Thursday 26 December 2013

I finally got to some painting….

Well, I finally got some painting done!  My niece loves owls…so I decided to paint a couple of cute little owls for part of her Christmas present!

Materials needed:
  • Gesso
  • Canvas
  • Pencil/eraser
  • Acrylic paints
  • Paint brushes
  • Water
  • Paper towel
The method to my madness:

It's the usual steps to creating any type of acrylic painting….

  1. First, I primed the canvas with a little gesso.
  2. After the canvas had set for 24 hours, I sketched my little owls onto the canvas.
  3. Then, I painted the owls and let them dry.
  4. Lastly, I completed the touchups.  
Here they are!  I hope she likes them!

One little owl…
The second little owl…
Both little owls, side by side.

Have a great day!

A.A.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

So here's what I made for the kids in my class this year...

So I decided to make a little something for all the kids in my class this year.  I decided to make snowmen mugs and filled them with "Snowman Soup."

However, I decided to follow something on Pinterest that I had wanted to do for a few months…but it's definitely something that I DON'T recommend doing.  I wasted so much time!!!!

I decided to make the Sharpie mugs that you bake in the oven that are apparently "permanent."  Folks, don't waste your time!  I did a bunch of research on them and followed the tips provided by others who had similar problems that I did, and it still didn't work properly!  Parts of the snowmen faces continued to chip off.  Instead, I had to re-do all of them 3 times…and I ended up using ceramic paint instead (this can also be used on glass).  So don't go the Sharpie route (I even tried the oil paint Sharpie pens….still didn't work).

What you need:

What to do:
  1. Take any stickers off of the mugs.  Ensure that they are clean.  Use some rubbing alcohol to clean the surface you will be painting.
  2. Take the lids off the black and orange paints and replace the lids with the thin painting tips.   
  3. Draw the eyes and mouth onto the surface of the mug.
  4. Draw the carrot nose onto the surface of the mug.
  5. After drawing the snowmen faces on all of the mugs, let it dry.  I believe they need to dry for an hour before cooking.  
  6. Place all of the mugs on a cooking sheet (or two in my case).
  7. Place the cooking sheets holding the mugs into the oven.  Turn the oven on and up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 30 minutes.  Once the 30 minutes is up, turn the oven off and leave the mugs in the oven.  If you take the mugs out of the oven right away, they can actually break from the drastic change in temperature.  
  8. Once the oven is cooled down, take the baking sheets with your mugs out, and place on top of the oven.  I let my mugs stay out overnight (it was late when I cooked them).
  9. Now, put together the little baggies of Snowman Soup.  I took a little baggie, put in a pouch of hot chocolate, small candy cane, marshmallows (for my kids who can have gelatin), and a little tag with the snowman soup verse.  I then topped each baggie off with a little snowman hat (I cut them out of black construction paper).  I also have a couple of kids who are lactose intolerant, so instead of putting hot chocolate pouches in the clear baggies, I put hot apple cider baggies in theirs, along with 2 candy canes.
  10. Place the baggies inside of the mugs.
A final mug after cooking
Snowman Soup!
The final product!

It makes a cute, cheap gift for anyone.  Guaranteed to be a hit!

A.A.

Monday 23 December 2013

Just a cute little ornament!

I was planning on making more of these…I still have a plain wooden moose leftover.  So, I'll save it for next Christmas.

This is super easy to do & makes such a super cute little gift for a friend or family member.

Want to make one?  Here's what you need:

  • A wooden moose (or other creature)
  • Some scrapbook paper
  • White paint (or black)
  • A sponge (or small piece of a sponge)
  • Modge Podge
  • Pencil
Here's all you need to do:
  1. First, place the moose on top of the scrapbook paper (paper face up - otherwise it will be backwards), trace, and cut out.
  2. Next, use the Modge Podge as a glue and glue the scrapbook paper on top of the moose.
  3. Let it dry for about 20 minutes to half an hour.
  4. Take a little bit of paint and put it on the sponge.  Gently (and carefully) sponge paint around the edge of the moose.
  5. Let dry for about 45 minutes or so.
  6. Lastly, use the Modge Podge as a sealer/varnish and coat the ornament in several times.  I only did one on the back and several coats on the front.
See how easy that was?!  And it's so cute!

My little moose before the sponge paint.
The final result!

So easy to do & super cute!

A.A.