Mothers' Day Custom Paintings

Back in November I have the privilege to be a part of a wonderful modern dance piece about being a wife, a mother, and a follower of the Lord.  It was a refreshing and fun piece about the peace we receive from the Lord each day and the joy He gives us.  I loved dancing with the women He had brought together to do this, and it really thrusted me back into choreography again, something I had been wanting to pursue again for some time.

One night, as I was ready to fall asleep I got a great idea.  It was an idea for some set design for our piece.  I would paint portraits of each one of us with our children, and we could display them on the stage during the piece.

I went to work the next day and gave it a try.  After finishing one I knew the other ladies would like them, so I continued to work on the rest.  I knew their children and also looked at countless pictures of them to get their hair and size and shaping right.

After many people asking me if I would paint these and sell them for their families, I decided to list them on Etsy.  This would especially be a great Mothers' Day gift, but I can do them any time of year.

I also will work with other sizes than the ones already listed in my shop.  Contact me with any inquiries.

And if you are wondering why I didn't paint the facial features...  I can't.  I'm not great at painting facial features to look like the actual person I am trying to paint.  haha!  That is why.  I could pretend it was some artistic choice, but it really wasn't.

I love having mine hanging up in our home.  It reminds me of the blessing it is to be a wife and a mother.  It will be neat to have this moment in time captured on canvas, as well, since they are of course ever growing each day.

My Favorite Piece (For Now)

People often ask me, "What is your favorite item you have made?"

That is an easy question for now.  My favorite, so far, is a painting I created for my own home.  I found the canvas by a dumpster after I watched one of my neighbors bring it there.  It was an old framed painting of a southwest landscape.

I had it for a couple of months before I finally knew what I wanted to paint on it.  I love sheep.  I love the imagery of sheep in the Bible and the description of Jesus as my Good Shepherd.  There are so many rich lessons to be found in the scriptures that describe sheep and shepherds, and I am always amazed and encouraged to learn more and more.

And so, this is what came out of me through my paints and paintbrushes:

So here we are in a lush pasture grazing by still waters trusting the Good Shepherd to take good care of His sheep each day.  I love this painting.

It was a free canvas that was going to be discarded unfortunately.  I didn't show a before here because I hope the original artist would not see that her painting was not only thrown out but also painted over!  It is a very large piece, and I get to see it and enjoy it everyday.

Now for an idea for the large canvas hanging up in my dining room...

Homemade Christmas: Stenciled Paintings

I really enjoy painting.  I don’t do it as often as I would like, but I am working on that.  For this month’s Homemade Christmas installment, I painted.  This time I used stencils for some word art.

First I gathered up some old paintings that I tried to sell at craft shows or on Etsy that never sold.  It was time to paint over them to make something better.  I love painting over old paintings because it adds texture and dimension to the new one.  I also had a couple of new canvases stored away, so I got those out, too.  I use acrylic paints, and my favorite technique is not washing the brush in between colors in order to blend them like you’ll see on the first two paintings.

Normally I would have some before pictures here, but I painted these on vacation, and in the excitement of the moment I forgot to take before pictures.  I guess I was just thrilled to have a few hours for painting, so I was full speed ahead.  I’ve mentioned before that I can be rather task-oriented at times.

Anyway, here are the final results:

The 23rd Psalm is my favorite, so I love these.

And these were inspired by the hymns Come Thou Fount and Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus…

And finally, these were inspired by my focus on joy this year.

Now I am one more month closer to being ready for a Homemade Christmas this year!  These will also be for sale at Golden Apples Designs.

Did you work on your Homemade Christmas this month?  Post your pictures on our Facebook page.

Homemade Christmas: Guitar String Jewelry

This idea came to me after Christmas when my husband was restringing my sister’s fiance’s guitar.  What do you do with the old strings?  It seemed like a waste of a perfectly good set of art supplies to me, so I began to ask for old guitar strings from musicians I know.

This idea is evolving, and I do plan to perfect it and post items on Etsy in the future.  I have some more work to do before I get to that point however.  For now I will be practicing and making Christmas presents from these old guitar strings I have acquired.

I started with some strings of various lengths, thickness, and colors.  I also had some stones and crystal pieces that I thought would be fun to incorporate.

Then I began to form the rings and earrings you see here by twisting the strings around each other.  This was not easy.  In fact, I think I need some tools to help this process be more smooth and less painful.  Those ends can be sharp!  However, the final result was not bad.  I really like the earrings.  They are simple and elegant, and very lightweight.  I love long dangly earrings, but they often get so heavy.  These are not.

Have you ever made jewelry (or anything else) out of guitar strings?  I would love to hear about it.  I think it is going to be fun to continue to play around with this idea and develop a specific style that works well and looks great!  I love reusing something that would have otherwise be thrown away, and I love music.  This makes a project like this one really fun.

The next project for Homemade Christmas will not take me nearly as long, so stay tuned for the next installment.

Homemade Christmas: Introduction and Monogram Art

I have quite a stash of fabric, crafting items, paints, buttons, and more.  Many, if not most, were acquired one way or another through benevolence or trash-picking of sorts (I don’t think I ever actually went into any dumpsters or real trash receptacles though…except for maybe onetime).

Recently I decided that I would challenge myself to make every single Christmas gift (and maybe even birthday gifts along the way) for Christmas this year.  I could focus on one or two ideas a month, make however many I needed to correspond to my gift list, and try not to spend any money doing it.  I wonder if I can only use supplies that I already have or obtain for free throughout the year.  This will be a fun challenge, and I am looking forward to also sharing these ideas with others.

If you are not someone who would ever actually make these things on your own, but you really like something you see, fear not.  I will be including some of the items I make and share here in my Etsy shop for purchase, as well.

So, for this first month of the year, I have made Monogram Art…

First, I acquired the goods (by sorting through my craft stash).

Then, I decided which one I wanted to do first.

After that, it was just a matter of cutting the background fabric to fit the frame, drawing a letter, cutting that out to make a stencil, cutting the letter out of black felt, gluing it into place, and putting the frame back together.  Simple.

I also did this with other frames and different fabrics.

This is a fairly quick project, and even if you don’t have all the supplies, you can find them inexpensively.  You don’t have to buy a new frame because you may be able to find one that has an old picture or painting in it that you can use (I did this with the J one).  Also, I used felt for most of the letters, which is very inexpensive.  The possibilities are endless, I suppose.

So go make your Christmas list for next year, pick a few people who would enjoy something like this, and give it a try.  You’ll be one step ahead already, and it’s only January!