Raffle Item

I've been looking at this piece for 2 years. I was supposed to paint it as a large raffle item for last year's retreat. Instead, it just sat and then moved with us to our new home. Since I am the retreat chair this year, I figured I'd better get it painted. Besides, it is taking up space and I don't want to be contemplating it for yet another year. So, here it is. This not-so-little three-drawer jewelry box came to me already stained. The design on the top is courtesy of Connie Parkinson and comes from one of her books. I wanted a trompe l'oeil look. The jewelry hanging out of the drawers was my own idea. Once it has a nice finish applied, I have some white ceramic knobs to put on and I'll line the drawers with felt. I hope it is a big success and brings in lots of money at the retreat.

Treasure Boxes

Each year the Town and Country Decorative Painters does a service project. For several years, they have painted Treasure Boxes. These are photo storage boxes that are painted and sent to the children at the Shriner's Hospital for storing their personal stuff while they are in the hospital. We use the photo storage boxes because they fit perfectly into the opening in the bedside table. Since the children can be any age from babies to 18 years old, the designs may be appropriate for any age. The February meeting is reserved for service projects, but I will not be able to paint that day, so I have done mine ahead. I painted two boxes and both designs will probably appeal more to the older children.

Getting Ready for the Basket Luncheon

The annual basket luncheon for Town and Country Decorative Painters is this Sunday. I;m busy packing everything up and making sure I haven't forgotten anything. The theme for this year is A Victorian Tea. My friend and I are making a theme basket. We have a tea set with a rose pattern as the centerpiece of our basket. My job was to paint a cookie plate to match. Here is one of the teacups and my cookie plate. The cookie plate is wood.

A Fun Font

Sometimes you find the answer to a problem in an unexpected place. One of my baskets for the luncheon is a basket of games. All sorts of games: jacks, pick-up sticks, a yo-yo, a cube puzzle, a deck of cards, dominoes, a wooden puzzle, and a glass chess set. In addition to these items, every basket has to have at least 3 painted items and I was really struggling over what I might paint. The container for this basket is a canvas storage bin. While I was noodling over ideas for painted items, I came across a font in MS Word called Game Night. The font consists of Scrabble tiles for each letter of the alphabet. PERFECT!!! Here is what the canvas storage bin looks like now.

Bird House for Bike Trail Benefit

I finally finished my bird house for the Bike Trail Benefit Auction. The birdhouses are given to artists to paint and then they are auctioned off during May Mart, Franklin's garden mart held the first weekend in May in Fountain Park. I really struggled to decide how to paint it this year. I finally found a design on the Plaid website that provided my inspiration. I still need to put varnish on it, but it is done and I can meet the end-of-March deadline. This one is much simpler than the one I did last year, but it is sort of cheerful. I hope it does well in the auction.

More Splashing in Paint

Once again today I played in paint. I had to paint a large raffle item for the retreat. I chose to paint a pair of nesting boxes. The large box is a design by Connie Parkinson. For the smaller box that sits inside, I used a part of the original design. The result is that you see the river and the bridge on the large box and then when you open the box, you are taken down to the river's edge. It turned out pretty well.

Playing in Paint

Today I played in paint for the first time in quite a while. I had a wooden lid for a glass bowl that I had to paint for the Town and Country Decorative Painters retreat in April. This year's theme is Candyland and the bowls are the centerpieces for the banquet on Sunday. For my lid, I used a design by Connie Parkinson. I am very pleased with the piece. I really hate to give it away. Tomorrow I will varnish and then it will be ready to deliver to the banquet chair.

Gingerbread Man

Last week my friend and I spent a day painting wooden gingerbread man plates. These plates can be used in a variety of ways. We have included a glass dish as a liner. This way, you can use the plate as a candy dish, cookie server, candle plate. With the glass liner the plate itself is completely protected.

Christmas Make-It-Take-It

I have to teach a make-it-take-it in a couple of weeks. The requirements are that you have to provide 15 kits that include directions, the surface, a line drawing, everything you need to complete the project. I had these two different styles of laser cut snowflakes, but I only had 12 of each so I needed to come up with a design that works on both styles. I stared at these snowflakes for months waiting for them to tell me what they wanted to be. Finally, I found a piece of clip art that would work nicely. If you want to make similar ornaments, here are the steps to follow:

1. With a barely damp paper towel, wipe DecoArt Warm White across the ornament from about the center to the bottom edge. Repeat with DecoArt Winter Blue from the center to the top edge. The colors should overlap where they meet. You are essentially staining the wood.

2. Sponge the back of the ornament with Winter Blue to cover.

3. Sponge the metallic of your choice around the edge of the ornament making an uneven edge around the design area. (I used Silver on the large ornament and Champagne Gold on the small one).

4. Trace your design onto the center of the ornament using blue Chaco transfer paper.

5. Paint the design. For my design I used Lamp Black. Your design may be different and you may need to use more or different colors.

6. Varnish the piece and when it is dry, thread a piece of narrow blue ribbon through the top of the ornament to make a hanger.

PRESENTING........

Gingerfred Astaire and The Sugarplum Fairy!!!!

Town and Country Decorative Painters held their annual basket luncheon on Sunday. This year the theme was Parade of the Gingerbread Men. The centerpieces were 10-inch tall gingerbread man cutouts. I created Gingerfred and Sugarplum. I wanted to do something a little different.

On the road, again!

After staying home for a whole three days, I headed out again on Friday to take a seminar with Sandy Scales sponsored by Town and Country Decorative Painters. Sandy teaches projects designed by Maureen McNaughton. I took two of the three days of classes and came away with two lovely projects. I will never be an enthusiastic stroke work painter, but I am certainly glad I took the classes and I did learn a thing or two. So here are my projects. The violets are painted on a wooden tray. It needs to have the handles attached to finish it off. The Autumn bouquet is painted on a metal tray/plate with a filigree edge. I painted the lacy edge with DecoArt Traditions Gold using a very light touch so that it mostly just hit the high points of the design.

The Gurls

There is a party happening in my living room! Four full-sized, life-sized Red Hat Gurls are sitting in my living room having a chat.
One of the Red Hat groups I belong to is decorating a car for a PT Cruiser convention at the end of the month. They asked me to design them. I found some Styrofoam wig forms to use for the heads and painted them up. Members provided wigs, hats, clothing, and accessories. This morning 5 of us got together to assemble the gurls. We stuffed thermal underwear and pantyhose to make their bodies--including bras to make sure they were curvaceous. Then we dressed them up. Three of them will sit in the car and one will be hanging on to the roof.


They will sit in my living room for the next three weeks. Their next adventure is a ride to the convention. I can't wait to be driving down the road with these three lovelies riding along--properly seatbelted, of course.

JAL Studios to Host Seminar

I am pleased to announce that I am hosting a seminar with Ros Stallcup in June of 2010. Ros is a nationally known decorative painter who has a number of books published under the Gran's ---- titles. (Gran's Garden, Gran's Gifts, Gran's Welcome, Gran's Attic, and others) She specializes in flowers and fruits, but also does some more scenic designs. All of the work is done using DecoArt American acrylic paints on a variety of surfaces. Here are some photos of projects that I have painted with Ros.

The seminar is scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 11-13, 2010. If you would like more information about this seminar, you can contact me through this blog. Please provide your e-mail address so that I can send you the information. This is a hands-on seminar with one project completed each day. Seating is limited.

More from the Stallcup Seminar

Here are the remaining two projects from the seminar with Ros Stallcup. The Hydrangeas are on a large wooden tray and the porch scene is on a 12x12 wrapped canvas. I am working with Ros to select dates in 2010 when she will come to Franklin, PA, to do a 3-day seminar through my studio. I'll post more information as it is available. Contact me if you are interested in this seminar.

Recent Seminar

A couple of weeks ago, Town and Country Decorative Painters sponsored a 3-day seminar with Ros Stallcup. The seminar was very well attended and the projects were wonderful. Her is the project from Friday. Each student attending the seminar brought whatever surface they wanted to paint on. My piece is painted on a wooden lid that goes to a small basket.

Giving to the community

I think it is important to give of yourself and your time to your community. As an artist, I prefer for the contributions that I make to be in support of art and culture or at least to be artistic in nature. Our town sits on the Allegheny River and we have a bike path/hiking trail that runs along the river. The organization that supports this bike trail recently asked a number of artists and craftspeople in the area to decorate birdhouses that will be auctioned off in April as a fund raiser for this cause. The birdhouses are all alike and were made by a local company. They stand a little more than a foot tall. Unfortunately, the wood was rough and the birdhouses are somewhat rustic. Mine had a very rough roof--too rough to even consider sanding down to smooth. This presented a problem when it came to deciding how to decorate my birdhouse and how to turn the liability of really rough wood into a positive. I settled on making my birdhouse a seaside cottage with weathered siding and I covered the roof in seashells. Since the roof is hinged on one side, I could not run the shells to the hip of the roof. Everything you see is painted on the birdhouse except for the shells.

The Tote Bag Contest

The Buckeye Retreat held a tote bag painting contest at the Saturday night celebration. Everyone was handed a small canvas tote bag when they arrived. There were bottles of paint and bowls of "jewels" set out for us to use in decorating our totes. There were a lot of nice designs. Some people only glued on jewels. Others just painted a design and still others used both paint and jewels. Some people just took their totes home unpainted.

I chose to decorate my tote by painting a bouquet of roses, daisies and berries tied with a ribbon. The choice of colors was somewhat limited, but I think my design turned out pretty well. Mine did not win a prize. The winners were a painted beach scene, a musical score done with jewels and paint, and a design done completely in jewels.

Treasure Boxes

January has been a rather unproductive month. We have had lots of snow, it has been cold, and I have just not been inspired. Today I painted a Treasure Box. The Treasure Box program is sponsored by the Society of Decorative Painters. Boxes like the ones that are used for storing photographs are painted with various designs suitable for children up to age 18. These boxes are then donated to the Shriners Hospitals for the children who are patients to have a place to store their personal "stuff" in their bedside tables. Ours will be sent to the Shriners Hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a nice service project.

TAH DAH, Part 5

Here are some more detailed photos. There is a lot going on in this little community. The stairway wall faces the front door and will have a mirror in the center of the wall over a writing desk. The only details on this wall are to the right and left sides of the wall. On the left side is a school house. Since my husband is a school administrator, it seemed appropriate to include a school in the mural. Notice the swing in the tree for the children to use at recess.

On the right side of the wall, you will find a little cabin nestled in the woods on the side of the mountain..

TAH DAH, Part 4

Here are a few more details from the mural. Moving back through the main wall from the grist mill and to the left, you see a farm house and a barn.

On the hillside behind the farm you will find a herd of sheep grazing.