happy halloween

just a few decorations out for tonight's events. hoping for at least a few goblins.....happy halloween! the sign was a gift from my best friend who made it for me. i love the silver background! thank you!!

re-purposed metal shelf with a tray

as we were working on this project, i was thinking that it needed a tray (for the chalk). i did some digging into my extra stuff and came up with a vintage shredder. my husband (bless his heart) worked a little magic and got the shredder bent in the right spot so that we could attach it to my "family coordination center."

as we were talking about about my plans for this project, i was thinking that cork on a portion would be cool; and low and behold, my husband had a stash of cork- he is very handy and well prepared (for anything- especially projects that his wife wants to do....).

this was a metal shelf for a cart that i picked up at an auction recently; it somehow had been separated from the rest of the cart. it started its' life as a brown fake wood grain middle shelf for a 3 shelf cart. we sanded it down, primed it, and then, painted the outer edges an ivy green.

once that was dry, we painted the chalkboard paint onto the bottom portion and my husband helped me attach our tray and the wire hangar in the back for me. it turned out so well, i think my husband would like to keep it, but, it will be going on the occasional sale coming up in a couple of weeks.

things that "went" bump in the night

this was our motley crew of artists for the night. i am the referee trying to blow my whistle....

this was my finished piece....i really liked my creepy story i had come up with and my image transfer worked great.

this is just the end of the story. you can kind of see the great texture that was on the painting. i used a painting that had not sold to start over with and paint on for the evening. it was really fun to see what each of us did- all VERY different. we raised over $800 to donate to our local fine arts community! great fun was had by all that evening! thanks to HGS Gallery for hosting- it was a spooktacular idea!!

and tonight, i shall paint (in my best transylvania accent)

tonight, my best friend who owns HGS gallery here in town is hosting a "things that go bump in the night" painting show. she asked 6 local artists to a "paint off." we have a set amount of time for painting and at the end of the evening, our creations set to the theme, will be in a silent auction. the money we raise tonight will be donated to our local fine arts committee who are working on a community project.

i normally do not paint in a set amount of time, so although, i will be painting in acrylics, (my medium of choice), the time factor has been making me nervous. above, is a transfer off a vintage pic that i plan on using. getting the gel medium onto the copy and allowing time for drying in between layers takes time...time i did not want to lose tonight- so i prepped this last weekend.

this is a portion of my storyline....i was doing a trial run to see what i wanted to write my story in...pencil, versus ink, or sharpie....i'm thinking a combo of pencil (which would be my choice) and ink. oh, and we have to wear costumes!! that was the other kicker for tonight...i am looking forward to tonight just to see what we all will create. there will be some very talented artist there tonight. i will try to get pics of the creations to share with you. wish me luck....

1st snow of the season

this first snow won't stay long, but, it is kinda pretty this morning....

repurposed cereal bags

here is another project that i had wanted to try- the idea had come from here. i used a small piece of cotton, stamping, torn music sheet and buttons along with sewing them into a cut out cereal bag. i really like the soft look through the bag.

she had attached her's to string, but, i was considering putting a magnet on mine. thoughts on this? would love to hear what your thoughts are on this! thanks!!

how my garden is still growing- a painting

loving the texture and scrapes in the paint....

and the bits of collage...

and this is the whole painting that has been "cooking" for a while. it was a follow up to my initial "how my garden grows." you can see the other painting here.   i finally figured out what it needed and was inspired to finish it. the colors make me happy-  thank goodness for studio time on the weekends!!