Fun Storage Cabinet

Hi everybody, Think Spring!!! I am so ready for some warm weather and this week looks like it is going to be very promising! Supposed to be up in the 60's according to my weather source. 

I have been working on a fun project, it was originally a trash bin, that you could hide your trash can in. I just saw it as a fun storage cabinet from the very first. 

Sorry I couldn't find the "before" pictures. I always like to post them so that you can envision what things around your house could look like. And, you know, you don't have to get all fancy like I do on my pieces, just prepare them the way I tell you in some of my earlier posts,(sanding and priming them) and put a coat of paint on them. It gives them a whole new look! This is the first side of the cabinet. I actually had done the background months ago. I was trying a new look....and I didn't care for it, but it took me so long to do all the little checks and shading that I didn't have the desire to cover it up just yet... And am I glad I didn't! I painted these flowers on, thinking I would just gift it to some child, and I started loving it! The original painting worked great as a background, just not as THE focal point. 

Then I got to work on the other side. (I didn't like the other side either, but again,  it made a great back ground for my detail work!) It was close to Valentine's Day, so I went with hearts and of course a daisy, because daisies are my favorite flower. 

 It's was starting to take shape, .

 I love doing big funky hearts so I continued with one on the door, adding some whimsical curly cues ......and of course, polka dots!

I like how the hearts repeat on the side and door. I will admit, I was stumped for a while, trying to decide what to do on the door. I like the way it is turning out at this point.

A close up of the heart on the door.

The inside, as it is displayed at the gallery, with one of my desk art piece on the shelf. Originally, it had no shelf in it, but I thought it needed one if someone was going to use it for storage. Can you believe it, I even got the shelf straight!

A little trim work on the underside of the lid,  and it ties in with the door when it is open.

And there you have it. What do you think? Have you seen one of these at a garage sale and passed it by? Are you going to pass it by again??? This would look great in a kitchen, or bathroom for extra storage and as a focal point.  Take a look around your house and see if you can come up with something that a coat of paint would turn into a fun piece. Just about time to be hitting those garage sales again with spring here. Maybe I will get lucky again! Ta ta for now, take a risk and redo one of your old pieces of furniture. It's just paint, and if you make a mistake, you can always just paint it all one color and it will look good too! Remember Eleanor Roosevelt's words, "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." So dust those paint brushes off and get busy! I would love to hear what you are thinking of painting.

December gallery display

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, and my dear you're so delightful, and tho' we've got no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Sounds like they are sure getting it in the Northeast now. We just have enough to cover the ground, so we have been lucky in that respect. I know I am late posting this, but I was in Charleston, SC visiting my daughter and her family. I had a wonderful time. They have 5 dogs..no , it's not a typo! 5 Dogs, and yes they are allowed in the house. So I made this sign for them out of old barn wood from my sister' barn, and took it to them in a huge old  brown suit case. They loved it!

I might add that if you would like a sign like this, I am taking orders. They are made out of old barn wood, approximately 15" X 24", can be made in the colors you want. Each sign is hand made so there will be little variances in the wood (and you can customize them if the size isn't perfect for your spot- or you have cats, or you have one dog..you get the picture!) $69. Just email me at csoconnor1@gmail.com







Now back to my post I started in December but didn't get finished.

I have several projects I still would like to complete, but of course I always think I can get a weeks worth of work done each day, when I plan my time out in my mind..I have been doing this for years and you would think I would be able to gauge it better!
I was at the gallery and this is part of my display for the month. I snagged such a great spot, and had fun things to display.

I finished some clocks for the Christamas display, and you can see a couple of them in the back ground. 


                                     

These  clocks are such fun to work on. I find them at the used furniture store, thrift store and sometimes at garage sales. They are always stained brown when I get them, with some domestic picture in the bottom picture frame, like a spinning wheel, or maybe a fireplace with a teddy bear. So, of course...



                                         
I take the picture out and make a pendulum out of wire and beads. It is not a working pendulum, but just a pretty bright fun thing to look at.




Here are some more shots of the gallery display.

                                                   

                                                   

                                                     


These are some little desk art wooden blocks that I paint a saying onto, and then embellish it with color. They seem to go over real well and they are at a good price point too.

                                                   


And, one final shot of my display. Hope you had a great end of the year, I am off to gallery tomorrow to change my display.

I hope you have a wonderful, artful  New Year this coming year, If you have any questions about painting on wood, give me a holler, I am always glad to help. My email is csoconnor1@gmail.com  Catch you later, Carolyn.

Playful Kitten Chair

Happy  Fall!  The trees are turning and dropping their leaves, and there is a crispness in the air that makes me miss going to my son's high school football games.  I still have some outdoor work to get done before old man winter dumps snow on us. I try to get a lot of my sanding of furniture done before it gets too cold, because I do that in the garage and it is not heated. Are you trying to get some of your projects done before the first cold snap?  

What do you think of this little beauty? I had this in my garage for way too long, because I didn't quite know how I was going to get it sanded down enough to make the paint stick. There were so many details on it, and the finish was all cracked and flaking.

Ever wonder what something looked like when I first started it? Here it is in all it's shining glory. This was for a client of mine, and had belonged to her husband's uncle, so it had sentimental value. It was all flaking and powdery when I got it. I used a wire brush to get most of the flakes out of all the crevices.

You can see there were a LOT of crevices!  Still it had beautiful lines, and I knew it could be something special. The seat was really bad.  Judy said " just paint over it, because I don't know what else you can do to it when the wood is so cracked and raised like it is". Of course my mind was already turning on possibilities to cover up seat. 

The legs just chipped off when I tried to sand them, so I got most of the loose finish off with my wire brush and started sanding by hand. Man, it was looking pretty sad, and I actually put it away for a long time before tackling it again. (yes, chicken is a word that comes to mind) I am always afraid I will do it wrong when it is a commission piece! When I do pieces and then just sell them, I don't have to worry about the process I go through to get to the finished product.  I might change my mind mid project and come out with a completely different piece than I first had in mind, because I don't have to please every one...just the one person that can't live without it... .but on a commission piece, you have only one person to please to start with, and that is the only chance you get to please someone. Does that make sense?I have yet to have a dissatisfied customer that I know of, but it always makes me nervous. (Yes I know...I always tell you it is  JUST PAINT, and you can do it over if you don't like it! LOL)

I started with the base coat, and I used chalk paint because I thought I would distress it  some. (I didn't in the end but I still like the soft look . ) Chalk paint seems to come in earthy soft colors that blend with just about everything. The Chalk paint is designed for painting furniture and distressing it. It also sticks without primer and I wanted something that would bond good and be a little thicker paint for this piece. 

First I did a green base.




Next I did the light turquoise accents

  Then did a very light brushing of the red in the crevices. After I do the shading in the crevices (like the red in this picture) I usually have to go back over the piece several time with the other colors until I get just the right contrast that I want. ...For instance, I put more green back into the detail so that so much red didn't show, or  have a distinct line where the red ended. Same goes for the turquoise. 

Next came the details, and of course this is where the I just get lost with my little polka dots and stripes. :) When you are doing a piece, try to tie the colors together so that when the eye sweeps over the whole piece you catch colors on the way down that repeat. Like the red for instance. I have it as accent on top, then the spindles are more solid, then just in accents on the bottom rungs. 

?????????????????????????

Translated: What the heck am I going to do with that seat????

Even with paint on it, the seat is very rough. The top layer would crack and probably give you a splinter eventually (OUCH!), so I had an idea.

 I have canvas that is heavier and preprimed , I use it for floor cloths so it is very durable. 

So I painted this picture on it. (I knew that they loved cats)

Cut it and a piece of batting  to the size I wanted. (Cut the batting about 1/2 inch smaller than the canvas. ) To make the painting  fit, I first did a pattern out of paper, folded in half so that it would be identical in shape on each side. I then centered the pattern over the painting, placed the batting underneath,

Tacked it down with upholstery tacks, and no splinters today!

 

Previously before I tacked the painting down, I put 4 coats of polyacrylic on the chair, I also put 3 coats of flexible artist varnish on the  painting before I cut it out. This will allow clean up with a damp cloth without damaging the painting.

 

Do you have an old chair sitting around just waiting for you to breathe new life into it? It doesn't have to be fancy, just a solid color changes the look  so much. I am going to paint some kitchen chairs for my kitchen is solid sherbet colors.  I haven't decided on the table top yet but when I do, I am sure you will see it here!

 

I hope you are having a wonderful life, and if you are not....what can you do to change it? This is it, there are no dress rehearsals, we don't get to have a "do over".  My email is csoconnor1@gmail.com, if anyone is having problems that seem too great for them, please feel free to contact me. Sometimes it is easier to talk to a stranger than it is to someone you know. Not saying I can fix anything, but I have been accused of being a good listener. Until next time,  take care, Carolyn

 

I want to leave you with this:

 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

                                                This is the beginning of a new day.

                                                God has given me this day to use as I will.

                                                 I can waste it or use it for good.

 

                                               What I do today is important,

                                               Because I am exchanging a day of my life for it.

                                               When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever, 

                                               leaving in it's place something that I have traded for it.

 

                                               I want it to be gain, not loss;

                                              good, not evil;

                                              success, not failure;

                                              so that I shall not regret the price I paid for it.

 

 

 

 

Alaska art

I'm back from my Alaskan trip, and it is bittersweet. Of course I am happy to be home but I also miss the pitterpatter of little feet from my grand children. It was such a fun time and I am lucky I was able to spend as much time with them as I did. I was gone 7 weeks. That is a long time. I missed my studio!

I did have a chance to do some art while I was there, and do some art with the kids. First I am posting one of favorite projects and one of my first projects when I started painting furniture.

This is a bench my son made and then I painted it about 8 years ago. I don't know if I even used primer on it. I used craft paints, Deco, Folkart, and Americana probably. I did put 3 coats of poly on it and I am amazed at how well it has held up. It takes a lot of abuse and still looks great.

I used a gold paint pen to outline the backgrounds....probably because I had one! Sometimes I just want to use a special pen or a color, luckily it looked OK in this case...

Below is a canvas door hanger. I just took a piece of primed canvas, you can get at an art store. Mine was on a roll that I bought to make a floorcloth with.  If it is not primed, you will need to tack it down to a board and then prime it. It will buckle up if you don't tack it down. This actually stayed nice and flat since it was already primed, and I just used craft paints, because that is all I had up in Alaska!  I use craft paints a lot on canvas here in my studio also, but I like to use my artist paints along with them (acrylics) because they are so much more brilliant and saturated with color which really brightens the picture up. You can't see it in the picture, but I have folded the top over and made a little sleeve which I slipped a dowel into.

The round dowel can be found at pretty much any home improvement store. I then tied a narrow ribbon from end to end on the dowel and that is what it hangs on.

 I will post more soon of a couple of other projects I completed while I was there. Thanks for visiting my blog and I welcome any comments or questions. If you want to receive an email alert when I post something new, sign up for the email notification on the right side of the blog. 

 Remember,  "Every day is a canvas, paint your life with bold and brilliant colors."

  Ta ta for now.Carolyn

Flower Murals

Hello from Alaska! I am visiting my son and his family in Alaska for an extended stay. I uploaded my pictures so I could finish this post after I arrived.  I wanted to show you what I did to get ready to go.... I have a great nephew Trace, for whom I painted a mural a couple of years ago with the help of his Mother, grandmother and aunt. I promised to paint his sisters ....my twin great nieces.... room and I just had to finish it before I left. 

They wanted flowers, lots of flowers and you know what? They were in luck because I LOVE to do flowers! Funky Flowers. It was so much fun. Kim, their mother, and their Auntie Melissa helped. Here I am just getting started on the butterfly part on Kassidy's wall.

So I did these flowers,  and it was interesting. I maybe should have done them alike, because  I had the flowers in the above picture finished when I left the first time but didn't get  done with the below picture, which is Berkley's. (No butterflies or dragonflies were there at the time on either wall when I left their house the first time.) 

I did the flowers in the first picture a little bigger, but did more smaller flowers in the picture just above this.. I did not have the butterflies done, but was coming back to do them. I still had more shading to do on this second set but there were 7 flowers. This picture below was on Kassidy's wall, and had 5 flowers but were bigger.  SO,... Berkley had 7 flowers and Kassidy had 5......but Berkley for some reason thought Kassidy had more flowers, probably because they were bigger and the shading gave them more life. After I left, Kim (their mother) said Berkley started crying because she said Kassidy had more flowers. Kim consoled her and told her that she didn't, actually she had more than Kassidy, and besides, Aunt Carolyn could put another flower on when I came back. So all was well, she put them to bed and then through the crack in the door she heard Kassidy say, " I think I DO have more flowers than you Berkley!" to which Berkley began wailing again!  They are 3 years old, their brother Trace is 7 years old and there is never a dull moment. 

Above is the finished picture on Kassidy's wall.

 

This is Berkleys finished wall.

 

The first thing I do is draw the flowers on the wall. I did these freehand, but you could also use a transfer. I like to draw with a watercolor pencil, because when you paint, it just kind of blends in  and dissolves. If you draw it in pencil, and you make a mistake.... sometimes it won't erase and it also leaves a spot on the paint where you erased it.  Also, the pencil is hard to cover. I usually draw the stems on as I paint, and then foliage is last.  Butter flies and dragonflies are always a big hit with little girls. I am partial to the dragonflies myself.

Once I get the drawings done, I just start filling in, kind of like coloring. After the base color is on, I starts shading. To learn how to shade, start looking at a small part of a painting you like and see how many colors they used to make it look like it has depth. You will be surprised at the colors they use sometimes.

In a child's room, I try to think of something to hold their attention, and something that is on the level they will be looking, for instance, when they go to bed. I put bugs, ants, caterpillars and things like that on the leaves. I will probably do more bugs on this when I get back home. I just had time to put a couple of lady bugs on for them before I had to quit.

When you are looking at how far off the floor to make them, be sure to take into account how far up the bed will come if the bed is going to be pushed up against it.

 I almost got these too low.

And this is Kim trying to keep Kassidy from running away while I was trying to take her picture ....

And this is Berkley, happy with her flowers at last! She was so funny. She was doing a happy dance in the hallway when she saw the flowers, but of course I missed the shot. Still, she looks pretty happy.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. My next post will be about my visit here in Alaska and probably be more of a scenic post as soon as I get my pictures downloaded.

If you have any questions about doing a mural, please email me at  csoconnor1@gmail.com and I will be happy to try and help.
If you haven't signed up to be notified by email when I post new things, please do. I love feed back, so let me know what you think of the murals! Thanks! Carolyn

Little Purple Half Moon Table

     Wow, What a beautiful day today! Here in Nebraska, if you can find a day without humidity, it is a great day! 

     This will be short but I wanted to get this posted before I say goodbye to the day.  I thought I would post a little half moon table that I painted with CeCe Caldwell's Chalk Paint. It was a lot of fun to do, and was one of my first projects with Chalk Paint. The Table was a garage sale table, very light weight. It cost next to nothing and had been sitting around my back room in the basement for a couple of years. 

 

     I like to do the knobby legs as you can probably tell if you have looked around my blog very much. I actually waxed the top, and then I decided to use poly on it instead of wax because I was afraid it would bleed into the next color if I waxed it. I also wanted the paint to be set before I started to Poly it, so I did what I always do to set the paint so it doesn't bleed...I took a can of spray Varathane Poly and sprayed it to set the colors....I had not done any spraying on chalk paint before and when I sprayed the Varatahane finsh on, it was like it melted the Chalk Paint!#@**&^% I was just sick. I thought I had ruined it for sure. But I also knew that if I stroked it on with a brush, the black and white stripes  would bleed together.    I had chosen not to wax it because I didn't want the wax rubbing off some of the color since I wasn't going to distress it. I left it for a while and just went upstairs to let it sit and dry good. When I went back down to look at it, it was like magic....it has all filled back in where the paint had looked like it melted off. I was a happy camper! I kinda liked the brightness of the colors.



I know the close up is a little fuzzy but I forgot to take my camera with me. I took this to the Newton, IA Home Show and it was the first to sell. Have you done a little half moon table? I would love to see pictures. I am no expert by any means, but if you have any questions about paint or applications, I would be glad to share what I know.  Have a great rest of the week, ta ta for now. Carolyn