Decorating with crochet

When I saw how Maia’s class were painting their book bags, I was inspired to have a go and make a multimedia work of art myself! Here’s how I made and decorated my book bag… or as I like to refer to it:

Cut out the fabric; the book bags we made were approximately 84 cm x 36cm. Over sew all edges and fold in half – the fold is the bottom of your bag. Draw your design, in my case this was a tree (but you are only limited by your imagination) in the center of the front half:Using fabric paint, fill in the tree truck and branches (once dry, iron the paint to set it). Crochet up your favourite flowers, leaves and other decorations. I used this lovely flower pattern, I kind of winged the leaves, but here’s a good basic pattern, and here’s another. I also crocheted a wee birdie and some circles. Sew everything in place, and add buttons and other embellishments for interest:Make a lining, very slightly smaller than the size as your bag. Sew side seams together and fold over the top 2cm:Insert lining inside bag (wrong side to wrong side): Cut webbing handles to desired length, and insert between your layers. Pin in place, so when you sew the top seam everything comes out even 🙂Fill with treasures and enjoy……Or make one for a gift, and pay it forward! Have a lovely week, everyone! ♥ Janette xo

From doodle to work of art…

For Christmas last year, my brother and sister in law requested a piece of art from me for their home.  In my usual timely fashion I have only just managed to make them something this week. Oops.

I find the idea of creating something like this for someone else quite daunting. Taste, especially with regard to art, is very personal so I was extremely nervous about doing this. Anyways, this piece started with a doodle, which I worked on during a full day team meeting at work last week. You know, when I should have been concentrating. Im an active listener!

I really liked the idea of turquoise… but the accents in their house are red, so I kept it simple with red, black and white. I also wanted to make it a little less busy than the doodle, so stuck to a few main elements. Once I’d drawn a rough sketch on the canvas, using acrylic paint I filled in the black outlines…

Before adding in the red accents. Here’s the finished piece drying outside in the late evening sun:When it was completely dry I gave it a couple of coats of spray gloss to seal it (this also makes it look more professional), I use this brand: Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of it on the wall in their house as yet.  But I’m pretty sure they loved it which was a relief!!!

While working on this project my apprentice was hard at work on his on his own piece of art…

I love how carefully he works, and with such concentration!

And his piece has made it to the wall in our home! So do you ‘make art’ for your home?  What do you like to paint? Hope your week is going well 🙂 Janette xx

Tiny birdhouse painting

A while back I found this tiny easel, and today I created a teeny little watercolor and crayon painting just the right size to display on it…

I think it will live in the kitchen… on the shelves:

Hope you are having a creative day! Jxx

Painting a photo

Last year I took this photo of Maia, Carter and their cousins, which my parents (the proud grandparents) had enlarged and printed onto a canvas.  Unfortunately the quality of the print wasn’t great and despite a re-print they were never really happy with the colors… so I decided to have a go at fixing it up! And this is the result:

Just a bit more fun 🙂 I didn’t paint the children (except for some of the features), but did (obviously) paint in a new foreground and background. I used oil paints and once it was finished sprayed the entire canvas with a fixative. There doesn’t seem to be any bleeding or damage to the original photo (ie the children’s faces, which I was a bit worried might happen).  I’m quite inspired to have a go painting on other photos now too! I searched around the internet trying to find advice on this kind of thing, but I drew up a blank – have you ever tried painting on a photo, and if so what were the results like?

Window pictures…

We are very lucky to live on a great street with gorgeous neighbors. The lovely Stephanie is two doors down from us, and she is always coming up with crafty treats for the children, which is very exciting and as Im sure you can imagine they love stopping by to see her!

This week, she ‘shared’ with us a set of window art paints she had used with her grandchildren. These paints are very cool – you trace a design using the paint onto a piece of clear plastic, leave it to dry and then peel it off the entire work of art to create a picture that will stick to any window. Who knew?  I had never seen anything like these before…

Both children are so into it – even Carter managed perfectly well filling in the designs (I drew the outline in black paint for them). He can be very careful when he wants to be… and any small mishaps can be scraped off when the paint is dry.These were their first attempts… they are so proud of them. We had to invite Stephanie and Joe over to see their creations.The pictures don’t do them a lot of justice, but when the early morning sun is streaming through the window they look gorgeous!Goodness what a messy dining room table that is peeking through behind Carter… we had been making origami!

Invisible pictures….

This morning the kids had fun ‘painting’ invisible pictures.  Dad drew something on white paper in white crayon and the kids painted over using food colouring mixed in water (the water colours we normally use were just too weak for this)… their appetite for these paintings well outstripped his desire to create them!  Here are a few;

But it was such a lot of fun!  Hope you are having a wonderful week. Jxx