Altered Wooden Crosses

I made these altered crosses a few years back. I'm using them as part of my Easter decorations this year. They make great gifts too, especially for Sunday school teachers.

Just find a wooden cross at your local craft store and alter it with paint, paper, lace...whatever you have.  A little trick on this one - I used three sticks. They don't cross in the center  so that nest can lay flat.  I gathered the twigs in the yard and wrapped in copper wire. I hung a few metal leaves, glued down the nest and filled that with feathers and faux eggs.  The paint job is easy too. I painted the cross with an antique white wash (watered down acrylic paint) then dry brushed some brown on the edges.

This next one was painted with a brown wash paint on outside and the antique white wash on the inside of the cross. I used glimmer mist to tint the lace and layered that on vintage book paper. I painted the edges of the cross with my fingers (I like those better than paintbrushes!) using several different colors until I got the desired effect.

The center is made from lace, flowers and vintage jewelry all layered on top of one another. There is a bead dangling from the lace.

Guess who made one too? Kara actually took several of these wooden crosses over to a friend's house and they came up with their own altered crosses.  Here's Kara's cross -

Cute, huh? See, you can make these out of materials you have on hand.  This is a great project for you and the kids or the grandchildren.  You can make yours all pretty and vintage, and they can have fun with your stash of scrap paper and buttons.  Enjoy!  Thank you for your comments and follows. xoxo Linking up to:

Sweet treasures

Barbara Jean at Treasures from the Heart is one of my favorite people.  She is so talented and welcomes new bloggers with open arms. She gave me one of my first features and for that I'm so thankful! Barb makes these gorgeous pin cushions out of glass candlesticks. Isn't this amazing? I purchased it from her online store here.

It fits me like a glove. I just love it and plan to use it in the new studio. I find myself drawn to pincushions lately.  How about you? Any collectors out there? I'm thinking we need a pincushion party! I may have to host one. Or, how about a "What I collect" party? What do you girls think about that?

Ready for something really cute? My daughter had a friend over and they were doing some painting on the porch this past weekend. She surprised me with this -

Is that not the cutest rooster you've ever seen?  Smaller is always cuter to me. I big puffy heart this.  I hope you are having a great week!  Thank you so much for your comments and follows. I treasure those too! Linking up to -

Kara and the Bee

Kara traveled to the county spelling bee today. That's her on the left with some of the school board members and the runner up from her school.  There were 50 kids from fourth grade to eighth.  Our little fourth grader did not make the final 20, but she was really close!

Ms. Robinson, the assistant principal from her school, came too for the awards ceremony before the competition.  Take a look at this great medal!

...and as a little reward for a job well done, we made a pit stop after lunch for this guy ...

Meet "Mr. Citrus."  He moves into his new fish condo tomorrow. We are letting the water condition and get to room temperature.

Some how I've managed to keep two other fish alive for the past 4-5 years for my son. Let's hope I have the same luck with this guy.  Please send prayers, cross your fingers, throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder, raise your feet off the floor and hold your breath...whatever it takes to help  me keep this little guy healthy! lol  Hope you are having a great weekend. I'm headed to another antique sale at Sweet Peas tomorrow morning. I'm also having lunch with some Central Florida bloggers on Tuesday.  I should have some fun finds and good stories to share. Make sure you stop back by!

Collage and painting with the kids

We had Monday off from school and work last week.  I spent the day in the studio with Kara and her friend Sydney.  They love to create.  We spontaneously decided to make collages on canvas board from all of my scrap paper.  I then had the idea to share Kelly Rae Robert's book with them. Kelly is a mixed media artist that creates beautiful paintings which typically start with a paper collage. She paints with everything from her finger to bubble wrap. I thought her paint techniques would be fun for the girls to experiment with on their collages. They loved the idea.

You do not have to run to your local craft store for this project. Dig out your scrap paper! If you don't have scrapbook paper then get creative. What about all those subscription cards from magazines, clothing tags, old school work, junk mail (think envelopes), catalogs....are you getting the picture? We made our collages on canvas board that I keep around for projects. We could have just as easily glued our paper onto cardboard cut from cereal boxes. You just need a lightweight chipboard cut to size.  The glue of choice is Mod Podge. You'll need some inexpensive paint brushes to apply the Mod Podge. It does ruin the brush so keep that in mind.

 Sydney's paper collage

Kara's paper collage

The girls picked out their paper and cut and placed pieces until they were happy with their composition. I took pictures of each collage to help us remember the placement.  Then, we glued on each piece by first applying Mod Podge to canvas then back of paper.  Use a very thin layer of glue and press down hard to remove air bubbles. Any remaining air bubbles or wrinkles will disappear as it dries...trust me!  

I even played a bit with some other materials to create a quick collage.  I was looking forward to painting with the girls. Which will explain the lack of pictures during the painting process. Sorry!  After the Mod Podge dried for 15-20 minutes, we applied coordinating paint with a brayer (rolled in paint) in various spots on the pieces.  I then gave the girls bubble wrap. They applied paint directly to the bubble wrap and then "stamped" it onto their canvas.  We also found a piece of mesh cotton that made a fun pattern and a gift card that made lines when dipped in paint.  The girls used their fingers too and applied paint around the edges of their canvas, like distress ink.  They really had fun. There is no wrong answer here.  You can paint with anything!

Didn't these turn out great?  I love to watch these little artists experiment with all kinds of mediums. Mixed media art is such a gift because there are no boundaries and no one technique to be mastered that defines whether you are an artist.  I only realized that a few years ago. I'm glad I can share this with my daughter at such a young age so that she can soar.  I'm looking forward to our next day off from school!

Speaking of Kara...We will be joining her for the district spelling bee on Friday. She won her school spelling bee last month! We are so proud of our little fourth grader. Will you do me a favor and say a little prayer that she has a great day?  We want her to be confident and feel proud of what she has accomplished. Of course, we'd be thrilled if she did well. She is one of the youngest so it will be a challenge. Have a great week! xoxo