Lawn Fawn Thanks+Painting Divas Class Projects!

Happy weekend!  It’s very hot here today as we are under a heat advisory!  So thought it was best to stay indoors and keep working on my “catch-up” posts!  This one is a bit different than my usual papercrafting posts, but it’s my finished projects from the crafting retreat I had with friends right before the wedding and why I was so busy!  But first, I’d like to share a fun “thank you” card I made for my friend that hosted it all:

And as you know from my last post, I was on a Lawn Fawn fever mode, so this was also made for my friend that hosted the fun “Painting Divas” retreat for us!  This ADORABLE set called Just Add Glitter was a perfect set to use to create a card for the theme as well as those products to accompany it with the Art Supplies dies, Canvas and Easel as well as the Paint Splatter Background Stencil too!

For the background, I created a scene with a brick stencil from my stash that I’ve had for years which was blended on with some grey ink.  The bottom solid grey portion of the scene I used that paint splatter stencil and some Distress Oxide colors and blended in over it.  By using the oxide inks, the colors showed up better over the grey.

I used these same colors of Oxide inks to sponge over the die cut pieces from the Art Supplies dies as well as the “master piece” splatter on the “canvas” and the brick wall splatters.  I’ve used some LF Woodgrain paper to cut out portions of the “wooden” pieces and the rest of the pieces were cut from white cardstock and then just colored with Copic markers. I arranged the scene to make it fit the way I wanted and then attached it down with some of the pieces being popped up with foam tape.  (The sentiment on the rainbow canvas blob was from a freebie stamp the company is famous for adding to your order.)  I had fun making this one and I chuckle at the “I arted” sentiment!😅

Painting Diva Vicki 2022

For the “Painting Divas” Retreat, we had projects with different teachers and of course you probably recall the Mixed Media birdhouse I did from my past blog post.  CLICK HERE TO VIEW POST  The theme was on that cute little sign as we arrived…”Gnomes & Fairies & Unicorns & Glitter”…how fun is that?!!  We were to created a decorated gift bag to bring with us using the theme and enter for a contest…but totally forgot to bring mine back home for a photo to show! LOL  (I am hoping that we get together to share some photos as I wish I had taken more than what I did!)

I took a quick photo with birdhouses everyone finished for my class and it was so fun to see everyone’s interpretation of how they made their own.  I enjoyed seeing what everyone did! (I think two of these are missing in this photo.) 

Now, I am not an avid decorative painter and don’t spend a whole lot of time doing it, but my mom along with a couple of girls at this retreat are, and have been doing it for many years! (even longer than I have been a paper crafter…which is a LONG time! LOL)  So I have had the privilege of learning a bit about it, through them and mainly my mom.  I’m glad to have this time to share something together and doing when we can.  I appreciate it more than I think it is realized and the memories that are made.🥰

Below is my gallery of projects that I did for each class.  I did this in order of when each class was taught.  If you’re directly on my website, just click on each photo to enlarge it and also see the description of what the dimensions and types of surfaces that were used.  All were hand painted by me using acrylic paints.

Taught by my mom over a canvas board measuring 8″ x 10″ with addition of 3 stars, buttons and knob for nose. You could make a face or paint a gnome, so of course I painted a gnome for mine. I went on my own and added twine to the star…not sure I like it.
Taught by Linda over a 6″ x 14″ thin wood board. I love Halloween so this was a fun one. It came prepped base coated with the blue background. Stars were stenciled with dry brushing. I added some glitter paint on some of the candies after I sealed it.
I zoomed in for a closer look at the pumpkin and some of the candy as it’s hard to see from a distance.
Taught by the host of the event painted over a stretch canvas in 10″ x10″ size pre base coated with black paint. The snowflakes were stenciled with dry brushing and glitter paint was added over the green and red areas. Gold Drip Drops were added to elf and Rhinestones to a few of the larger snowflakes. There was also some splattering done over entire piece.
Taught by Kathy was this cute “photo holder tag” from an 8″ x 5″ thin wood board. I painted over white and then washed with some black for a shiplap look. Wrapped around burlap ribbon plus other ribbons/twine. I added my own decoration at the bottom and popped in a photo.

I have one last project to share which is something I recently finished up before this painting retreat, but it had been sitting around the last few years as an un-finished box not being used.

A few years back, I had gone to a paint convention with my mom and purchased this brush box that was hand-made by an older gentleman and vendor at this place.  My mom also purchased one as well.  I started it quite a while back and had been left at my mom’s place.  I brought it home and finished up the top portion of the box doing some ombre painting and added the wooden lettering on the front.  I added some glitter paint to the lettering after it was sealed.

And here’s what the inside of the box looks like with all of my brushes stored in it.  (Well most of them anyway! LOL)  What I like is that there are separate compartments so that I can organize the different types/styles of brushes in each.  The brushes are protected and dust-free.  The dimensions of this brush box are 11″ x 7″ x 4″ deep all made with wood.  The hardware was removed and then replaced after painting and sealing.

Like I mentioned, I don’t always do decorative painting like this, but since it’s already part of my life and I have accumulated things related to it, I will probably do some things here and there.  It’s like a mixed media thing for me as I don’t always do that, but sometimes I enjoy getting things out for something different.  I like many different crafts which makes this all so fun for me.  It’s nice to have a variety of interests to keep enthusiasm going!

How about you?  Do you have interests in other things besides paper crafts?

Stay COOL and safe out there today friends…how do you like to keep cool?  

Thanks so much for joining me today and I hope you were inspired in some way on your visit!

Challenges:

  1. Crafty Animals – Anything with an animal (card)
  2. Dragonfly Dreams – Indoor Hobbies (card)
  3. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Dies (card)
  4. Happy Little Stampers – Anything Goes with Stencils (card)
  5. Addicted to Stamps & More – Any Occasion (card)
  6. Cardz 4 Galz – Get Inky (card)
  7. Creative Moments – Anything Goes optional: CUTE (card)
  8. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes (card)

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles21 Comments

Creative Artiste July Guest Designer with Mixed Media Birdhouse

Hello friends!  I hope that you’ve had a wonderful week so far and looking forward to the up-coming July 4th weekend for those of us celebrating in the U.S.!  Just came back a few days ago from my son’s wedding which was really beautiful and a remarkable time celebrating with all the family!  (I will share on that in the future here.)

7 July 2022

Today I’m very excited to share my mixed media project as the July guest designer over at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog!  So if you enjoy creating with mixed media, please check out the blog and have some fun playing along with us this month!

I wasn’t required to create anything specific for this challenge as it’s always an “Anything Goes Mixed Media” theme.  So I thought this would be a great time to share the project that I made and taught recently for a crafty friends retreat.  (I will share more on my completed projects in the future here too!)😉

Vicki-MixedMediaBirdhouse

I have made a mixed media birdhouse with a “stand” that is approximately 14″ tall with a width of about 6″ across the birdhouse roof edges.

I purchased a paper mache birdhouse that came without the square layer underneath it or the “perch”.  I added those using my own chipboard and craft stick from my stash.  The “tree stand” was constructed from an old stairway post from my house that had been stored in our shed out back.  We had no use for it, so I had my husband cut down the length that I wanted for the birdhouse, attached the square chipboard piece to it and glued the birdhouse on top of that.  The very bottom was created with my husband’s saw and pieces of left over wood he had which was then screwed to the stairway post.  Here’s what the items looked like unassembled…

For the “tree bark” look on my post, I covered the entire post with some crackle paste and let it dry along with all of the glue and white gesso to prime everything.  For the “roof” of the birdhouse, I took a couple of pieces of regular cardboard that you would throw away from a box.  I cut it to size for the roof, ripped off the layer to expose the corrugated texture underneath and glued it to the roof.  This was primed with black gesso.

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Here’s a closer view of the roof.  To get that “rusty” texture look, I used the Finnebair Rust Affect Pastes.  Not only does it give that look, it also gives the texture too.  The class seemed to enjoy that part.  I’ve also added some more textures with the art stones, wax and moss.  You will also notice that I’ve used this same method with the “perch” too.

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The other side of the roof also has added texture with art stones as well as a tin mechanical butterfly that was painted up with some Sparks sparkle paints.

For the “tree post” I added some paint(s) mixed with touches of water to make the texture stand out to get that “tree” look to it.  It was wrapped with a vine ribbon and flowers that were painted to coordinate with the project and then attached to the vine.  The centers of the flowers were made with beads, painted and waxed over them.

And here’s a closer view of not only the post and flowers, but the fence which was also painted with watered down paint as well as painted mushrooms that were actually a bright red color.  I wanted to customize it to coordinate with the project.  I’ve attached some decorative rock and a little crystal ball at the bottom of the platform along with the green moss which covered up the rest of the areas.

As for the birdhouse areas, I ripped up pieces of printed vellum and randomly attached those pieces as desired.  I also took some texture paste and a brick stencil to go over areas of the birdhouse being careful where I wanted to place my different clay molds.  I made all of the clay molds shown and enough for everyone in class too. This is where all of the art stones were attached too.  At this point is where the clear gesso comes in because of the printed vellum that you don’t want to get covered up with the white.  Once attached glue pieces and paint dried, this is where I painted with watered down blue Pasto Paint so that the vellum is still visible through it.  I also painted a very light washing of white paint to go over the brick areas for highlights.

And lastly, to create the “runny rust” colors around the clay and textured areas, I used a couple of different paints that were sprayed with water to let them drip down over the areas.  This gives shadows to the texture and the illusion of your rusty roof affecting the sides of the birdhouse.

All of the textures were lastly highlighted with silver wax paste and the rest was just adding the green moss and the Spanish moss in the hole of the birdhouse.  I have a photo of the class finished pieces that I will share in an up-coming post along with other projects I made for my classes during the retreat.

**Really hope you’ve enjoyed my mixed media birdhouse project and given you some inspiration in some way!  Please be sure to stop in at the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge for more inspiration by the team…hope you can join in the fun with us this month!**

Thanks so much for stopping in and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Love to Scrap – #156 Anything Goes
  2. Love to Craft – #69 Anything Goes
  3. Arty Divas – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles25 Comments

‘Create’ Steampunk Mixed Media Canvas

Hello friends!  Happy Saturday!

Oh I had so much FUN playing around with all of the really cool “Steampunk” products!  Today, I’m sharing this mixed media canvas project that I made:

Vicki-BM-SteampunkCanvas

This was so much fun to just get “messy” and enjoy a different creative process other than making a card!  If you’ve been around my blog for a while, then you’ve probably seen me share a different project from time to time.  Sometimes I just like to ‘change gears’!  Hahaha!

So I had this old 8″ x 10″ canvas laying around and thought it would be cool to take several chipboard pieces I had and make something.  I started off by taking some wooden letters from my stash and gluing those on.  I then took a stencil (gears) and randomly added embossing paste through it over the canvas.  Once dried, I then painted over everything with some black gesso.

I’ve used several metallic paints from my stash and using my “finger tool” I went over all of the textured areas of the canvas and along the edges.  I also used the paints to paint over the Chipboard Gear Background which was randomly cut out with my scissors and glued randomly over the canvas.  At first I was thinking it was weird to mix the different color metallic together, but then thought that steampunk can sort of be like that anyway.

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What’s hard to capture in a photo is that Gilded Sparkle embossing powder over the wings!  It’s stunning IRL!  I’ve heat embossed the Chipboard Wings with it and then I heat embossed the Chipboard Key with the EP.  I went around the edges of it with some silver metallic paint so that it showed up better against the black background.

For the image, I stamped the hat with black Ink onto an already cut out white Cardstock from the Steampunk Cut file.  I colored it up with several different Aqua Pigments and sponged around the edges of it with some brown ink.  I also took some Copper metallic paint and went around the edges too.  I took the heat embossed wings along with that hat image and splattered them with some black paint as well.

The wings were attached onto the canvas with some black foam tape and then I curled the ends of them that are hanging off the edges.  I attached the heat embossed key in the center of the wings and then added the colored image over top.

Vicki-BM-SteampunkCanvas1

For a little bit more texture on the canvas, I decided to take the EP to randomly heat emboss areas that were sprayed with water.  The water was just so that the powder had something to stick to and then once heat set, I added more until I was happy with it.  I like the look of the embossing where the spray marks are.

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Lastly, to finish it off, I’ve used the metal gears, ribbon (tied in bow over top of the key), gold pearls (painted in copper metallic paint), and sequins – as well as another gear (attached in the center of the ribbon bow) and a clock button (painted with black and metallic paints) from my stash that was all glued on.  I also added some silver glitter to the center of each sequins.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my “Steampunk Mixed Media Canvas” today and were inspired in some way.

Thanks for dropping by!  I’ll see you soon!

Challenges:

  1.  Crafty Gals Corner – Emboss It
  2. Creative Moments – Anything Goes
  3. A Inky Mess – Anything Goes Mixed Media
  4. More Mixed Media – Anything Goes (optional bright colors)
  5. A Bit More Time to Craft – Anything Goes

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles17 Comments

Crafty Retreat Results

Hello friends!  I finally found the time to make a post and gather all of my photos together so that I can share a post with you from last week’s “Crafty Retreat” that I went to at my friend’s house.  I’ve pretty much known the “host lady” and her family since I was a little child, so they’re pretty much friends of the family with me. 🙂

I actually had forgotten to take my own photos except for a few on the second day during the day I taught a class, but I was able to get a few photos from others to share.  (You know how it goes when everyone is moving about or you’re working on something or teaching and forget to take photos!  LOL)

So the “theme” for the crafty retreat was called “Hats off to Painting!”  The majority of the group likes to tole paint, but we all (including myself) like to try our hands at many other crafting avenues to try different products that we may not be familiar with…so there are some “mixed” projects today I’m sharing!  I had such fun during the entire 3 days!

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Here we are with our decorated hats on for a group photo!  Even little ‘Gizmo’ had his hat on, but not sure he was feeling the fun like the rest of us! LOL! (Unfortunately the host was taking the photo!)  We all had our Dick Blick aprons and shirts on which was very kindly donated for our “Painting Divas” group…they were VERY generous with the bag of goodies they gave us!  We had all 3 days worth of fun, classes and prizes!

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So, the reason for all of the fun crafty hats is that we were to take a hat and decorate it for a challenge.  Here is a photo of all of our hats.  There were some really fun and creative ideas as you can see!  One of the girls was quite tired from all of the crafting and decided to take a little siesta during the festivities!  LOL!  It was very cool that I was the winner voted for my created hat design.  (You can see on the table above and here’s a closer look below):

Vicki-Sreampunk Hat

I guess it’s a bit hard to see in the photo above of me wearing it, but I had hubby bring home one of his hard hats from work along with a pair of goggles and then I went to decorating it in “steampunk” style!  I had fun with it and enjoyed the process!

Vicki-Configuration Spell BookVicki-Configuration Spell Book open

Here is the altered “Potions and Spells” book that I taught for the class!  Last year at the “Crafty Retreat” they saw my “altered book” that I had previously made during my time as a Splitcoaststampers.com “Dirty Dozen” DT member and asked if I could teach how to make one for this year’s class.  So instead of the “altered book” idea, I had them all use a Tim Holtz Configuation Book.

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Here are some of the book covers all lined up that we were waiting on to dry before we were able to start painting them.  A couple of the book covers were left at the work table, but while those were drying, we worked on the inside of the book.

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Here’s another photo of me standing there holding one of the books and everyone was finished with their books looking at them at the end of class.  They seemed to really enjoy this messy project!  I just loved teaching these fun ladies too!

Vicki-Santa Gourd Ornament Class

This is from my mom’s class where she taught us this cute Santa ornament that we painted on a gourd!  He makes me giggle!   I love it!

Vicki-PenguinChill Class

The host lady is the one that taught this cute penguin class!  I adore penguins and I’m so happy that I took the time to finish this up when I got home!  (More details and a 3D look at these projects are in the video above.)

I really hope that you’ve enjoyed all of these projects as much as I enjoyed creating them!  I also had another set of calendars that I finished, but I’ll share on another post on another day as this one is pretty full!!  LOL!

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One more thing to share is that we have a robin’s nest with one little blue egg inside.  We have a a Prairie Fire Crab Apple tree in our backyard full of pretty blooms and I guess the robin thought it was a nice place to make a nest…so we’ll wait and see if there is a baby bird coming soon!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all of you moms out there!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!  Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you soon!!

*Vicki* from Stamped Smiles23 Comments