And so it begins...

I have been talking about starting a blog for about a year now! After three days of being  snowed/iced in, I decided why not now? I have spent these days of being stranded at home keeping busy with some art projects. Of course, a lot of my time has been spent thinking of all the things that would help with these art projects if I could go to the craft store or the thrift shop! Instead I have been "making do" with things I have around the house. It's not like I don't have a stock pile of "stuff" to keep me busy for a year!!!

I have been artsy/craftsy for as long as I can remember. When I was little, while other kids were setting up lemonade stands, I was selling paintings. My sweet, supportive mother would string fishing line from pine tree to pine tree and then she would lovingly hang my art pieces with clothes pins. The neighbors would stop by and pay a nickel for my masterpieces. And then there came The Pet Rock! Remember those? I remember spending hours searching the backyard for the perfect rock to transform into a pet. To this day, when I see something, I think, "I CAN MAKE THAT!"

My plan all along for starting a blog is to have a place to share projects, tips, and ideas for art and craft projects. I hope to have some of my artistic friends (you know who you are!) to share some projects too. I love to have friends over for craft night at my house. I'll share those projects and pictures as well. So girls, don't forget your lip gloss because you may end on the world wide web! I promise I'll let you "approve" the picture before I post it! I'm sure you would do the same for me!

I'm going to jump right in with a project for Valentine's Day. This project uses discarded paper from my shredder, fabric stiffener, E6000 glue, acrylic paint, and stretched canvas. You will also need a large ziplock bag and wax paper.

Step 1:     Take 2 generous hand fulls of shredded paper and place it in a ziplock bag.

 Step 2:    Pour STIFFY fabric stiffener into bag a little at a time. It's easy to judge if you need to add more. If you add too much, then just add a little more paper. STIFFY is made by PLAID and can be found in the craft store in the glue section. You can also used Mod Podge for this step. If you choose to use Mod Podge, you will need to add it to the bag first, mix in a little water so it's not so thick, and then add your paper. I have used both techniques and they work equally as well.

 Step 3:    Close the ziplock bag and knead until the paper has been saturated with the STIFFY.

Step 4:    Remove saturated paper from bag and begin to form it into a heart. This part is messy so roll up your sleeves and have fun! The clean up is easy...just wash your hands with soap and water. Once you have your desired shape, place it on a sheet of wax paper to dry. You can tweak your shape easily once you lay it down. Once your heart appears to be dry, then turn it over and give the bottom time to dry. Your heart should be completely dry within 12 to 24 hours.

Step 5:    While you are waiting for your heart to dry, paint your canvas. For this project, I painted a 6" x 6" canvas with  AMERICANA acrylic paint in Deep Burgundy. You may need several coats of paint depending on the look you want. Reds are always harder to get complete coverage. For this project I did 3 coats.


Step 6:    Once your heart and canvas are dry, use E6000 to adhere the heart to the canvas.

It's as easy as that! Your heart will be the perfect gift for someone special even if the someone special is yourself!!!

Here is another project I did using the same technique. I painted the 6" x 12" canvas black and added Scrabble tiles (also using E6000) to the top. The possibilities are endless, so give it a try and let me know how you did. I'd love to see pictures!

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Look for new projects coming soon!