Its been a busy time for me but am now photographing and painting my own designs and have become pattern and packet free............. which is a real freedom but also a bit stressful in case my efforts are rubbish....... we all have these times when we think our stuff isnt up to standard but whose holding the yard stick to say it should be this or that.  Ive discovered its us!  Time to let this thinking go the way of all our outmoded ideas.   Just go for it...........

Heres some of my letting go............

Now you can see why I havent posted on my blog ............ too busy painting!!

This is Ronnie Bringle's "Cheerie Cherries" E Packet that I just had to paint it was such a challenge for me.  This was my late Dad's "Shaving Cupboard" and he kept his shaving razor, soap, lather brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, hairbrush and combs in here over the kitchen sink when we were kids.  After the big house was sold and they retired into a 2 bedroomed bungalow it got put into the garage and after he died was left to get very dusty and neglected.  I found it and begged Mum to let me paint it and make it look nice again.  She reluctantly let me and this was the result.  

Ronnie has a blog called Ronnie's Ramblings where she offers free videos and which I have gobbled up as they are so lush, she is a very generous tutor and was lucky enough to be in one of her workshops and receive first hand instruction.  I took out the door panel first and sanded off the old varnish then basecoated it and left to one side.  Then I decided that Id buy some Anne Sloan chalk paints in blue and white.  I layered 2 coats of blue then one of white and rubbed off some to give the cupboard a distressed appearance then used the wax to finish it off.  Found some drawer liner paper and used that to trim the inside of the cupboard and then replaced the painted panel.  The Cheerie Cherries were a delight to paint the instruction was superb and outcome ........... well you be the judge Id never painted a glass object before nor yet any shiny pottery ie the teapot........ I was excited every time I picked up a brush and was disappointed when Id finished it as it was so enjoyable to paint.  Will definitely paint it again absolutely loved doing this project.

Well I have been looking at this clock blank for some months/years and wondering what to paint....... this glorious sunshine and my Ellis' Orange Apple Tree laddened to the max with gorgeous eating apples made me think of this design by Ritva Rasmussen.  Ive used it on a soap dispenser in my downstairs cloakroom and love it every time I look at it so decided to paint this.  I used the main design from her book and then adapted some of her separate apple branch designs to create the sweeping effect across the clock.  The apples were a delight to paint and I was loathe to paint anything else but they looked eerie floating without branches and leaves..........wish Id varied the size of the leaves a little more though!!  Leaves were done with a floating stroke work technique which is very effective if you remember to strike the central vein through the leaf before it dries!! which I did most times............  the grass was a doddle just a wash of Plantation Pine and flicks of undiluted PP.  The cute little apple fairy was a delight to paint and loved the way the branches showed through his wings.  I decided on how to paint on the numerals leaving just dots for the in between numbers rather than "Mug Out" the design with numbers and then I had a tussle putting on the hands!!  Thank goodness for my fav clock shop "Its About Time" in Killamarsh, they are full of old wind up clocks and restored my Mums old clock to look like new absolutely marvellous company would recommend to anybody.

Well its finished and now sitting in The Nichols Building Shalesmoor Sheffield with a price tag of £15 looking for a new home............... I do hope somebody nice buys it!!  It is as you have gathered a favourite piece

A few commissions this week................

Well my friendly power washer guy, Lee has a lovely girlfriend Mandy who wanted a key cupboard, my hubby brought one home from the car boot sales so I painted this up using the sea sponge and diluted acrylic paints in 2 shades of green and a French Blue sky.  Mandy had seen the "Girl with the Flower"  painting Id completed and commented on how much she liked the white daisy so I decided to paint a cluster of those to start with............. then I thought about it and decided to paint a yellow butterfly to compliment the centres of the daisies.  Then I needed something on the sides and thought ladybird....... I know the red wasnt in tone with everything else but I love ladybirds and it was such a sunny day when I was painting I had to include one.  The other side I painted the cute little brown beetle which seems to have so much character and it was finished.

And the next project................ my sons girlfriend saw this cute little shelf with drawers and coat hooks on the bottom (missing in the photo I took them off to paint and varnish this)(PS they are now back on it)  She has seen some of my Ritva Rasmusson fairies before and I had a new book with Trolls and Fairies in it and she saw this cutie, its supposed to be on a wood cut out with a cane at the bottom to stick into your flowerpots or flower beds.  She loved the look of her but didnt want me to use red on the flowers so opted for pink.  I set to and really enjoyed doing this one even though I had to do the same image twice.  She says shes going to hang it at the bottom of the stairs.  At least its another piece out of my craft room and less for hubby to grumble about.................

Clare's technique messed with by me..............

Well I loved Clare's workshop so much I couldnt leave the idea alone that I had/needed to paint another lady.............. I went through my stash of photos and images and finally found something to paint - "The Face" then I dragged out a canvas thats been stood against my wall for a couple of years and set to using the Multi Purpose Sealer from DecoArt................slathered it on then found an old book and pulled out the pages wincing at every page ........... I was brought up to not vandalise books etc so this was completely against the grain but had to be done.......... these were supposed to be soaked in water with some coffee round the edges to age them but they were so flimsey and aged anyway I missed this step out........... what a mistake the central page is the only one that didnt wrinkle and thats cause I kept reapplying the paint brush over and over to flatten it out with my hand underneath the canvas for leverage!!  Next time I will soak the pages (Oh yes there will be a next time I love this technique and look) and do what Clare said!!  I lay the pages onto the wet MPS and applied more and more MPS............ the canvas was awash with it by the time Id finished but at least I knew the pages wouldnt peel off.........they wouldnt dare!! tee hee

I then got a sheet of clear plastic and laid over "The Face" and carefully traced with a permanent black marker pen.  When the canvas was dry I traced using graphite paper and then outlined and started to enjoy my painting relaxing into the flow and watching the paint make magic.  When it came to the hair I wanted full lions main type hairstyle with curls, waves and spikes.  This was great fun and I had to restrain myself cause I could have filled the whole canvas and swamped The Face which would have been silly.  I checked with Clare and she gave me some pointers (I needed them!!) and then felt I could step back............... Silly me asked hubby what he thought and all I got was silence.........

There you go then....................

BADFA Convention - Clare Holmes technique

I went to the 20th Anniversary BADFA Convention at Crick, Rugby, Northants (31st May/1June 2014) and what a brilliant time I had, I made so many friends I was a little emotional coming away on my own in my perfect little car!  I took 3 workshops:  2 Saturday and one Sunday.  Saturday I started off from my house at 6am and arrived at 7.10am which was brilliant as the M1 is a nightmare at the best of times, I found the Ibis Hotel and parked up going into the lobby and waiting for the ladies to all start coming down for breakfast. My delight at seeing Gill Hobbs from Bude, Cornwall and enjoying a huge hug from her.  She was my first workshop of the day and we painted a little traditional piece which was fun to do then we had coffees and did some chatting and the like!!  Next was Clare Holmes workshop which was something completely different in the it fell into the category of Altered Art having first pasted book pages onto board for us to then trace and paint the little girl with a flower.  I adored this technique........... We all enjoyed her workshop immenseley and then went to settle down for the evening meal.  It was on 2 tables and we all had plenty of conversation and a fabulous meal together.  Then we went for the evening "Make & Take" which was Dian Harris putting out some crafting goodies, stamps etc and letting us run free with it.  She had kindly made a bag with the contents to make a concertina book and was brave enough to let us loose on her stencils, stamps etc.  Everybody made something different and unique and we all enjoyed ourselves so much.  The next day I did the Andy Skinner workshop which was an altered art journal.  This was very different from what we usually do and brought out the best in us all!!

Sorry about the lopsided images doesn't matter what I do I cant get my photos to stay up the right way around..........

Key Cupboards for Joyce

I painted the first cabinet using Peggy Harriss' bee and butterfly designs from her book and the queen anne's lace and took the seperate elements and composed it all together.  She was so happy she asked me to paint another one for her daughter with a fairy sitting on a toadstool so I looked through my Ritva Rasmusson painting books and spied this cute little fairy sitting in some flowers so made her sit on a large mushroom and painted the ones as if she was surrounded in a fairy ring of mushrooms.  This was  a fun project and I used some mica paints to give a pearlescence to her clothes and wings.