A great afternoon "pick-me-up"

I have seen several coffee-protein smoothies on Pinterest lately, but none of them sounded that great to me. I decided to create my own. It turned out to be quite tasty, so I thought I would share it.



Coffee-Protein Smoothie:

8 oz. cold brewed coffee

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. pumpkin puree 

1 scoop vanilla-flavored protein powder

1 tsp. golden flax seed, ground

1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened-original

)stevia to taste (I used 2 packets)

2 cubes of ice (may wish to use more, if you want it colder)

Add all ingredients to smoothie machine or blender. Process.

Enjoy!

~Shabby to Chic~

It all started with this table that I purchased at a yard sale for $3.00 .  The guy was asking $5.00, but agreed to take my offer.  My daughter said, “Gosh mom, you are so cheap!”  I told her that by getting something at  a lesser price, just puts extra money in my pocket to spend at the next yard sale.  She’ll learn.

The table had some “issues”.   First of all, there were 3 holes drilled all the way through the top of it.  Although the rest of the table was made of wood, the top was not.  Therefore, just using wood filler was not an option.  The surface was more like a very hard textured laminate and it wasn’t even glued on well.  I decided to chisel it off and see what was underneath.  It was some sort of particle board.  Why in the world they would put this on top of a wood table is beyond me!

I knew I had a challenge ahead of me.  I could cut a piece of wood to fit the top, but because there was a “lip” of real wood bordering the top, I knew it would be hard to get an exact cut.  

I looked around the garage and found a product called Plastic Wood. It was small can (a "hand-me-down") which was half empty.  I had never worked with this product before and really had no idea how it was to be used.  The can said that it “looks like and acts like real wood”.  I figured “what the heck”, I’ll just slap some on with a putty knife and see what happens. I didn’t have enough to cover even a quarter of the top, but I liked the hard surface that it was giving me, so I headed to the hardware store to purchase more.  Boy, that stuff is expensive.  I ended up spending almost $15.00 to get the amount that I needed.  Oh well, the table only cost me $3.00, right?

I kept spreading the Plastic Wood over the entire top of the table.  I never could get the even surface that I wanted.  I tried using a wider putty knife, but that  didn’t seem to help.

I grabbed my handy electric hander and did the best I could at smoothing things out.  I gotta tell you, this Plastic Wood stuff is hard as a rock!  Even with a coarse grit sandpaper, I could hardly tell if I was making a difference.  I sanded the rest of the table to prep it for painting.

After going over the table several times, I decided to “call it quits”.  Like my husband often says, “it is what it is”.  I took a rag and wiped off all the dust.

Before painting the table, I took a candle and rubbed it across any areas that I wanted to look as if it had been worn from usage.  

So, I’ve never done this before, but I decided to paint my table with craft paint.  I did this mainly because I found the color that I thought would work perfectly for the technique that I was attempting.  Bimini Blue; I just love the name of it.  It makes me think of being someplace tropical.

With a sponge brush, I painted the entire surface of the table.  2 bottles of the craft paint was all it took. My paint investment was less than $1.50!  Not bad, eh?

After allowing the paint to dry overnight, I lightly sanded the whole table. The paint promptly came off in the areas where I had applied the candle wax, therefore exposing the wood beneath.

The next step is my favorite:

Taking my trusty can of one-step polyurethane (has stain in it), I brush a light coating over the entire surface of the table.  This particular piece is great because it has little “nook and crannies” where the finish can get “caught”, which creates depth and interest.

Applying a polyurethane that has a stain in it serves two purposes.  It seals the paint and also gives it “aged” finish.

 

Collage Art

As I have mentioned before, I am not the best blogger. I just LOVE to create art, but documenting my work is not top priority.  When I decide to tackle a new project, I like to just "jump in" and "loose" myself. 

This project was no different. 

An artist friend of mine recently attended a workshop where she learned how to do a type of collage painting which I had never seen. I got excited about the prospect of making my own mixed media artwork after witnessing her masterpiece. Since I lost the picture I took of her work (I lost all of my pictures, phone numbers etc. on my phone do to failure to “update”-valuable lesson learned), I only had written instructions from which to work.

Hopefully my partial "how-to”, which follows, will give you a pretty good idea of how to complete this project.


There are a few layers involved, but it’s actually quite a simple
to do.

Supplies needed:

-a large canvas (I used an 11x13)

-various bits of printed paper such a scrapbook paper, sheet music, dictionary pages etc.,

  torn into small pieces

-small piece of fabric, large enough to cover bottom portion of canvas

-glue (I used Mod Podge Gloss-Lustre, which worked great)

-acrylic paints

-paint samples (free from hardware store) to spread paint with instead of using s brush

-black oil pastel crayon

-stamps and/or stencils to create “texture” to background and add a possible quote           

-sponge brush

Step 1:

Glue bits of paper to canvas in a collage fashion, covering most of the surface. Glue fabric piece on bottom section of canvas.  Let dry.

Step 2:

Take your black oil pastel crayon, and draw a simple figure, such as an animal, on dried surface. 

Step 3:

Using a paint sample as your “brush”, paint everywhere except the inside of your image. By using this technique you avoid having brush marks and you can apply the paint in a thicker manner. Do NOT cover your oil pastel lines-this will give more “character” to your finished work. Let background dry.

Step 4:

Stamp or  stencil on top of first layer of paint, using a lighter shade of paint than your background, to give “depth”. Let dry.

Step 5: (optional)

 Stamp words, sayings or quotes on background.

Step 6:

Apply a top coat of Mod Podge over entire surface of work.  I don’t like a shiny surface, so I took a rag and blotted off some of the glue as I worked.  

After I finished my collaged piece, I added a “safety” eye (used for  making stuffed animals) to my chicken.  Scroll back up to the top to see completed project.

I hope you have as much fun as I did doing this whimsical piece.  I can’t wait to work on another one!

Dragonfly Door Hanger

  I have taken a fancy to making these easy burlap door hangers.  So far, I have made an owl for the fall and a heart for Valentine’s Day.   I wanted one for the summer, but did not see anything out there that “caught my eye”. Dragonflies seem to scream summertime to me, so I started looking for door hangers that others had done.  When I found none that I liked,  I decided to Google some images.  Between pictures of dragonflies from nature and various other pics, I drew up my own rendition.   I think he turned out pretty cute!

 

Glory Reclaimed~

Many curb-side “treasures” have made their way into our garage over the past 20 years.  I just can’t seem to help myself.  When I see items that I know I can use, someone else can use or that I feel I can recycle into something useful for our home, I “snag” them.  While most of my finds have been put to good use, some have been tossed back to the curb when I have not done anything with them after a certain period of time.  I had a little regret after pitching some nicely weathered blue louvered shutters recently. I vowed that next time shutters came my way, I would make sure I held onto them.  Not long after getting rid of my blue shutters, I scored with four brown paneled ones.  With a nice flat surface, I knew they would be great for painting.

With the idea of painting a flag, I choose two shutters for my project.

Before getting started, I gave the shutters a good cleaning. 

I used some recycled hardware to connect my two shutters together.

The fun begins:

I first began by drawing off lines for the stripes.  I have started too many projects where I thought I could just “eye-ball” it and came up with some lines that were much wider than others.  I didn’t want to chance it, knowing that I needed to have exactly thirteen stripes. 

13 stripes for our 13 original colonies.

The red represents valor and bloodshed while white represents courage and purity.

The block of blue symbolizes our freedom. 

 Praise be to God for all the men and women who have fought, and continue to fight, for 

what we often times take for granted in our country!

With only the stars to go, I decided to sand the surface a bit to give my flag an aged patina.  I thought that using my Makita electric sander would  be a good idea.  I would just hit it quickly and lightly and be done. 

-BUT-

The bits of old paint that gave my shutters the character that I so admired, proved to be too much for my sand paper.

I traded the electric sander for my sanding sponge.  If you have never used one of these, you are missing out on a very valuable tool.  I discovered these little jewels when I first began refinishing furniture.  

They are pliable so they will conform to whatever contour you are sanding (perfect for tables and chairs that have spindled legs).

I sanded the entire surface.

With a damp rag, I removed the sanding residue.

I had to go over it several times, rinsing my rag out in between.

Next I added 50 stars in recognition of our 50 beautiful states.

I sprayed a light coat of clear matte acrylic to seal the surface.

I hung my flag on the patio last night.  

Just in time for the Fourth of July!

The brave men and women who fight for our freedom know that “the more they give, the more they are"

                                                   -Frederick Buechner

20,000 Leagues...

I have had several folks ask me why I have not posted anything lately.  While I have not posted any recent projects, I have continued to write and post my "Thought for the Day” on a daily basis. Do I get a little credit for that?

All I can say is, "kudos to those bloggers who manage to post with regularity”.  Even with my children grown, I am finding that it is difficult to do.  Life gets in the way, I guess.  

It’s not that I have not been in a creative spirit, it’s just that I often get so excited about starting a creative venture, that stopping to photograph and write about it tends to break the “flow of things”.  After I pull out all of my materials (my toys, as I call them), I find that I am just so focused that I don’t want anything to break my momentum.  I hate to admit, but I tend to get a little irritated if the phone rings, even if it is a precious family member.  I need to work on that.

I did just finish a spread for my Altered Book Consortium’s round robbin.  The theme of this book is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  Having just gotten back from a cruise on Saturday, I was excited to work on this one.

It may be hard to tell, but there are multiple layers involved with this one.

I first began by painting the background with acrylics, in sort of a wavy pattern, using various shades of blue and some yellow.

Next I added some images of sea plants that I cut out of scrapbook paper. I sprinkled some fine glitter on top of them which adhered to the edges of my images where some glue had “leaked out”.

*Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue was the only adhesive that I used on this page.

I then glued on some, what I will call, leaf skeletons.

To create depth in the depth blue sea, I glued on some “waves” that I cut from plastic gift wrap.

For the next layer, I added some flowers.  I put some foam circles behind my flowers before gluing them down to give added dimension.

Lastly, I added some netting, the mermaid and the words.

The mermaid is a cardstock image that I found on a calendar and her body is fabric.  I also used foam circles behind the mermaid so that she “floated” on the page.

I have only been back from vacation for 3 days now and I already want to get back out on the water!

For now, I will just have to relive my days at sea while I work on my travel journal from the cruise.

“Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.” 
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

 Paper Towel Art Dolls~


 We are finding so many ways to create art in the Community Art Room with stuff that most folks would throw away.  The latest craze has been our paper towel art dolls.  Actually, most of the people are enjoying using toilet paper rolls. By using both paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls together, you could create a whole family!

I made this art doll for my husband for Valentine’s Day. Not to worry,I got him something else as well. Dolls are "not his thing”, but he is so used to my altered art, that he accepted it with a smile.  

*The hollow base of the dolls would be a great place to conceal a gift certificate.

Prior to learning about these art dolls, my cardboard rolls always went into my compost bin, but very few are making it there these days!

Materials:
-Paper towel or toilet paper roll
-wire or embroidery floss and needle
-acrylic paints
-graphics for face (magazine pictures work well)
-any accent pieces to embellish your doll
-glue (school or craft)




The first step in making an art doll is to pinch together one end of the roll and cut out a circle to form a “head”.
  
Second step-Using a piece of cardboard for you working surface, pierce holes through the front and back along the “shoulders” and “head” area.  

Third step-“Sew” front to back along shoulder and head area using either wire or embroidery floss.

Fourth Step-Paint your doll with acrylic paint. 

Fifth Step-Add a face to your doll and any accent pieces.

WARNING:  These little dolls can be habit forming!