Janet's Clock

I can't believe we had a snow and ice storm yesterday! For crying out loud, it's April! Last year it was so nice that the farmers were in the fields. I am headed for Des Moines tonight so I hope the roads clear off by late afternoon.

If you are in the Des Moines, IA area, stop into Space Doctors Interiors. Gayle has a wonderful fun store, and will be happy to show you some of my pieces that she is carrying in her store.  Actually, I will be there tomorrow night 4/12/13 for the Art Walk.

Space Doctors Interiors is located in Historical Valley Junction, 209 5th St.,West Des Moines, IA

This is a funky little clock I found in Denver at a thrift store. It had ugly black paint on it. I think it had been spray painted, so I sanded most of it off before I started. This was a fun one to do and I was pleased with the color combinations after I got done. I am always kinda iffy about half way through, and then it all comes together later. I always try to pick a focus color to carry through to the bottom. This time (and many times) it is red. See how the red is very subtle in the face of the clock, but it is in there, and then the red knob draws your eye down to the drawer. I like to put big funky knobs on for that pop of surprise.

 

 For the face, I did a base of light creamy yellow with a hint of orange and let it dry.Oh yeh....the first thing I did was take the hands and clock works off!  .....Next I  just kept swirling orange, and red together until I got the look I wanted, and then put some streaks of periwinkle and apple spice in with a dry brush. I like to blend my colors while they are wet, like in the little cubby hole...You can see the lavender is streaked. I paint one color first, the lavender, and then go back over it with lavender and a little white or really pale lavender and blend them while they are wet. You have to work fast or it will dry out and your brush will drag. If your paint is too dry to work with, you can add some blending gel, which is available at any craft store that carries the craft paints.

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Happy painting to you, and of course if you need some ideas, just email me a picture of your piece and I will be happy to brainstorm with you. I am good at telling everyone else what to do! It is just my own pieces that I ponder on for hours. :) My email is csoconnor1@gmail.com and I would love to hear what projects you are working on.

Ta ta for now, Carolyn

Mary Ann's Curio

People are always asking where I get my pieces. The answer is everywhere! Most of my pieces come from garage sales and thrift stores. Although I have the most luck at garage sales for pricing, I don't pass up anything that looks like it might have some treasures buried there.

 

I was out checking out a few places in Lincoln, and I saw a drugstore/gift shop that was having a sidewalk sale. Usually I don't find anything so I was really excited when I found this great buy. This is a fun little curio that I was lucky enough to pick up for 5 bucks! It was in good shape because it was new, so I just sanded it all down and got ready to prime. I loved working on this. I actually took it all apart to paint the back panels because I hate trying to get my paint brush and hands into such tiny spots.......then when I put it back together, I hate how it never seems to go together as easy as it comes apart!  For example, I painted the door and was happy with it until I started to assemble it and discovered I had painted the door upside down! Oh well, I wasn't going to paint it over but it was really meant to have the gold and red strip along the top of the door. But you never would have known unless I told ya now, would ya?

 

 

I gave this to my sister Mary Ann for her birthday and she loved it. She is fun to show things to, because she always says "that is my favorite thing you have done!" Ha ha! She sure has a lot of favorite things! It is so good for my creative ego.  :)

I really liked the little knobs for the feet and the decorative pieces on top. They are fun to do I think.

What fun things have you been working on? I would love to see them, or if you want some ideas just email me your picture and I will brainstorm with you.  My email is csoconnor1@gmail.com.  I would really love to hear from you. Well, back to the ole drawing painting board. I am working on a clock today and will post pictures later.

 By the way, if you are in the Des Moines area, Stop into Space Doctors Interiors  located in the Historical Valley Junction, 209 5th St, West Des Moines, IA. I have several of my pieces there that I think you would enjoy. Ta ta for now! Carolyn

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2013! A NEW BEGINNING!

Good grief! Where did the time go? Did you have a Merry Christmas and Happy New year? I am so thankful for all I have in my life and for this God given fascination with a paint brush!  Thought I would show you a little of what I have been up to.

HANGING JACKET THINGY (for lack of a better title)

 

This is a Jacket hanger that measures about 18 inches at the widest, and is about 9 inches tall. I say "about" because of course I forgot to measure it before I placed it in the gallery. I am such a procrastinator....in fact if you look in the dictionary under procrastination, my picture is by it! Do you have problems with that too?

This was another thrift store purchase and it was an ugly blue. It was so ugly that it hung in the storage room for 2 years before I decided to just see what it would look like in pretty colors. What do you think? After about 20 minutes into painting it, I thought, "Well this is kinda cool the way the colors brighten it up...hmmmm.. why didn't I just "start" before now?

LAZY SUSAN




This Lazy Susan was a purchase from IKEA a few years back. I saw them on sale and right away knew I could make something fun with it--so I bought several!

MUSIC LOVER LAZY SUSAN

This Lazy Susan was on it's way to my display area but never made it past the desk where my artist friend Kye was holding down the fort for First Friday Art Walk at Noyes Art Gallery! She said "oh my ...I think that needs to set right here!" So I planted left it on the desk by her for a while  to contemplate...and ya know...it never did make it to the display..instead it set by Kye all night with a sold sign on it because she had decided it needed to live in her home.  Kye has bought several of my pieces (Thank you Kye!) and does wonderful Mosaic work.

JANUARY DISPLAY

 

This is my January display at the gallery. A little sparse because several pieces were selling as I was trying to take pictures. What a good problem! I love to meet my customers, so it was a super fun night.

DESK ART (I bet you could do this!)

This is something that you could do with little of nothing. I take 2x4's or 2x6's, cut them in chunks like this and then decorate them with sayings. They are a fun way to have art on your desk that doesn't take up very much room. They make a great gift and are something personal that will make your Friend smile. You can do them with just one color background and then jazz up the letters. If you look on line or Pinterest, you can find fonts and wonderful sayings that will look good. I just write, and then start decorating. Believe me, I have the world's worst handwriting (next to my hubby's, tee hee) so if I can do this, you can too. If you need any tips, just leave me a comment and I will get back to you. I am always glad to share "how to"  information.

A FUNKY FUN CLOCK

 

 

This little clock was a fun one to do, and it sold right away. Clocks are always a big hit and never stay long after I put them out. If you see a clock at a garage sale or thrift store, snatch it up. You can put a new mechanism in it, and paint it up in fun colors to make a drab (most are just the blah brown when I get them) ho hum thing into a focal piece for your room.  

Well, that's all for today, hope you have a wonderful weekend. If you like what you see here, be sure to sign up to be a follower of my blog, and then when I post new things you will get an email notification. :)   Thanks for poking your head in!

"NEVER PUT THE KEY TO YOUR HAPPINESS IN SOMEONE ELSE'S POCKET"

Ta ta for now, Carolyn

Shutter Pair, Funky Sunflower and Poppy

Hi Everyone!
Another weekend here already.   I said I would Tell you about my other two Shutters that I took to the Gallery a few weeks ago. They are the two you see here, (You would probably figure that one out on your own)..   I unloaded them and didn't even have the price on them or have them displayed.They were just leaning against the window, waiting to be placed when the nicest young couple came by and started admiring them.  I had my back to them because I was digging through my purse for the tags for them,(I'm sure showing my best side) I was going to go back out to the van to bring the rest of the items in, when they started asking the price and discussing where they were going to put them. I love it when people start oohing and ahhing about art! They bought both of them right on the spot, and it was so exciting to be there when they were purchased. I love meeting my customers, so that was a special treat for me.

These were some shutters I had stored in my garage for at least 5 years.  I would walk by them every time I got out of the van, and think, I'm gonna paint a BIG flower on those...and then I would go in the house and forget about them. They were an ugly brown when I started. They are wood. The first thing I did was give them a good sanding. I didn't use primer on them because I wanted to use the chalk paint recipe by the way I got off of Pinterest. There are a few recipes out there, but this is what I used.

CHALK PAINT
1 cup paint Flat Latex paint, or you can use craft paint too.

1/3 cup hot water

1/3 cup Plaster of Paris
or Baking Soda

Mix the POP or BS with the hot water to form a smooth consistency before you add the paint. The finish I find is usually rather grainy, but it sands right down and is especially easy to work with if you are going for the distressed look because it sands off so easy. I did find though that it is very tough and durable, and was pleased with the adhesion.




. 
 

This was my Funky Sunflower Shutter, and you can see some shading on the green if you look closely. I always like to shade it a little  with colors close to the base coat, but just a little darker or lighter. I probably used 3 shades of green to touch it up after I had sanded it lightly after the initial coat of paint. You can see a hint of red too. I like to barely touch green with red so that it streaks it just a little. 

And here is my Poppy. This was the first time I had done a Poppy, and it was fun to work on.

 

I like to doctor the stems up so they are not so traditional. I like striped stems! 

 

Of course, Sunflowers are always a favorite of mine. And again I like to make the stems interesting too. It was a little challenging painting on the slats but it worked. It just was harder to blend and do the shading. 

I put several coats of Polyurethane on this, but I used a spray since it would not be receiving heavy use like a lot of my funiture. I always apply it with a paint bursh when it is a piece that could see some use. It is much more durable than a spray. 

I really enjoyed working on these and should do another set. I have a set of cafe swinging doors, and one more tall shutter to work on . Any suggestions?

 If you like what you see, would you do me a favor and sign up to be a follower of my blog? That way you will receive updates in your email when I add new things. Thanks for stopping by. Ta ta for now! Carolyn

 

Painted Shutter- "I've got Sunshine"

Hi all! I am in love with painting shutters! This is my latest project and I had so much fun doing it. Yes, it was challenging painting on louvers, but very doable. I tried to put a template on it to save time but it wouldn't transfer properly so in the end, it was just good ole eyeballing it and free handing the letters.


I started out with just a plain brown painted shutter, and I thought I had a picture for you but of course it is in my intricate filing system with a thousand other pictures!  So just imagine taking the shutter, cleaning all the spiders off it...'cause it was stored in the garage, and sanding it good so it was fairly smooth. The paint that was originally on the shutter was very rough and bubbly, so I wanted most of that smoothed out.   I used a mixture from Pinterest for homemade chalk paint and was actually pretty pleased with it's adhesion. This recipe will be very grainy when applied and has to be resanded, but actually it smooths out quickly with a good buffing. I paid special attention to areas I would want a worn look and distressed them through to the wood.



After I sanded it, I loved the color so much I set it on my porch behind some flowers for a little pop of color.   This resulted in some water discoloration . :( Booooo...   But it's one of those things, I knew it would discolor from the water,  but I just loved the color so much and was having company and wanted that bright pop of color and yada yada yada, so it was no surprise that I would need to retouch.  Kinda wanted to see how the chalk paint would hold up too.

The next step was to put it on a large easel which I LOVE (thank you Hubby dear!) and start retouching the paint where the water had discolored it, or I wanted the paint brightened just a little. I used plain craft art  paint from the craft store, the same color I had used for the base in my chalk paint. I did this, because I wanted the coverage but did not want to have to sand the chalk paint again, this paint would go on smooth.
The shadowing and paint difference you see is from a purple wash I made out of watered down paint,... very watered down... and started applying to the main center part of the shutter to give it some shading.

I started with my sun. Yep, just start painting a partial circle.

This what it looked like with some other shadings added to the sun, and the lettering was next.

For the font, I played around on the computer for some fonts I wanted together and then just started painting the "I've got" in my own writing because I couldn't decide what I wanted, ....what I wanted was just to start!!

 

After the first two words, were on..... I decided maybe I should look at the  font guidline...and follow it somewhat!  SO for the rest of the words I looked at my guide, but all in all I like the free spirited way it turned out. I outlined the letters but not on both sides, except for the  "on a" ....more of a shadow outline. If you outline them on both sides, they look more like baloon letters.  

 

 

It looked good on my porch but of course I took it to the gallery for my display.  I think I need to do one that is just for me though, don't cha think? I like the pop of color on that corner.

Any questions, just email me. Have you done any shutters? I would love to see them. Email me a picture at csoconnor1@gmail.com

By the way, I have had 2 more shutters that I also took to the gallery along with this one, and they sold (!!!)before I even got them in the display, but that's another story for my next post, so stay tuned.

Ta ta for now.

Carolyn

Redressing an old breadbox

Hi! It's the weekdnd!!! Yay!

Thought I would show you what you can do with something like this.

Have ya ever come across an old bread box and thought "Cool, but what would I do with it?  Well this hand made bread box was just screaming for me to save it. Some one had lovingly built this and that is one of the things that really draws me to a piece. One of a kind, I like it.  Sorry I am so poor at taking before pictures, but as I blog more, I will get better. Promise! 

I am so lucky I have ANY pictures of it that are decent because I was running out the door suitcase in hand to fly off to Alaska and forgot to take pictures when I dropped it off at the gallery! My sister Mary Ann was here, and took some pictures, ...and she reminded me that I needed to get pictures of it when I displayed it at the gallery...ppppffft   like I needed reminding, ha.....well of course I ran into the gallery and set it up on display and raced off to catch my plane...I remebered it about 20 mile down the road.  Thank you Mary for these pictures!

Here I am putting the final touches on it before I take it to the gallery

 

Dancing flowers...I love them and people start acting disappointed if I don't put them on a piece..

 

You can see the shelf inside peeking out before I put the front doors on, it is green with aqua polka dots.

This was a fun piece to work on ( I know, I say that about everything I work on, don't I??)

Hope you've gotten some ideas for some fun projects of your own. I'd love to see them if you want to share. Just email them to me at csoconnor1@gmail.com
Have a wonderful Fathers day!  Tata for now, Carolyn

A Trash bin too pretty for trash

Cheers everybody! It's a wonderful day in the studio and I wanted to share a recent project. This is a trash bin I found at a garage sale for 5 bucks!!  For several years it sat in the garage by the door, holding huge bags of dog food for our little Pollydog. Honestly, I don't know how much I thought she was going to eat....but I bought it in 20 pound bags and I would store them in this. Anyway, every time I walked by it to go into the house, I would say  "I should paint that".  Well, I finally did~!


As you see it here, I have sanded it and am ready to put a coat of primer on it.  I have wiped it good with a tack cloth to remove any sanding dust. 

I find it easier to paint if I take it all apart. That way, I get to waste a day looking for the hinges when I am ready to put it back together. I swear I always put them in a place that would be the first place I think I would look for them, but it always turns out that, it is the ...always... the last place....   And sometimes I don't find them until after I replaced them with new hinges that will fit the indentations and holes.....not an easy task because the new hinges are not shaped the same. This is important, because if I were going to replace them from the start I would sand any indentations and fill the holes when I was prepping the piece.


You can see it does not have a back on it and I knew I wanted one. (No, I didn't just take it off...)

I was planning on bead board, but then I decided to just go with plywood. So I bought a piece of quarter inch plywood and painted the background green.  Then I put a big heart on it. I had just gotten some Copic permanent markers (thank you sister Mary for chipping in!) and I used them for the final little sprigs out the top, sides and bottom. I was so excited that it was much easier then doing them with the brush and having to have the brush loaded just right with the right consistency of paint blah blah blah..... so here is how it turned out.

Copic markers are alcohol based and "permanent"...
..water proof..
BUT NOT POLYURETHANE PROOF!! :(

I had tested it on a small patch and it looked great... but when I applied the polyurethane it started bleeding and smearing!!! Oh NO!!!!  
So I did what anyone would do. I immediately spit on paper towel and started trying to clean the lines up !  Hey, you use what is handy and all the water in my containers were full of paint water from swishing paint out of the  brushes. I couldn't let it start drying for over 30 seconds and it worked.  Whew!
  I was able to clean the lines up enough that the smearing was not noticeable, and then I retraced the lines with a paint pen.  OK, now on to the next step...

Oh, here's a tip, I would have been fine with the copic markers IF instead of brushing the Poly on, I would have first sprayed a light coat of poly on, and that would have sealed it so that I could then brush the poly on without worrying about it bleeding.  When ever I am doing black and white I do that if the paint has not dried  for several days........but I was in a hurry.... Hmmmm I vaguely remember "Haste makes waste.."



I decided on some flowers for the front, and again used the copic pens on the bottom of the flowers forpart of  the ground, but the smearing on it was fine and actually added to the blending of the earth look so no heart attack there.

 This is how the cabinet looked when I was done, and everyone was impressed that I had been able to paint the heart on the inside......when I actually painted it first, and then attached it after the fact!  The green background looks yellow but it is actually green.  My friend Jenna took these pictures in her kitchen because I stopped by her house on the way to the gallery (where I was going to drop this off) and attached the  "heart back" to the cabinet. Thank you Jenna! If you wouldn't have taken these pictures, I would not have any to post because it sold within the week~

 

 

Here's a close up of the drawer, I like to make the polka dots different sizes so I purposely make some of them larger every so often..
This picture of the handle is bad I know but you get the idea. I put together two strands of beads with wire and then wrapped colored  wire around them for the handle on the drawer.

OK, guess that is all the damage I can do for the day here, guess I will go paint!
Ta Ta for now, Carolyn