Monday, June 19, 2017

My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond #1843: Finishing Up Some Projects

Since most of you are also creators and crafters, I am sure you understand the dilemma that we all have in finding enough time to finish all the projects we begin.



For me, it is usually a matter of not having enough time to complete everything that I want to complete. I see a new project and attack it with great enthusiasm, then one thing or another comes along and pulls me away from it, and I don’t know when I am able to return to finish.  Trust me when I say that it becomes even more difficult for someone like myself, who not only plays with many different types of media but whose job is designing new projects myself. On a daily basis, I am exposed to so many wonderful projects from my fellow designers in so many different types of crafts that it makes my head spin! Choosing which project to do next is not the hardest thing – choosing the ones NOT to do seems to be the problem. 



As a result, I often wind up with a couple of things on the go at once. My usual menu of ‘choices’ is a project that I am developing myself, an embroidery project (or two!), a home-dec project (or a list of them) and a couple of painting projects. I have learned to live with this setup, as it gives me a variety of choices and I feel that no matter what mood I am in, there is something there to keep myself busy. It keeps me being creative and thinking about the next project on my drawing table. I don’t think it is a bad thing. 



But recently, I have seen so many new things I want to do for gifts for others as well as for my own home here, that I was starting to feel a bit anxious about just how many things were partially finished. I have a couple of new things I want to start, but I couldn’t do so in good conscience until I checked some things off of the list of what I was working on. It wouldn’t have been right.



Last week, I finished up my “Maiden Voyage” Ark from Lynne Andrews’ Inspirational Ark series. Since this was the Ark with the most detail (and most passengers!) I felt this was a great accomplishment. From here on, the smaller Arks have only one or two characters and should be able to be completed very quickly. I felt it was a great hurdle. 



I also began painting my first group of three ornaments from Amy Mogish's "Classic Amy Joanne Halloween Club“. I have been cutting the pieces for Amy for months now on these ornaments and the mailings began in June. For the next three months, we will have three ornaments to work on per month so that by September, we will have a beautiful set of 12 to display on my SLDPK159A Dowel Tree (Amy is designing a FENCE and TOPPER to fit on this tree!) or on any tree, wreath, or garland you wish. I LOVE Amy’s fun and whimsical style, and it was a great deal of fun to paint up these quick and beautiful ornaments! 



I began them last week and showed you in a previous post. But I decided this weekend to finish them off. I am happy to say I accomplished my goal.  



The first set consisted of a ghost:

… a spider … 



… and some Halloween candy:



Each ornament is painted using beautiful DecoArt Acrylic paint and mediums, and glass glitter was applied. I dyed my own glass glitter using Alcohol Ink, which made it much cheaper than buying colored glass shards. This really made a beautiful, chunky and oh-so-sparkly glitter. I used the glass glitter in the center of each ornament, around the lettering that was penciled in with colored pencils. (By the way – doing the lettering in PENCIL made it so EASY and FAST to do!)  You can see how I dyed the glitter by downloading the FREE instructions on my site here: Free Patterns and Resources. I show the entire process with step-by-step photos in the download of the pumpkin ornaments. 



We were given suggestions as to how to finish the sides and backs of our ornaments, and I decided to do this black and white check with an orange stripe going through the center of the light checks. I loved it, but it was a little stark for the tone of the ornaments, so I used DecoArt’s Black Ice Glamour Dust Ultra Fine Glitter Paint to add some sparkle and tone them down. Since the black glitter is suspended in a black, transparent base, it did the job well of subduing the bright white checks. It looked beautiful – like the edges were dipped in sugar – and I loved the effect. I wanted even MORE sparkle, but I didn’t want to further darken the edges, so I added another layer of Crystal Clear Glamour Dust Ultra Fine Glitter Paint and it looked even better. I wish you could see it in person! 



For final touches, I added some orange and black Baker’s Twine for hangers (Baker’s Twine is Amy’s trademark!) and I also added three little glass pumpkin Lampwork Beads at the tops of my pieces.





They were the PERFECT accent for these beautiful ornaments and they look just fabulous! 



I am watching those in our Facebook Group (Classic Ornie Halloween Club) to see how the members are finishing the backs of theirs and then I will decide what I want to do with mine. They are plain now, but I am sure by the end of our journey here, I will decide to put something on them. I was thinking some type of plaid, but I saw a member added checks and I may like to do that. It is fun to see all the interpretations of the others who are doing this project along with us. I invite you all to join our Facebook Group and either paint this fabulous project with us or just cheer us on. It is a great way to be inspired and share your creativity. 



When I finished my ornaments, I spent the rest of the evening working on my lighthouse plaque that was designed by Jamie Mills-Price. 





It is nearly done now, and I added some Lupin flowers to my plaque, as they are native to Nova Scotia. I also have some other 'surprises’ for the frame, but that will be for the next blog … (You can get this pattern at Jamie’s site http://www.betweenthevines.com) I love all of her patterns. 



Finally, this weekend I also began working on my own design. This is a set of scatter-letters for – you guessed it – SUMMER! 





via Tumblr https://davidpires578.tumblr.com/post/162006050464

No comments:

Post a Comment