets me started and then I can start visualizing what colors I want. How do I pick the base color??? Well,  I think I had a bottle of that color that I never use and it was getting old  so I used it, knowing that I would be covering it up anyway. It just gets me started putting paint on the chair. Otherwise I sit and look at it for hours!  

For the painting on the chair back I picked the little girl knobby legs I think, because I just saw it as a princess/dancer chair. I wanted something on the back, that was whimsical and free feeling. I love black and white striped legs, whether they are on stockings or bird legs, so that was a no brainier. 

I like the tuning on the chair legs. They really had a lot of detail for me to work with.

By the time I get to the back I have so much time invested in my pieces, but I still like to do something on the back that doesn't take real long and still adds interest. 

 Sooo.... Polka dots, of course! When in doubt just polka dot away!

I found the material for the seat and recovered it.. and the look was complete.  Before I put the seat back on, I applied 3 coats of sealer. I like to use Minwax or Varathane water based polyurethane. 

Minwax says to sand between coats but if you do, it messes up your paint job so I don't sand and I haven't had any problem with it. Varathane is the only poly that bonds to itself so it does not require you to sand in between coats. It is very durable too. Varathane is my favorite to use.

Mary Ann has a lot of my painted furniture so I really like to visit her home! I am thankful to have both my sisters, Mary Ann and Janet in my life. Mary Ann just begs for more of my painted furniture than Janet! Do you have sisters that you couldn't make it through life without?

 You know so many people say to me " I just am no good at painting but I would like to do it."  You need to remember that everyone started the same way...wondering if they could do it.  Just jump in and try, you an always paint over it if you don't like it. We don't grow when things are easy. We grow when we face challenges. 

Thanks for visiting my blog. If you would like to be notified when I post new things, just sign up to follow me with your email. It is at the upper right hand side of this page.  

"I do not burn bridges. I just loosen the bolts a little each day."

Birdhouses

How many of you like Birdhouses? I have been working on some for a friend of mine. Her father-in-law built these and she wanted to have some color on them. As usual, I forgot to take "before" pictures! You'll have to use your imagination --they were brown  and pretty plain before my paint brush got to work!  This particular one was a present to her daughter who she described as a hippy girl. 

The hippy girl likes beetle bug vans, so I found this image and painted it on one side. She loved it and talked about the new VW van that is coming out.

She also like sayings and this is one of my favorites so I had to put it on there.

This side has a decoupaged heart on it, with the words to Bobbi McGee on it.

Thanks for checking in! I will post more birdhouses shortly.  If you haven't done so, sign up to receive updates by email in the upper right hand corner of this page.. That way whenever I post something new you will get an email alert. 

 "I do not burn bridges. I just loosen the bolts a little bit each day."