A local craft store advertisement had these cute Candy Corns painted on cylindrical cones and I immediately thought of our set of 3, Puffed Trees and how they would be great as Candy Corns.
2 comments - Posted by Anita at 2:00 PM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Painting | Staff Projects
I have 32 nieces and nephews and 11 grand-nieces and nephews. (I’ll pause here so your eyes can refocus.) My mom likes to create ornaments every year for her grandchildren (my nieces and nephew if you are family tree challenged). So every year, I am on the look-out for ideas to help my mom out, especially since I usually enlist myself to help her make these ornaments. (See other ornament options here.)
3 comments - Posted by Anita at 6:00 AM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Painting | Staff Projects
My son is currently serving a mission for our church in Brazil, and in his weekly letters he always tells us about life there (he is in the southernmost state of Rio Grande del Sul near Porto Alegre, beautiful but life is definitely different than here in the US and in Canada). It has helped our family become even more grateful for the wonderful life we live here in the Portland Oregon metro area. I also LOVE sheep (as you can see in our Artist’s Clubhouse). I had the privilege of trying out Renee Mullins new book “Mini Seasons Volume 3” and chose this beautiful traditional scene that reminds me of all the sheep in Oregon’s Willamette Valley where I grew up.
At the time I began this project, we hadn’t yet received any of the Roc-Lon fabric that she made her projects with I am SO looking forward to experimenting with it, and we have the cutest little quilt hangers to display them on too! But I easily adapted it to a wood surface, just expanding the design out a bit and tweaking the top scallops to the sides. Renee’s patterns are so pretty, all of us at Artist’s Club were oo-ing and ahh-ing over every single one—I want to paint so many of these cute banners!
Renee’s directions were really easy to follow and I really liked how well the Americana paint covered so I didn’t have to recoat a bunch of times, yet if I made a boo boo I could cover it up easily. This cute little scene is perfect to celebrate patriotic America, back-to-school, spring lambing season...you might have guessed I chose this pattern because it would look great year-round in my home.
The stars I used along the sides are an Artist’s Club favorite, the Rusted Star 1 Inch that comes in a package of 6 and I just painted them, spattered them, then used a little Americana Wood Glue to apply them to the finished project.
Oh! Before I forget—if you’re messy like me, you’ll LOVE this product: Kiss-Off Stain Remover I didn’t know it existed until Mary Jo and Diane gave me some, it really works! I used it on Acrylic and Latex and it is fantastic!
Happy Painting!
<3 Lisa
2 comments - Posted by Lisa at 11:26 AM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Painting | Staff Projects
I love painting and decorating for fall and Halloween, there is something about the rich colors that I love that makes my home feel extra warm and cozy; at least that is how my boys have explained it. So, I am always on the lookout for things that I can turn into something wonderful to add to my always growing collection of fall decorations. I love our Rectangle Electric Candlelight, and right away I could see painting a large pumpkin on the front, so my pencil and I went to work. After I had the pumpkin design drawn and painted on, I then painted the sides and back black and then used Renee Mullins’ new Swirl Dot Star Stencil to add a fun pattern in purple, yellow and green to the sides. To make it look more like a real pumpkin I added two artificial green leaves next to the candlestick, which I painted Honey Brown in order for it to look more like a stem. I added a striped fabric bow to the base of the candlestick to finish the look, and I am quite happy with how he turned out. I can’t wait to display him this upcoming fall and Halloween!
My mind has a tendency to think outside the box, especially when it comes to coming up with new ideas for our existing surfaces, and I am always trying to find a way to turn something into a pumpkin because they are so much fun to paint. I challenge you to step out of your creative box and imagine a surface in a different light, you never know, you might just create something wonderful. I would love to hear and see your ideas either here on our Staff Blog or on our Painting Community, so let those creative juices flow!
Happy Painting!
4 comments - Posted by Diane at 6:50 AM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Staff Projects
This cute gift bag was created using our Canvas Lunch Sack and DecoArt's SoSoft Paints. I adapted a design found in Laurie Spelt's Simple Sampler book. This was my first real painting project on canvas. If you remember I did stencil kitchen towels in an earlier post, but this was really my first actual painting project on fabric. I did have a little trouble using graphite paper, so I ended up free-handing the cupcake outline using a regular pencil. You do have to load your brush a little heavier than other surfaces, and paint does go through the canvas a little so make sure you have a cardboard inside the sack. I found shading while the paint was still wet a great adaptation for the canvas. I used Laurie's Swirls and Stars Stencil for the darker blue background and some other stencils we had around that worked for the flower, leaves, and "celebrate!" which made the project super fast. Laurie's Alphay Stencil would be cute on the lettering as well. When stenciling don't forget to use Stencil Tape to block those things that you don't want or you may end up with a boo-boo. Since Laurie's original design was meant to go on wood, not all of her choices of DecoArt's Americana paints crosss over to SoSoft Paints, I had to do some blending of the browns to get the color I wanted. Here is the list of SoSoft Paints that I used: Mocha, Warm Neutral, Dark Chocolate, Ultra White, Buttermilk, Lamp Black, Baby Pink Deep, Fuchsia, Dark Burgundy, Light Hauser Green, Green, Santa Red, Ocean Blue, and True Blue.
And just in case your mouth was watering when you saw these delicious chocolate cupcakes that Lisa made for our chocolate celbration day (her birthday and my anniversary), you can make these delicious Dark Chocolate Rasberry Cupcakes too. Lisa does something a little special, she adds a layer of Ganache before the Vanilla Buttercream frosting.
0 comments - Posted by Anita at 8:00 AM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Painting | Staff Projects
I went on a painting frenzy; once I started Icouldn't stop!
2 comments - Posted by Teri at 8:32 AM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Painting | Staff Projects
It’s always great to have a wide variety of quick and easy projects to paint for the holiday season because you never know when you might need a last minute gift. I came up with two fun and easy designs on our Rusted Stars and our Rusted Snowflakes that are so easy to paint. I turned the star into a pumpkin (I was making a Halloween tree at home, so this was my inspiration for this project). The snowflake just screamed “paint a snowman face on me”, so I did. Both of these were painted with just a few supplies, and painted up in minutes. With just the Holiday, Glowing Colors and Fall DecoArt Paint Pot Sets, you too can create something fun and easy to enjoy for yourself or give as gifts this holiday season. So, grab a surface and let your imagination go, you may be surprised at what you come up with!
Happy Painting
1 comments - Posted by Diane at 9:30 AM - Categories: Finished Projects | Inspiration | Staff Projects
