Posts tagged ‘color’

I have always thought it would be fun to have a Photo Gallery of post-craft hand pictures. Like the time I was using a knife to carve into wax and cut into my thumb but there was a bunch of wax in the cut so it didn’t bleed (OK maybe not that one). Or after making my magazine coasters how I had a ton of dried glue all over me. It’s sort of like the hand picture could be a project in itself.

Well, these hands are dyed with fabric dye. Really really badly. This summer’s craft at Vacation Bible School (which I did not pick but was left in charge of executing) was to tie dye 50 kids’ shirts in five 20 minute long groups. Let’s just say that after changing my gloves 15 times only to find a new hole in all of the available pairs I gave up on the gloves and went for the bare-hand approach.  The only way to recover from hands this blackened is to go swimming in a chlorinated pool, by the way.

So, if you have some crazy hands after a project consider taking a picture. And if you do, let us know you did it by posting the pictures in our Flickr pool.

I found this Melissa and Doug doll house in our basement, which I had forgotten that we had. We were given two doll houses in one year, and kept both of them, but somehow this one was forgotten. I decided that I would use it as a display case for craft fairs, and thus need to give it a paint job.

Mary had a can of chalkboard paint and said I could use it. We gave it two good coats, and it looks awesome. Here it is displaying one of Mary’s owls.

What I somehow hadn’t expected was that my kids would want to play with it, too. I figured, it’s erasable so why not? They love it! Sometimes they coat the whole exterior in chalk and say they are painting the house. Sometimes they draw people on the interior walls. They also make rugs on the floors and pictures on the walls.

This was such a simple project. You could easily do it in an afternoon. And if you don’t have a doll house, you could attach a small triangle shaped piece of craft wood or plywood to a little 2 or 3 shelf bookcase. Give it a couple of coats of chalk board paint and you have a decoratable doll house!

All my yarn-addicted friends have peer-pressured me into dyeing yarn. I’m just dabbling, for fun. I’m not as proficient as Mary, Jenn, or Martha, but I did manage to make white yarn turn sherbet colored.

I used my ancient crockpot to keep the water at a consistent temperature, and Wilton dyes. To set the dye I used lemon juice. I didn’t measure anything, because experiments are for guessing. That’s probably why I ended up with sherbet when I was aiming for the same color orange as my kitchen walls.

I still call it success, because it is pretty, and I can knit with it. Hurrah!

Yesterday Devona shared her resolutions for this new year, so I thought I’d share mine as well.

First, I’d like to learn to better use color in my artwork, home, and wardrobe.  I found some good books & am looking for more (any suggestions??).  So far, I like the Pantone book Color: Messages & Meanings and Color Harmony.  And I’m keeping a binder of color inspirations I find in magazines, flyers, photos, and online sources.

Second, I want to learn more of the metalsmithing side of jewelry making.  I joined the Ohio Jewelry & Metal Arts Guild, and I plan on taking some classes at Edy Beady’s Bead Shoppe in Canton.  I’ve been talking about metalsmithing for years, but I finally bought some metal, a hammer, and have ordered other supplies.  Plus I have some broken jewelry that needs soldering, so I’m determined to learn and be able to fix them myself.

Other than that, I want to continue teaching craft classes, networking with local artists, and finding more ways to be creatively resourceful with what I have.  Perhaps I don’t sound too ambitious, but I also have a baby girl on the way in April!  So I’ll save my bigger resolutions for 2011.

Sometimes you really want the look of new linens or clothing but what you already have is still perfectly usable. That was the case with our bassinet skirt. I’ve used the same bassinet for both my daughters and it has some small stains, and general dinginess. Not to mention I’m a little bored with the frilly new baby look and wanted something that would blend in a little more with my bedroom decor. It’s in cases like this that a dye job is exactly what is in order.

If you’re as unlucky as I am, there isn’t a safe place in your home to work with permanent dye without creating a huge mess. In my home the only mess-free way of using fabric dye is in the washing machine. You lose some of the control over the final outcome, but you can still achieve a quality, permanent dye in a short amount of time with nearly no clean up. In this tutorial I will show one way of using your top loading washing machine to dye fabric.

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About two years ago Anna Maria Horner was on Martha Stewart teaching how to make a fabric silhouette painting (the “crafting with fabric” segment) and I’ve wanted to do it ever since. In fact I bought the canvases about a year ago and have been putting it off since. I knew that I wanted to put the artwork in our newly remodeled bathroom, but I didn’t know what I wanted to silhouette.

Then I watched the fabric painting project on Reconstruct, and I got the itch again to make this art. I didn’t have enough fabric to use Anna Maria’s method so I sort of blended the two projects into one.

I cut out the silhouettes from the fabric and pasted them to the painted canvas with Mod Podge. Then to give it a little bit of detail and contrast I went over the fabric with acrylic paint in a sort of drop-shadow fashion. I like the look over all, especially since I’m not really a graphic artist and usually work in 3-D. I do sort of wish I had done the canvases in the red and the drop-shadow in the green. I may end up changing it since they are on my blue walls and blend in a little too well.

It was pretty quick to work on. I made it over the course of a few days to allow for paint drying time. I will most likely make this again, probably smaller and for gift-giving purposes.

Stephanie Corfee is a wonderful artist who blogs, tweets, and sells on Etsy. Her work is playful and beautiful and really makes everyday objects fun. She also does soft and gentle portraits.

The Onion Chair

She has been offering free high resolution art on her blog to her readers. After her last give away she asked what we’d like to see next and I asked for one of her chair prints. Well, lucky me! When I logged on to my Google Reader yesterday morning I found The Onion Chair for give away until Wednesday!

Stop in and view her give away, and definitely follow her on Twitter to keep up with her work. Thanks Stephanie!

I found this quiz (via Apartment Therapy) that helps you choose paint colors based on your personality traits & body type.  The basic idea, founded in ancient India, considers what colors will create harmony in our lives.  There are three basic types of people, and each may benefit from different colors…some earthy colors, some cooling & soothing colors, and others bold, mobilizing colors.

For my personality/body type, I should lean toward subdued earthy colors or complex colors that are cool & calm.  I agree.

subdued earthy toned paint colors by AFM Safecoat

ColorSnap is a free Iphone application from Sherwin Williams.  It allows you to select a color swatch from a photo, and it returns a coordinating color pallet.

I’ll surely use this tool for more than choosing paint colors.  I could take pics of all my favorite outfits & look for new bead combinations for jewelry.  Or perhaps I’ll discover more interesting color combinations for my favorite scrapbook papers.  Who knows?