randomness

today i have two bits of randomness to post about. 

first bit of randomness…

i discovered angela(a picture of her from her blog is to the left – isn’t she beautiful) from the blog the painted house last week and was so excited to find out that she was working on a new blog design.  you’ll see when you take a look at her blog that she is an amazing artist and a very fun blogger.  she actually incorporated her own “doodles” into her new blog design.  to celebrate her new design she is offering a giveaway of one of her original oil paintings to a lucky reader.  no, you didn’t read it wrong, i did say an original oil and a very cool one at that.  head on over and check out her blog if you get a chance.  you’ll be glad you did. 

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second bit of randomness…

how to make the silhouette nursery artwork that i posted on yesterday. {this is for you amanda} 

i wasn’t planning on doing a “how to” on this artwork while i was making it so i’m sorry for the lack of pictures to go along with the directions.

things you need: quilting fabric, staple gun, acrylic paint, paint brushes, ribbon, paper, pencil

1) to make the silhouette artwork first i figured out the silhouette i wanted to use and i drew it out on paper.  this took a while because i had to play with the size and scale of each image.  after i got my image drawn then i cut it out.  you can use any image you like.  i suggest experimenting with different images.

2) then i took my fabric and wrapped it around the canvas.  i used my staple gun to attach the fabric to the back of the canvas.  i only attached it in a few spots in case i needed to move it later.  i used 2 different fabrics – a seersucker and a polka dot.

3) next i placed my silhouettes in the center of the first pair of fabric-wrapped canvases and i lightly traced around the edges of the silhouettes with a pencil.  then i flipped the images over and traced them on the second pair of canvases so i would have a mirror image.

4) once i had my silhouette traced i used my large paint brush to paint inside the silhouettes and i used a smaller paint brush in the areas that were small (like the bird’s legs and the owl’s legs.)  then i did the same thing to the second set but i painted around the image instead of inside. (repeat with 2-3 more coats of paint.)

5) after the paint was dry, i secured all edges of the fabric to the back of the canvas with the staple gun.  i used about 5 or 6 staples per each of the 4 sides of the canvas.

6) to give the art a more finished look i painted all of the edges a darker pink.

7) finally, i attached two strands of ribbon to the back of each canvas with my staple gun and tied the ribbons in a bow.

LiveJournal Tags: the painted house blog,giveaway,my art,how to,diy