Woodland Creations

I know it's been a while.  I still haven't had a chance to get out with my D-SLR to get some good fall shots.  I'm hoping to do that before it's too late!

It was my niece's 2nd birthday party, and my best friend agreed to a woodland themed party (yay!).  I'm so glad she did because it turned out so cute and absolutely perfect! :).  I decided to help create some of the decor.

I got a couple of small bird houses to hang around the kitchen.  They were plain wooden birdhouses when I bought them.  I coated them in gesso and busted out some brown, white, and green acrylic paint (I mixed a tiny spot of green paint with white to give it a light mint green hue).  Once they were dry, I decided to use my glue gun and glue some little clumps of moss to them.

I knew I needed some toadstools.  I was also going to cut and sew some toadstools from felt, but I didn't quite get that far.....So I got some red and white fimo and carefully used my fingers to create these little guys.  I created them in a couple of different sizes.  My words of wisdom when using fimo: Make sure you cut your finger nails before you dig in!  Trust me.....First I shaped all the stumps and caps separately, then carefully pieced them together.  Lastly, I added the little white polka dots.  Once they were ready, I threw them into the oven to cook for about 15 minutes.  Overall, they really didn't take very long to shape.

As you can see I did mount 2 of the birdhouses onto dowels.  I ended up having to glue the dowels to the glass to keep them upright.  Once I put the birdhouses in the vases, I then filled the bottom with white rocks, placed some little ferns in the back ground, placed some moss on top of the rocks, and placed a toadstool in each.  Like so:

Here are some of my creations all together.  I ended up doing a similar type centrepiece with a round glass bowl.  But with these toadstools, I did end up gluing them to some river rocks.  I also added some ivy leaves to the top of the moss.

All in all, I would say the party was a success!

A.A.

I'm sorry for the lack of updates!

I will have something up by the beginning of next week!

But....because it's autumn and the colours are so pretty I thought I'd throw in some of my photography!
Here are some autumn photos from the past few years.  I need to get out this year!  And I also want to go camping in Algonquin one fall to get some good shots as well.

Enjoy!

A.A.

The Annual Autumn Tradition....

I got busy working on my annual autumn tradition for the kids at work.

This is super easy and the kids LOVE them.  They last for months as well!  You could even do something like this instead of carving a pumpkin at Halloween.

All you need are the little gourds that look like mini pumpkins, paint (I use acrylic), and paint brushes.

I always wash the gourds down and then let them dry for an hour or so.  Don't paint on them when they are slightly damp.  Otherwise the paint will come right off.

Here are my little guys beforehand:

Then I painted different faces with different expressions and different eye colours.  So that once I was done, the gourds ended up looking like this:

And last but not least, the final group shot:

A.A.

Okay...I didn't do this but...I "supervised"

So my good friend Sarah asked me to help out with this project for her sister's nursery.  Of course I was more than happy to help out!  Woohoo!  Crayon art!!!

I didn't actually create it.  Sarah is the artist of this piece.  I provided directions/suggestions.  I got to be the supervisor.....lol.

First Sarah drew the uber cute elephant onto the canvas and wrote the baby's name.

Next we chose the crayons she wanted for this particular piece and arranged the them.  Sarah chose 2 different shades of each colour and put a black crayon on each end.  I absolutely love the colour choice!

Then we glued the crayons in place and busted out the hair dryer.

The next step was melting the crayons.

After we let the melted crayons sit for a minute, the final step was painting the elephant and the upcoming baby's name onto the canvas.

And this is the final beautiful product!
Well done Sarah!  Looks fantastic!  Drew will LOVE it!!!!!

A.A.

Back to school.....

I realize it's been a while since my last post (I'm sorry!).  I guess I started to enjoy to the summer a little too much....

So I decided to make something to celebrate my new employment - something for my new (kinda) place of employment - something for my library - something that hopefully the kids will enjoy.

You can do this with any name or word.  All you need are wooden letters (or letters made of a similar material), scrapbook paper or fabric (I used paper), a pencil, sand paper, scissors, paint, a paint brush, a sponge, Modge Podge, ribbon, a glue gun, and any other embellishments you may want to add.

First, sand down the edges of the letters.
Next, trace the letters onto the scrapbook paper or fabric and cut them out.

Then, you'll want to use the Modge Podge as a glue to stick the paper onto the letter.  Once the paper or fabric letter is glued to the wooden letter, take a sponge and the paint and carefully sponge paint around the edges of the letters.  You'll probably have to dab the sponge every so often to remove excess paint.  Once the sponge painting is dry (shouldn't take long), you may want to paint the edges of the letters.  My preference would be a white or black paint for the edges of the letters.
After drying, use your finger as a brush to cover the letters with Modge Podge (to seal and finish each of the letters).

Your final step would be looping the ribbon and gluing the ribbon (which acts as a hook) to the back of each letter (near the top).

To finish the letters off, the final step is optional. Glue pieces of ribbon, flowers, sequins, buttons, or other embellishments on the letters and hang.  I'm still deciding if I want to add any embellishments to my letters.  We'll see....

Enjoy & good luck to all my fellow colleagues in education as we begin a new school year!

A.A.

Off for a week....

Hey Everyone,

I was hoping to have time to create something new and share it before I left for Florida, but I'm sorry to report that I have been unable to do so.  In celebration of the tropical south, I decided to post some pictures with the same type of subject matter.  The first one was taken in St. Thomas I believe, the second one in Aruba, and the final in St. Kitts.

I will return in a week's time.

Until then...here are a few more of my photographs to tie you over!  Enjoy!

A.A.

Monster Mash!

What would a Monster Mash birthday party for a 6 year old be without a monster?!

I couldn't say no to creating this monster for my nephew's 6th birthday party!

So I'm not gonna lie...this little guy was a pain in the youknowwhat....but.....I can't complain with how he turned out.....If you're interested in creating something similar, be prepared to spend a few long days working away on it...especially if you're a perfectionist like me...

All you need: Acrylic paints, plywood, gesso (for acrylics), paintbrushes, water, paper towels, varnish, overhead projector (optional), pattern (optional).

So I'm not going to lie.  The first time I did this, I spent about 8 hours doing the first coat of paint...but I did half of it and the the other half.  Stupid me!  Don't make this mistake.  Because I did half and half and only mixed enough paint for the first half and had to eyeball it...and painted the rest during sunset....the tones weren't quite right...so....I went over it with gesso so I could re-do it.  Use gesso first before painting so that the plywood recognizes that it's acrylic paints that will be going over it....and it works as a primer.  You can use it on canvas and other surfaces you may use as well.  It just acts as a base.

Because I was working on a time constraint, I found a pattern and threw it up on the overhead.  I did modify it a bit.  I eliminated the shorts (had to modify the body outline) & eliminated the teeth as well.  I also changed the eyes a bit.  so I traced my monster up on the plywood.  Now, this is where you'll want to through gesso down (unless you're like me and decide to throw it down to erase the whole thing because you don't like how it looks....).  Then I chose my first coat of paint...a blueish green colour and painted it over the entire monster.  Next, I took the colour I chose for my spots (purple) and painted them in various places, and in various shapes.  Once they dry, I used a combination of dry brush and sponges to give a bit of a fur-like texture to the edges around the spots and throughout the entire body.  I also added some white highlights to the body as well.  I also created a mixture of paint a shade lighter than the purple and dabbed some of this colour over the spots to create some accents and definition to the spots. Next, I approached the claws and the eyes.  I decided to use silver for the claws (I painted these with a fine spotter brush).  My final step was the biggest pain, and it took a full day of work.  Outlining.  Always my least favourite thing to do.  I mixed and created a paint colour a shade darker than the main body colour and went around the entire body of my monster.  Then I made my touch-ups (which also takes forever).

The final step: Varnish!  I used a matte finish varnish and sprayed this bad boy with two coats of it outside.

A.A.