A Spooky Halloween!

Ah, finally, I am right where I need to be, timewise!  Halloween is coming up in a few days, and so this post is perfect!  Last Friday evening, we hosted a Halloween party for our daughters and their friends.  It was a fun evening filled with screams, laughter and karaoke!
I went Pinteresting and found a few recipes I wanted to try!  And I decorated as well!  And then I decided to keep the decorations and move them into the house from the garage where we held the party!  I had been in search since we moved into our house, for a table for our foyer.  Luckily, since my brother is getting married, he is getting a new table and chairs, and I was able to take his other table off of his hands!  It's a perfect fit for all of the decorations throughout the year that I plan on putting on there!

Have a WONDERFUL Halloween!

A Tea Party Shower!

My brother is getting married this weekend!  For the bridal shower, the theme was a Tea.  I made all of the scones as well as lemon curd and devonshire cream!  Thank you Pinterest for the recipes!  I received lots of compliments on all of it!  YAY!  The scones were super fun to make!  I just love baking, so it's easy to have fun in the kitchen!

I also created two teapots from SVGcuts.com and they were used as decor.  But first, the shower card!  I cannot tell you the last time that I made a card!  Holy moly!  It felt good though!  And last night, as I was going through my stamps looking for something in particular, I felt that wave of nostalgia from when I was a huge cardmaker on splitcoaststampers!  Oh those were the fun days!  I would do a lot of the challenges, chat w/ friends from across the country, buy stamp set after stamp set after stamp set!  LOL!  Fun fun times!  I will have to get back to that!

All of these pics are unedited because I don't have time to go through and crop!  I have to get this stuff on here and updated!  LOL!

See ya in the next post!

Boy is it dusty in here!

Wow!  February was my last post!  Probably the last time that I did anything of mine.  For a while there, I was caught up in doing things for the store I worked for, and all of my stuff was put to the side.  I have since quit because of that fact, and now have time to create for ME!  Yay!

What shall I show you today?  Well, let's take a look through my camera and see what I've been creating since February!

First up, my oldest daughter's Valentine box!  It's a Lemonade Stand!  Isn't it so cute?!  I had such fun creating that with her!

What's next?!  My son played Minors baseball this spring season and their All Star team won the Regional Championship!!!!  I made ALL STAR stars for all of the players!  It was a fun time!

September brought the beginning of school and with that, new grades and a new child entering school!  Everyone on Pinterest and facebook have their chalkboard signs that their darling little ones hold up.  I decided to be a rebel once again and create something completely different!  When we moved into our house last year, I didn't have a place for my mini Christmas tree that was in my old craft room.  So, I put it in a lonely corner in my kitchen and have decorated it throughout the year.  I decided to decorate it for the beginning of school this season!  I have buses, apples and rulers as ornaments and then each of my kids' grade levels as a topper!

That's it so far!  On to the next post!  Lots more pictures!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hopefully I won't be a stranger to my blog anymore!  I signed up for Lifebook w/ Tamara LaPorte for 2016, and I would like to post my creations on here each week!  We'll see how well I do!  LOL!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope you're enjoying your day with your loved ones!  I have a new project that I am sharing that I made for my husband for Valentine's Day.  He LOVES tulips, and I recently discovered impasto painting and decided to try my hand at it for a special gift for him!  He loves it!  I'm so glad!  I feel like the jury is still out, but this IS my very first art piece!  So, with time, I will grow!

To start, I pulled out a piece of drywall.  I mixed beige Liquitex paint with joint compound and scraped it onto the drywall.  With a paint brush, I added hints of dark yellow for contrast and to look like the sun is pouring through the background.
The stems were created with different colors of green Liquitex paints and joint compound and laid onto the drywall with pallet knives.
The tulips were created with different reds, again, Liquitex, and mixed with joint compound and laid onto the drywall.
I took white Liquitex and joint compound and added highlights, as well as the vase outline.
The water is white and blue Liquitex paints mixed together.

Here's a detail shot of one of the tulips:

Here's a detail shot of the depth that I was able to achieve!  I hope to get higher and more depth as I continue to explore this amazing technique!

Have a great day!

Painted Organizer

Hi there!  Today I would like to share a crafty altered project with you!  I have had a fascination with acrylic paints for quite some time.  I don't really know what to do with them, other than what I see on pinterest, and I try to mimic what I see, creating my own canvases and artwork.  I HATE copying and will NEVER copy anyone's work!  But, I like to take different ideas and put my own spin on it.  One of the techniques that I learned from browsing pinterest is impasto painting.  WOW!  What an absolutely COOL technique!  It totally appeals to me because it's 3-D, and it shows movement where there really isn't any.  It's absolutely awesome and I definitely want to stay on this avenue of art!

Back to my project though.  I was given an organizer by my dad to use however I wished.  He didn't need it any longer, and I can ALWAYS use organizational stuff!  I thought it would hold all of my paints and would be strong enough to haul wherever I go!  As I put my paints inside, I thought it would be cool to decorate the outside!  Well, a week later, it's finally finished!  Haha!  I didn't work on it every day, so really maybe 4 days to complete it...  Hey, I have 4 kids and a life!  Unfortunately I can't spend ALL of my time in my craft room!
Here's what it looked like when I got it:

I started by painting a thin layer of gesso over the entire gray surface:

Then, I started to create!  I drew the letters and the tube of paint by hand, and then painted them.

Closeup of the tube:

On the first side, I wanted to do something different and cool with the acrylic paint.  I mixed my pink paint with Liquitex Pouring Medium and turned the organizer upside down and let it drip.  Once it was dry, I turned it right side up again and it looked like little mountain islands in the middle of the ocean!  I added some white paint and tried to make it look like water.  I felt a bit of Bob Ross coming through!  LOL!  Too bad I didn't paint any little trees!

On the back, I drew and painted a painter's palette.  I painted it as if I was in the middle of a fantastic canvas painting!

And, last but not least, my favorite side!  The impasto side!!!!  Ok, can you tell that I painted lilacs?  I REALLY need to learn freakin shading!!!!  Sheesh!  But, oh the fun I had!!!  I literally glopped paint on a palette knife and slapped it on! SO freeing!  The green leaves, stems and grass I put the paint in a ziplock baggie and piped it on!  Absolutely what I LOVE to do!  I used joint compound as my medium to mix with the paint to create the depth that you see.  That's the only thing I have in my arsenal that would be bulky enough to stand up like it does.  I did go to Mike's to look for impasto paste, but God forbid they should have it!  Guess I'll have to go online once I'm better at this new and awesome technique!!!!!

You can KIND of see the height that I was able to get here:

On the top, I went mixed media, as that is my other true love!  I'm still not an expert, but it's so fun to do random stuff and it all turns out looking cool!  You literally cannot mess up!  Just paint over it!  Haha!

That's it!  Now it's back to work on a new project for March for the store and my ongoing Disney album!
Have a great day!
Thanks for stopping by!