My Art Prints Have Arrived!

Recently I decided to have some of my art work printed, but finding a printer turned out to be quite a challenge. After searching the Belfast area in vain for a print shop that could handle large, quality prints. I began searching online.
	"First Rose" - Pencil Sketch

My first several stops were quite discouraging. Most of the printers I found had extremely high prices for small quantities. But then I happened across Northeast Reprographics in Bangor. Their prices were quite reasonable, and to make things even better, Jeff was very helpful (and extremely patient) in guiding me through the process of preparing my artwork for printing.

"Stairway to Heaven" - Multimedia Collage

"Suite Madame Blue" - Multimedia Collage

I had 4 diffent types of media to print, pencil sketches, photographs, and collage, and I was quite happy with the results of each.
"Friends" - Black and White Photograph

The "Friends" shot is my sweet dobie-lab mix Lucy, with Prissy, my cat. It was an accidental shot, but one of my favorites. I'll be using the black and white images in the photo wall I'm putting together, and the collages will go in my guest room/project room that I'll soon be re-doing. I've just got to get the old bunk beds out of there so that I can start. Yesterday I visited a lumber yard and priced wood for a bookcase-room divider that I'm planning to build. It will be my first large woodworking project, so it will be interesting to see how that goes. The folks at Buxton Building Supply were extremely helpful in suggesting materials and, like Jeff at Reprographics, most patient in guiding a newbie! Time to get busy!

Until next time,

ARTS IN THE PARK Part II

This post is a continuation of yesterday's entry, Arts in the Park Part I.

Arts in the Park at Heritage Park, Belfast, Maine

One of our next stops was Blue Moon Clay Carvers.

Roger & Sue Bisaillon have been creating this colorful and unique pottery since 1982. I loved all of the unique shapes and bright Bohemian colors.

Blue Moon Pottery will definitely put a smile on your face!

It was definitely one of my favorite stops. Moving on along, we came to Judith Schuppien's booth, where she was generously offering free postcards of her gorgeous work! Ms. Schuppien works primarily in oils and pastel. She has won numerous awards for her work, including, -"Best of Show" in the 2010 Maine Open Juried Art Show

Decoupage is one of my favorite artistic expressions, so Sally Kent's booth was a

delight! She considers her decoupage an extension of the television edit work that she did Hollywood, only now the images that she manipulates are accented and enhanced with paint and gilding. Much of her art is showcased on glass plates. Her subject matter spans a wide range, however much of her work has a very lovely feminine quality that I find very appealing.

Unique Sea-Glass was one of our last stops, and one of the most popular booths; and for good reason! They offered

a huge variety of beautiful and affordable objects fashioned with or from sea glass. I especially liked the mirror frames and wind chimes.

Finally, we decided it was time to eat. We picked out a picturesque spot near the water, and I devoured my Old English fish and chips. We thought ice cream sounded good too, but since the sky was quickly clouding up, we left the park and headed to Dairy Queen. After a banana split for me and a hot fudge sundae for Pat, we were pleasantly surprised to bump into another friend, Roberta! Since all three of us are

incorrigible junkers, we headed off to Goodwill to see what bargains might await. It was the perfect wrap for a delightful outing!

"The Girls" - Me, Pat, Roberta

Until next time,

ARTS IN THE PARKPart I

Yesterday I had a fabulous little outing with my friend, Pat, at the Arts in the Park festival in downtown Belfast, Maine. Dozens of talented artists and artisans were represented in the show, featuring myriads of artistic creations. There were also muscians to keep things lively, and of course food. I love fair food, and I'll have to say that in spite of a lengthy wait, the English style fish and chips I decided upon were extra delicious!

Panorama of the Arts in the Park Festival

But....food was actually the last stop, so back to the art. Our first stop was at Dianne Horton's lovely booth, where she was giving away beautiful bookmarks made from pieces of her art.
Dianne works in watercolor and pen & ink. She was awarded the "Best of the Best" award in the artist category for 2009 in the Republican Journal's reader poll. Her studio is located in Swanville, Maine.

The next stop was Ducktrap Photography. Ducktrap Photography presented some amazing black and white images of landscapes and nature shots from around the world. I thought one of the most interesting aspects of this artist was the many different ways that the photography is presented.

These photos show some of the images which were transferred to sea shells. Other images appeared on cast glass and jewelry, as well as the more

expected art prints. The photos, whether on paper, shell, or glass, possess a mystical quality. You really should visit the web site for a most enjoyable tour!

To be continued...


Until next time,

PROJECT: Chest of Drawers Redo

If you're anything like me, you're always looking for more storage. I came across this old chest of drawers at a yard sale and decided to buy it because the price was right and it would hold a lot of "stuff". It had decent enough lines,
	Before

but a garish 1970's Bicentenial style paint job, complete with eagles. I knew that I wanted something light, and something that would play up the vintage vibe, so this is what I did.

Step 1:

I wanted a partial crackle effect, so I squeezed all purpose glue to the areas where I wanted crackle. In this case, I wanted to keep the original color of the chest for my crackle color, so I did not paint the chest another color before starting. If you want the crackle to be a different color than the one you're starting out with, you'll need to basecoat the chest, or at least the areas to be crackled with that color first.

Step 2:

I used a foam brush to spread the glue evenly over the section to be crackled. You have a couple of choices when spreading the glue....you can use a foam brush as I did, or you can use your finger. If you want fine crackling, the foam brush is best. If you desire large, coarse crackling, the finger may be a better choice. A general rule of thumb is, the finer you want the crackle, the lighter and thinner the glue coat; the coarser you want the crackle, the heavier or thicker you should leave the glue.

Step 3

After my spot glue applications had dried, I removed the drawers and painted the frame of the chest with white latex paint.

	Note: in the spots where you want crackling, you must only brush in one direction and only use one coat of paint, or the crackling won't work. This is the chest after two coats of paint except for the crackle spots, and a close up of the crackling effect.
Close-up of Crackle Effect

After I had the frame of the chest painted, I started work on the drawers.


Step 4:

The photos below show me sanding the eagle decal off. (While prep work is minimal for a shabby distressed finish, it is not completely eliminated. You don't want the remnants of the last finisher's work to show through yours!)
Once the eagles were gone, it was time to paint the drawers with their first coat of paint.

Step 5:

After using the glue as above in the places where I wanted crackle, I applied the first coat of paint, taking care to only go one direction in the areas which I wanted crackled. Since I wanted to crackle the finish of the knobs, I ignored them while painting the rest of the drawer with the first coat of paint.
The photo below shows a freshly painted drawer.

Step 6:

Because I wanted heavier crackling on the knobs, I applied the glue with my finger.

Step 7:

After the first coat of paint and the glue dried, I applied the second coat of white paint. (And the single coat to the knobs, working in one direction as before.)

All of the painted drawers waiting to dry.

	This is a close-up of a crackled knob. Now all that's left is the distressing.
Close-up of crackled knob

Step 8:

I used sandpaper to remove some of the white paint I'd just applied in areas where I wanted the appearance of wear.
	Initial sanding

Step 9:

Because the chest had been painted a few times, and I'd noticed a nice green in places where the beige had worn away, I further distressed some of the beige with a small metal file to give the paint job a chippy finish.
This is what the distressing looked like when I was done.

Finished!
One great thing about this type of finish is that the more beat up it gets, the better it looks! These photos show the chest about a year after it was "refinished", and the more worn it gets, the better I like it.

Chest one year later

Close-up of the chest of drawers

I was badly in need of a telephone table by the entry, and this serves the purpose quite nicely. It also gives me a convienient place to stash my latest flea market finds until I've had a chance to figure out how I'm going to use them.

Another view

Until next time,

Creative Gift Wrapping

I love finding unique ways of wrapping gifts. It just seems to make the gift a little more special and personal. I don't like spending a lot of money on gift wrapping, though, so I try

to come up with ways to use the things that I already have on hand creatively. This project can be adapted to many different styles, and is ideal if you need to mail the presents and worry about bows getting crushed. There are no bows here, but I don't think anyone's going to miss them.

After wrapping in your choice of paper, measure a length of ribbon around the width of the package, and snip with just a small overlap. I always save short lenghts of ribbon and these will usually work here unless you happen to have an oversized box.

Now take the length of ribbon and fold it in half.

Then using a hole punch, create a hole in the center of the ribbon. You can also snip a small hole with scissors if you don't have a hole punch handy.

Set this ribbon aside.

Now take another scrap of ribbon, about 12 inches in length and fold in in half. Tie a knot at the folded end as shown.

Now thread the folded and knotted ribbon through the hole in the first ribbon.

Wrap the first ribbon around the package with the "tail" that you just threaded through centered on the front. Secure on the back with tape or hot glue; thread a tag onto the ribbon "tail" as shown, tie a bow, and you're done!

I like to make my own tags by cutting out pieces of the wrapping paper or even pictures from magazines and pasting them to cardstock with decoupage medium or thinned white craft glue.


These are a few other packages that I've wrapped in this manner. I think my favorite is the one wrapped in newsprint with a dog photo cut from a magazine as a tag. Happy wrapping!

Until next time,