Just a Crazy Door . . .

 

I found this old George Washington plaque at Goodwill.  It was old and out of style, just begging to be used again.  And when I took out my sketch book, I found the perfect idea!!

 We were in St. Simon's Island this summer, which is a sleepy, old beach town in southern Georgia.  Beautiful little houses line little beach streets covered with shade from old oak trees.  In my sketch book this summer I had sketched a door from a beach house which I thought was absolutely amazing. The green vine around the door was covered in flowers and big green leaves.  The door was teal, but it didn't have the colorful inserts, I just loved this paper!

 

So here was George Washington and he finally met his match with Gesso. 

I mixed titan buff with modeling paste. I striped it across the board to make it look like wooden slats.  I drew on the door, painted it up and added paper onto the door panels. 
 

Then I needed the colors of the flowers to match the colors in the door.  I didn't have the exact colors so I mixed a bunch of paints to get the right colors.  I did this in little swatches so I could cut out little circles and leaf shapes! 
 

Then I glued them on with matte medium . . . 

My daughters said the house needed windows.  So here they are!!





I doodled around the door and flowers with my black pens ...

And as a final touch I went around the edges with distress ink on my fingers to bring out the edges like the original piece.

The door has grown on me.  I really like it.  A really crazy door, but it makes me happy.  ePaperie sells all my favorite colors of Golden paint and I used a lot of of paint on this project!

For my Granny!

My Granny turned 92 this year!! She finally decided this year that she couldn't travel to see us anymore because she lives in Scotland and coming to the States is quite an ordeal for her.  Luckily for me, my amazing husband told me I should go visit her this fall.  His wonderful parents are going to watch the girls for us and I am going to get to visit with her and my mom! SO excited.  I wanted to make something for her, but really, what kind of art piece would a 92 year old like to have?  And while I was having this conversation in my head with myself, a hot air balloon drifted across the horizon . . . sometimes inspiration comes and knocks us over our head and so, here is the piece I made for Granny! 

I sketched out the balloons on the canvas so I could get an idea of sizing! (Seriously good circles right?  Good thing nobody is relying on me to sketch projects!)

I painted the edges of the canvas to help the final piece have a more finished look!

I took out my new Crate Paper collection and cut out a background and some rolling hills!

I cut out some plain balloon shapes from plain white paper.  Then I pieced in the patterned paper to give the balloons some color! 

I used some twine to connect the balloons to their baskets.  This just gave the piece some dimension and texture!

Then I added my texture layers ...  Distress Ink into a stencil, rub-ons and stamping around!!

I sealed it all in with my matte medium and realized I had finished the jar . . . I LOVE this stuff. I can't tell you how it has changed my life!!  I used to use Decopauge ALL the time.  But it was sticky and goopy when I didn't want it to be.  Then I ordered some of Claudine Helmuth's matte Medium from ePaperie. It is amazing!! Thick, quick drying and so useful for gluing and sealing!!

See . . . time to order more!!

And the finished piece, ready to board the plane with me later this week and head off on our adventure!  Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope inspiration floats right into your life this week!!

Fall Bees . . .

The little bee that sat on my tomato plant yesterday, inspired me. I did a couple of sketches and then I just felt like I wanted to create this canvas. It was so much fun and just a silly little whimsical piece. 

I started by mixing Golden Teal paint with equal parts water in a spritzer bottle.  I then sprayed it through the Donna Downey Turkish Grunge stencil. I actually learned the paint and water trick from Donna!!  I love it because the paint is permanent and doesn't move again!  So it works really well as a first layer because you can build on it and not worry about smudges!

 

I stenciled in some lettering on the bottom of the canvas for another layer.  This time I used distress ink and I will have to be careful when I put paint over it!! 

Here is where I decided there was too much white space.  I mixed the teal and some mixing white and put it down on the canvas.  Then I sprayed it with water and moved it around the canvas.  This kept it thin and didn't cover up the stenciled teal spray layer!

For the grass, I mixed green paint with glazing medium.  This makes the acrylic more transparent because I want to see the text! I used an old gift card to make sure the layer of paint was nice and thin!

After the paint dried, I put a coat of Interference Blue all over the top of the canvas.  It just gives a shimmer and is translucent!

I drew on some bees and filled them in with yellow paint mixed with modeling paste to give them a pop!

I highlighted with Pit pens, doodled, put on rub-ons, stickers and paint around the edges!

Thank you for stopping by!! Make sure to say, "HI" because I LOVE to hear from you all!!  And stop by the http://eclecticpaperie.com/ and shop!!

Just some inspiration from my garden today!

 This fall bee looked a little stunned today.  It is colder and overcast outside so he wasn't flying around happily.  I found him just sitting on the tomato plants ... he did fly away, annoyed,  when I moved the vine . . .

Off to sketch the little guy!

Linnie Blooms Guest Design . . .Easy Holiday Gift Idea!!

Welcome to my 4th Guest Design for Linnie Blooms!! I hope you all have enjoyed the canvas shapes as much as I have!! It has been an amazing opportunity and I have really enjoyed working with the Linnie Bloom designers.

I know it is still October, but you know I like to plan ahead for the holidays.  I made this wooden board piece as a present to give this year!  

This is a SUPER simple project that anyone can do!!  I started with a piece of wood scrap. (You could use a canvas or even a heavy duty cardboard! Heck, this would even make a simple card!!)

Then I covered the piece of wood with whole piece of paper. 

Next, I cut an ornament shape out of a sheet of music.  I wanted to make a white ornament, but the paper was just a little too busy.  So I mixed some glazing medium with white gelato.  It made an opaque glaze and it was perfect!  You can still see the music notes and words but it definitely toned down the print!

I also took my Linnie Shape Big Heart and colored it with my red Gelato. I think the gelato was seriously made to color on Linnie Shapes, they work so well and SO easily together!! 

 Luckily, I had a happy accident.  One of the sides of the paper was just a tad too big for the block. I tried to trim down the paper, but it looked jagged. I opened the drawer of my desk and found sand paper. I sanded down the paper and it looked amazing.  Sanding all the sides and a little extra at the corners  makes the it look like the paper is part of the block.  Love it! 

Then I glittered.  I don't tend to use glitter at any other time of the year.  To me, the holidays scream GLITTER!! I put an edge of glue around the ornament and sprinkled on the shine!! 

I painted the edges to match the paper.

I glued all the pieces together,  bent a little piece of wire to make the ornament 'hanger,' and threaded the ribbon through.

I printed out some text, a holiday quote that gets me through the crazy season and used matte medium to seal the paper and glue it onto the background.    I finished off with doodling and rub-ons to give another layer!!

Make sure you stop by Linnie Blooms shop and the Linnie Blooms Blog for more ideas!!  We also have a growing Pinterest page, that will totally inspire you!!

eclectic Paperie - Altered Box Challenge!

ePaperie October 'Get Altered Challenge' . . . Alter a Box!! 

Come on over to ePaperie and play along!!   You can win a $15 gift certificate to eP!

This is totally a Christmas Present idea!!  When I was a kid, I had a little wooden box that had miniature worry dolls inside.  It was my worry box and whenever I was worried, I could take out a little doll and tell it my worries.  Here is my take on a newer 'worry box!'   This time, worries can be written down and put into the little tin!  I think this might be my little box, because 5 is my special number!

I started with an empty Altoid tin.  Then I just got lost in the gluing paper, smearing on paint, rub-ons and doodling . . . I didn't take one picture of my process!!

I think it would be fun to write down your worries on little tags and put them in the box.

Plus, I put a little note in the bottom, just as encouragement!