Category: Summer

Wildflower Painting

7/5/2019

Who doesn't love wildflowers?! This is a fun, whimsical painting to do with friends during the spring or summer months, they'll love it!

Supplies:

Canvas/canvas board
Easel if desired
Acrylic paints (yellow, gold, green, black, white, blue, brown, fuchsia.. all the colors, just get all the colors!)
Sponges
Q-tips
Water cup
Paper towels
Paint brushes of various shapes (at least one pointy and one tiny one!)

1. Using a sponge, dab yellow and gold onto the canvas forming a marbled background. If preferred, let some of the white show. Accentuate gold at the edges for an authentic look.

3. Using a pointed brush, add grass stems randomly throughout the sponged background using various shades of green.

5. If desired, add tiny/light dabs of green into the white so that it looks more realistic as if some of the stems/grass were showing through.

7. Add some highlights to the blue by going over the petals and center lightly with white.

9. Next, create a variety of white daisy shapes throughout the foreground. Remember not all daisies are made the same! This may take a couple of coats to get a solid white layer.

11. For the last set of wildflowers, create “Red Clover” with fuchsia. Dab the paint into a rounded cluster with Q-tips. This may take a second coat to make it a nice solid layer.

13. Make the grass more realistic by using a pointy brush and sporadically adding “wisps” of grass over some of the flowers, seen below.

2. Rinse out sponge or use a new one for the grass background. Use 3 colors for grass: black, green, lighter green. Start with black, dabbing at the bottom for the deepest, shadowy parts. For each color you add, very lightly dab at the top to “fade”. Add green above the black, blending into the black as well. And lastly add the lighter green, blending into the previous colors.

4. Using a clean brush, paint a handful of “Queen Anne’s Lace” by dabbing white in elongated “UFO” shapes. Make sure to add a “bud butt” of green underneath some of them as if you were seeing the stem of the flower.

6. Next, create various shapes and sizes to represent blue “Flax” flowers with a lighter blue paint. Be sure to make them different from one another. Keep in mind, ones in the foreground will usually be larger than the background.

8. If desired, go back over the white with a little bit of blue with a skinny brush so that the white isn’t so stark. This also gives the flowers some more dimension.

10. I don’t particularly like how I did my daisies so feel free to do them however you wish!I added an orange center, rounding the top to make some look more realistic. I lightly brushed brown throughout giving the petals and added a tiny dusting of black in some areas as well. Again, as with the “Queen Anne’s Lace” add a “bud butt” to some of the daisies as if you could see underneath it.

12. Next, add a bit of black and white very lightly to the flower for some dimension. You could also use the green from the grass before, anything to give it a dark depth in between the fuchsia. Can be done with the Q-tip as well.

14. After adding some more grass in, it’s time for the really messy part!

If you don’t want bits of paint on you or possibly your clothes, you should probably avoid this step or work extremely slow and careful!

Using white paint, mix in a few drops of water to make the paint more fluid. Dab your brush into this new mixture and hold it over the painting. LIGHTLY hit/flick the paintbrush with your opposite hand, moving throughout the painting until satisfied. All done!

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Strawberry Rocks

6/16/2019

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Supplies:

"strawberry-shaped" rocks
acrylic paint (exterior if they will be outdoors)
- red, white, various greens, black
paint brushes (one tiny/pointy one!)
basket/bowl for rocks
fabric if desired for the container

When I saw posts on Pinterest regarding these rocks I thought they were adorable and felt like I had to do them for a program at work, which here I am, prepping to do just that! My goal was to travel around to local parks and search for the perfect "strawberry-shaped" rocks to use, however, doing them for a public program meant that I needed about 110 of these rare diamonds and lets be real... that did not happen. I love using up supplies from previous projects and a coworker of mine had left over "mexican river rocks" from a rock-painting program, so, this is what I ended up using, cool.

Taking a quick look at project photos on Pinterest, I saw that some showed that the rocks were painted white first.

"Nah, I don't need to do that" I thought to myself peering at the 110 rocks waiting on my cart. So I went ahead and painted the first couple with red... "huh... this doesn't look too good" I quickly realized. "Do I seriously have to paint these white?" I begrudgingly thought to myself.

So, I took a shot at the next one with a nice single coat of white acrylic paint. After it dried, I put the first coat of red over it and WOW, what a difference! You can see in the below photo the ones I painted first laying in the background on newspaper vs. the new beautifully vibrant rock in my hand.

Thankfully, we have people who work with us who are often looking for "odd" jobs to do in down time.... well.... I think painting 110 rocks white is the perfect job to do for that! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I thought 5 rocks would be a good amount for this project which ended up working well for dry times as you make your way through each rock and each layer of paint.

So, paint all rocks white, then paint all rocks red. I put 2 coats of red on top so it's a nice even layer.

After the red has dried, you are ready to start your leaves. I was very unsure of how to do this. Do I make them realistic? Do I make them whimsical? Do I blend? all ran through my mind. I decided to go for a more "cartoonish" look, I guess. And started with a base solid layer of dark green.

When I got done with all 5, I started laughing because they totally looked like tomatoes! I set them up on the post-it notes so they could dry without touching anything. Here is also where I found out how slippery these things became with the paint! So be careful and hold on to 'em.

After my dark green dried, I went over it in a smaller reflection with light green. Then, I added a dot of the dark green in the center to represent where the stem would technically be. I'm not gonna lie... I hated this... still hate it. I do not like the way this came out but got even more stressed out the more I tried to "fix" it. I found it best to just leave it as is and move on full steam ahead!

Next, will be your act of patience. Using a tiny pointy brush, paint "raindrop" shaped black "dots" all over your rocks to represent the strawberry seeds. And do this with every... single... rock!

Now, go over every... single... dot.... on every... single... rock... with a tiny white "raindrop"/"dot". You could also change this up and be more realistic by making the seeds a golden yellow or changing the look of some so they're not all exactly the same. But I didn't have time for that and was shooting for a simple, easy project for my participants!

Lastly, put them in a cute bowl, basket, container, whatever! I found farmer market style containers at our local craft store. They came in a pack of six so were super affordable! I also put a piece of fabric in to drape over the sides before I put the rocks in and wa-la, Adorable summer decor!

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Let's Have a Party!

5/28/2019

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It feels like it has been ages since I have last posted! But it has not quite been 2 months yet so I think I'm still in the clear. The reason for my absence was mostly due to the fact that I was in charge of throwing my parents a surprise 40th anniversary party! And it's no simple feat - especially when you want to do it up like me (Momma taught me best!).

Planning a party of any type has so many components! It starts with when to have it, where to have it, and rolls into the confusing guest list of who and who not to invite - hoy, so many decisions!

Luckily, a wonderful aunt offered to host the party for us, which means... no cost! (I tried to give her money guys, I swear). Once you decide on a guest list, you can make/order invites. So much fun!

We put a twist on the party since it was for my parents anniversary and made it a 1970's party to honor 1979. I love having a theme. It makes it more fun in my opinion! But, I also think just doing a general color scheme is fun too!

So, once you get those invites out you can start thinking about the details: food, decorations, etc. Luckily, my parents have amazing friends, everyone offered to bring something. My aunt and I provided the main dishes and everyone else brought sides and desserts. Someone else even offered to get the cake for us - thank you, thank you!

I was left to decorate, which I love more than anything. Since we went with the 1970s, I tried to stick with the beautiful hues of that era - yellow, olive green, peach, brown, etc. and it was beautifully vintage when it all came together.

I found an AWESOME flat sheet at the thrift store for $1.50 that for sure must have been from 1979 and cut it into wide strips to make runners for all the tables. They were definitely not all exact... but no one could tell since they weren't lined up right next to one another!

I also purchased various sheets/tablecloths in the other colors and cut them into 1.5-2" wide strips of varying lengths to make whimsical fabric garland to hang throughout the party area. These were a steal! - thrift stores and garage sales are where it's at! We also used one of these for a simple photo backdrop area.

To see how to make the fabric garland, read my post here:
https://www.the-art-escape.com/blog/scrap-fabric-garland

I put together a small photo collage (didn't want it to be too overwhelming) to show the progression of our family over the last 40 years and also put their 1970 style photos in frames to use as decorations on the tables - and conversation starters of course!

I used mason jars for center pieces, filled them with stones so they wouldn't blow over, and put a simple mixture of fake flowers with pin wheels or "40" stakes in them. I purchased the pin wheels for dirt cheep at a craft store and made the "40" stakes myself by cutting out "40" on glitter paper with the CriCut, gluing them to a white background, and taping them to the stakes. I trimmed everything down to fit into the glasses at varying heights. My aunt also had tree slices left from previous parties that we used under the mason jars! This provides some extra pazaz to the table for sure!

To be completely honest, I didn't really know how many tables we would have. I also didn't know where I would be hanging all the stuff I was making but I just kept making away! Everything was able to be used and it all came together perfectly!

I made real cute party favors for the guests as well - I used leftover fabric from the sheets and made "hobo bags". I filled them with a piece of Hubba-Bubba gum, Twix, and a Ring Pop - all of which were created in/around 1979. I made quick tags just by printing them out onto cardstock and cutting them out, then hole-punching them and tying them to the bags (with more scrap fabric)! I put them in an old suitcase which everyone thought was great!

My uncle put together a playlist of groovy 70's tunes for people to dance to. We had my parents cut the cake just like they did 40 years ago, they danced to a song my uncle chose for them, and we had them play the new-age shoe game. Dad was not happy with all this attention! But he was a trooper through it all.

Although it was supposed to be a surprise party... my parents totally knew! They said no one talked to them all week and people were being too weird - woops! That's ok - it was a perfect 70's bash none-the-less.

Now, for one thing that was not so perfect.... there always seems to be something that happens at events: strange family drama, weird occurrences, something doesn't work, something breaks, you forget the cake, etc.... this particular event resulted in my aunt (yes the same aunt who hosted) acquiring a broken leg!!!!

It was awful, there's just no other way to put it. I felt/feel absolutely terrible that it happened because, in my mind, if I wouldn't have had it there, she wouldn't have broken her leg! Now she will be laid up in a cast for weeks and weeks, right in the middle of summer (she's a camper, this is a big deal people!) and right before her grandbaby is due! Terrible, terrible, terrible!

It happened while we were setting up for the party, we tried to make her sit the rest of the day/night but the woman wants to move, move, move! Thankfully, she had a boot from when she broke her other leg another time and wore it all night... but, the next day, x-rays revealed it was most certainly broken. Picture below to prove how amazing my aunt is for sticking around the whole night!

So, in conclusion, there are so many different pieces and parts for planning a party. You can go in so many different directions and do just about anything, making it personal for whoever the guest-of-honor is!

Need ideas for planning your next party?? Just ask me, I'd love to help!

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Wildflower Painting

Strawberry Rocks

Let's Have a Party!

Rebecca Dickinson

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