Challenges

One of the things that keeps me painting is the acrylic challenges at wetcanvas.com.

Back in January the theme was skies, and we were supposed to paint three different skies, but I only managed to get two done, a sunrise and a sunset.  I have always wondered if there was an observable difference between sunrises and sunsets. One web page I looked at says there is basically no difference so I could tell you that this painting is either a sunrise or a sunset, but I choose to call it a sunrise.

In this one, though, anyone local would know the direction we are facing. And for those who don't, this is a sunset.

February's challenge was opposites. I went with soft and hard and painted paws holding a rock on a wooden circle which I later turned into a brooch with a polymer clay bezel.

The March challenge was tonalism, spring, and a big brush which was interesting but, well, you can see how that went in my video. https://youtu.be/Nd1Liyq-F7I

April's challenge was to paint in the style of Moriandi and keep it very soft and pastel. This was an introduction to Moriandi for me and it isn't easy to paint in a different style but I think I managed to get some of his influence in this.

And in this month's challenge we were given a few very vague and blurry images to choose from as a starting point. I chose this one:

Here is my first layer of paint:

And this is what I came up with:

RPG Themed Shadowbox

It has been a long time since I last posted. I'll admit to not being very productive over the past year, though I have done some painting and crafting. Some of it was just for fun and some I will get around to posting online eventually.

I was also working on this project on and off and it is finally finished. It all started with the blue bottle charm which made me think of potions in video games. The idea grew to create something around that theme. When I found a set of old cake pans at a yard sale it didn't take me long to realize they were just what I needed for this project.

This is not based on any specific game but I will say my biggest influences would be Final Fantasy and Blade of Darkness. If you play these types of games you will recognize many aspects of them in this piece. I especially wanted to focus on the exploring and finding things that help you in the game... weapons, armour, potions... and the excitement of finding a new place and doors that open.

There is a mixture of handmade and bought elements in this. The backgrounds of the larger boxes are acrylic paintings and the smallest is simply painted to look like wood grain. There are some handmade polymer clay items; the decoration on the side, treasure chest which opens and has glass jewels inside, sword, shield, round and oval decorations, bricks, stones, apple, candle, and a small silver box. The book is also handmade and can be opened. And then there are some resin pieces, charms, beads, and fabric flowers.

Blue Sky Over Golden Field Commission!

I was recently commissioned to do a painting for the new funeral chapel in Dauphin, Manitoba. I was asked to do a blue sky over a golden wheat field with the Duck Mountains in the background and a little Ukrainian church near the horizon. And in case you don't recognize it, this is meant to represent the Ukrainian flag. It is 4 x 2 feet, a lot bigger than what I normally do! I was a little worried at first but it wasn't too bad, just a lot of repetition. I don't want to look at wheat again for a while.

The client finally saw it in person today and was very happy with it, actually, if I may say, used the words "breathtaking" and "mesmerized". After a long time of little success this is really a thrill for me. Thank you Joe for this amazing opportunity!

A close up:

I will post again when the painting on display.

Miniature Sewing Room

My second shadow box is done. I started on this last year and then put it aside for a while and recently decided it was time to finish it. This idea all started with these items that I bought, along with the little sewing machine, years ago.

I had to build the sewing table, using cardboard, filagree pieces, wire, etc. The shelves are also made of cardboard. On them there is fabric, ribbon on spools made of paper and plastic tubes from inside a pen, thread on spools made from a toothpick and cardboard, painted cardboard buttons on paper, books and boxes made from paper and fabric, a basket made of wire and crochet cotton with balls of yarn that are mostly crochet cotton, and a couple of the bought items.

On the walls there is a faux mirror made with a resin frame and silver sticker paper, a cuckoo clock that is just a charm, a little hat that I made, and a tiny painting in a resin frame. The painting is 7/8 x 5/8" (2 x 1.5 cm). And there is a pretend light fixture on the ceiling which is a painted resin piece, bead caps and a glass drop. The texture on the ceiling which you can kind of see was done with modeling paste.

Here is a close up of the painting.

Frost

It's surprising how many hours it took just to paint the leaves for this, but I got it done, and combined them with more painting, beadwork, and some microbeads to create this frosty picture.

 Here's a close up:

Good news!

Today I just shipped my first online sale, to someone who is not family. Five pieces of jewelry! I hope this is a sign of good things to come.

And I have been trying to be more productive, but it is hard when my son is home. "Mommy play Minecraft with me." "Mommy get me an infinity bow." "Mommy find me more diamonds." If you play Minecraft you know these things take all day, especially when you have just started a new world playing only in survival. Make that two new worlds.

Meanwhile, I have a new project going. I recently found a big stash of pressed flowers and leaves in my craft room. They were sitting in a book for about 20 years and still look good. I have found a use for these dusty miller leaves and I'm in the process of painting them. It took me a couple of hours to get half of them done, while watching Poirot on Netflix. I hope to get to do that again today.

New Year, New Desk!

All I wanted for Christmas was a corner computer desk, the kind where you actually sit facing the corner. There doesn't seem to be very many like that but I did find one on the Walmart site. It just fits in the space I have, after removing a few things. Then I gave my son my old computer desk and was able to take out his little table, which is now a Lego table, and this opens up a lot of space in my room.

Also, my dad built some nice shelves for my bead containers, which is much better than the big shoe rack I was using.



Before:

After:

Before:

After:

The only thing you can't see is my over-stuffed closet.

Now to get back into creating more. I feel like I have been really slacking off for some time. As a warm up I did a quick little painting for the Different Strokes Project at wetcanvas.com, the theme this month being favourite childhood toy. I chose this stuffed lion cub that I still have and added it to my art journal, using paint and stencils to fill the rest of the space.

I also finished a digital piece using Procreate on my iPad. The reference was a photo of vegetables from my garden. Not sure how I really feel about it, but it was good practice anyway. I don't really know where I'm going in terms of style except that I want to move away from realism, but not too much.

 I nearly gave up on that broccoflower thing, lol. It tasted good but is a pain to paint. And this was for a digital challenge where the theme was colour.

December Art Journal Page

I didn't get around a to doing a page in November, but I did find a little time for December. Just a doodle using my Derwent Graphiks.

Kitchen Shadow Box

This is something I thought about doing years ago when I picked up a few miniatures at a craft store. This year I finally decided that I am going to get this done. And I think the timing was right because I have just recently learned things that helped me to create some the items and background for this.

The hand made items are made with polymer clay, wood, and resin. They include the mortar and pestle, apples in a dish, pie, pickles, and the table and everything on it. The brick wall was done with a stencil, modelling paste, and paint. Other thing were more improvised, like the popsicle stick floor, the little wood pile, and I'll let you guess at what the stove pipe is made of. The stove is an old pencil sharpener that belonged to my granny. 

My dad helped me make the box. The back of it is the back of a picture frame and the frame and glass fit on the front of the box. This way the glass will keep the dust out but I can still take it off the add more things later.

Halloween 2015

I almost forgot to post my latest art journal page. The idea for this first came from wetcanvas.com where the theme for the Different Strokes in October project was masks. I printed mask templates on card stock and cut them out and painted scenes on them, then finished the edges with black embossing powder. The journal pages were painted with yellow, orange, violet, ultramarine, and a little black around the edges. The blue is much darker than it looks in the picture. Then I painted a simple spider on a web and did a little stamping and pasted the masks on. This was all done rather quickly and I saw too late that the angle on one mask is a little off.

Cochin Lighthouse

One day, quite a few years ago, as we were travelling through Saskatchewan, we saw a lighthouse. Yes, a lighthouse in Saskatchewan. So of course we stopped to take a picture and I knew I would paint it eventually. Then last month at wetcanvas.com the theme for the Different Strokes project was lighthouses, the perfect time for this reference. Also, my photo had a very plain sky so I thought it was a good time to go into my stash of sky photos. It turns out that you can't have too many sky photos, but I did find a couple that were suitable and finally decided on the one with the big billowy clouds. I'm happy with my choice.

This is available for purchase on my site.
http://www.mkmcreations.com/cochinlighthouse.html

Latest Etsy Listings

I have added a few new things to Etsy recently, here are a couple of  pictures.

See what else I have in my store.
etsy.com/shop/MKMCreationsEtsy

September Art Journal Page

This has been a big month for us because our son has started kindergarten! He never went to nursery school and really never went anywhere without us or my parents, so it has been a big change for him. And strange for me to not be someplace with him and seeing all that he does. I do enjoy the extra quiet time though, and with him still going my mom's house on some of the days he's not in school, you would think that I should have lots of creative time, but no! This month has zoomed by faster than ever. I did get a little done though, a painting that I still need to photograph, and a page in my art journal.

This month I was thinking about fall and books. I used some soft pastels to create a border around the journal pages. Then on pieces of poster board that I taped down at the corners I used some watered down paint to create a mottled background. I tore some pieces from my favourite book catalogue, Hampstead House, and glued them on and toned them down with paint. Then I outlined some leaves with bronze Plaid dimensional paint, doing a few at time and letting them dry. Then I coloured the inside by putting down some glazing medium and brushing on mica powders. Then I covered the leaves with Glossy Accents. Next I painted the books with Derwent Graphik pens and added a little white paint around the leaves with a brush. I glued the pieces into the journal with gel medium, which is supposed to work well for that but I still got some ripples behind one of them. The final touch was adding little bronze leaves in the corners with dimensional paint.

August Art Journal Page

I didn't even get around to doing anything in my art journal in July. I finally made some time lately, though I think you can tell that I rushed it. I knew I wanted to do something with dragonflies and the lake, and I decided to use my Derwent Graphiks for this. I tried the splatter effect at the bottom, but not crazy about that. Then I doodled the rest and finished with some Martha Stewart glitter glue on the dragonflies, and a little bit on the waves.

June Art Journal Page and Other Things

There has been a lot of stuff going on lately leaving very little creative time. But I have done a little when I got the chance.

Back in June I got another page done in my art journal. Over winter a few of my perennials didn't make it, but then I was surprised to find a little lupin growing in spite of all the digging I have done in that area. There was one in this yard before, which I moved while cleaning things out, but that one didn't survive. So it was the inspiration for this page, which I coloured with coloured pencils. The other page is just some soft pastels and stamps.

I hope the real one will be purple too.

Another project I got done is this box for my husband to throw his business receipts into. It is made from two fruit snack boxes. I cut the top flaps off of one and the other I cut into pieces and glued them to the first box for more stability. Then I covered the corners and edges with strips of card stock, then gessoed and painted. In the middle I painted some simple purple roses and the outer part is a slightly mottled dark red. Then I used gold embossing powder on the designs in between, and gold paint on the edges. Then I added a few purple rhinestones.

Embossing powder is another thing that looks so easy on YouTube, but I make a mess with it.

And here is my first try at making a polymer rose cane. It's okay, I guess.

More polymer practice

Finally got some creative time yesterday. With camping and yard work I don't get much time in my craft room lately. Good thing it was raining so I didn't have to feel guilty about ignoring the weeds. I really wanted to try more blending and that flower cane again. It still doesn't look like the one in the video but I like it. It kind of looks like a fluffy type of flower. And then of course I turned the scraps into marbleized clay.

Then I wanted to make something but had no idea what to do. So many ideas but when it comes down to doing one of them, I don't know what to choose. I ended up just rolling out some black clay, then using a stamp and embellishing it with more clay and purple pearls. I want to try coating this with resin later and will make it a brooch.

Snakes

When I saw a tutorial on YouTube for making a snake bangle, I right away thought of my mom. She loves snakes and though she doesn't wear much jewelry I wanted to make one for her birthday.

Good thing I started on this early because the first one didn't turn out so well. It was too thin, and then I broke it a couple of times. Since then I have learned that polymer should always be baked for an hour, not just the 15 minutes per 1/4 inch it says on the package.  I tried to re-bake that one, even though I already varnished it with water based Varathane. The varnish held up okay in the heat, but maybe I should have baked it longer yet. I think I put it back in for 20 or 30 minutes but it still broke easily. Or perhaps the problem is that it is Sculpey III and from what I have read, Premo is better.

The second one turned out better and my mom loved it, though she said she probably won't wear it. That one wasn't baked very long either but I let her know that it just has a little flexibility.

First Skinner Blends

Here is my first try at making Skinner blends and trying out a cane tutorial on YouTube. Not exactly perfect but that's what practice is for. I just needed to be more careful while making the blend. And my cane didn't look much like the one in the video, but I still like it.

I tried the cane a second time, using the same blend. I also tried a couple more blends which turned out better.

Then I used what I made to make a pendant. I also have some nice marbled clay made from the scraps.

Here is the video tutorial if you're curious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSG2jg8WxgA

My first mandala

In my art journal this month I made my first mandala, starting with a black Staedtler pigment liner. I had the idea that it would be flowery but other than that I had no plan, just started from middle and kept adding things. It was kind of relaxing but I really should do these things when my 4 year old isn't around to be able to enjoy it more.

After the outline was done I filled it in with coloured pencils and the blue was done with a Crayola marker.

Earlier this month for Mother's day I made my mom this sign. I had made Tool Rules signs for my husband and my dad and my mom told me that she would like one that says Cookbook Rules. So, I figured, if that's what she wants, I'll make one. This one was more fun because I got to make it pretty. I painted and stamped a piece of hard board, textured and painted the edges, then did the writing on tissue paper with a Sharpie and glued it on. I also glued on silver trim painted with black metallic paint, and made the miniatures in the corners with polymer and wire.

Looks easy on YouTube

I love watching arts and crafts videos on YouTube. So many great ideas. But sometimes they don't turn out so well when I try them. For the latest page of my art journal I decided to try stamping with Pearl Ex powders. I used Stampendous embossing ink and a Martha Stewart stamp around the page set on card stock. I really don't do much stamping so I guess I needed some practice. At first the little flowers were more like blobs but I figured what worked best for me was to not put too much ink on the stamp and do it twice. I also learned to make sure I was paying attention to not stamp upside down, which is what caused the smudges on the top right page.

I also had a problem with the powder not binding with the ink. Even when I let it dry for a long time or heat set it, it would still rub off pretty easily. I used some Krylon Kamar spray to set it but it was hard to wipe away the excess powder without taking off too much.

I finished the pages off with stamps and black ink and coloured the edges of the journal pages with soft pastels before sticking on the card stock pieces.

Another view to try to capture the shine of the powders.