Category: art

Throwback Thursday: painted flags

On By CarynIn Craft, art

In April 2018 I decided to try making my own garden flags. I taped down cotton cloth on cardboard with masking tape, then used acrylic paint to completely cover the cloth.

Photo description: four garden flags freshly painted, drying on the cardboard where they were taped for painting

Once the paint was dry I hemmed the flags and sewed in the top channel so they could hang on my garden flag pole.

Photo description: finished flag hanging vertically in the garden

These flags held up remarkably well. If I were to make them again, I would be sure to iron the fabric before taping it down, and sew the pocket at the top wide enough to accommodate the loops that are on my holder. In summary, iron the fabric, and measure twice, cut once, which is good advice for most projects.

Throwback Thursday: fondant critters

On By CarynIn art

In March 2018 my eldest received a corn snake from her grandparents for her birthday. She requested snake themed cupcakes for her cake, and so we made little fondant corn snakes with air brushed patterns.

Photo description: fondant snakes on templates to make them consistent and for lining up the stencil for airbrushing the pattern

I remember the snake themed cupcakes, what I didn’t remember were the tiny fondant baby mice.

Photo description: baby mice made from fondant icing colored pink

Oh yes, we set up the cupcakes with the snakes and the mice.

Photo description: finished vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting, some with mice caught in the snakes’ coils, some without, and a few extra fondant snakes in between
Photo description: real living snakelet held in my eldest’s hand

Throwback Thursday: Zentangle

On By CarynIn art

In December 2017 I was very much into my Zentangle doodle phase. I found it paired well with scratch-off art.

Photo description: general shapes etched and doodles started on rainbow backed black scratch-off paper
Photo description: finished doodle with a different pattern in each section of the drawing

The original is long gone. I’m glad I take pictures because I think I enjoy viewing this more now than I did at the time. I’m farther away from the process and don’t remember the “errors.”

Highland coo

On By CarynIn art, Craft

I went to a painting class at our new local Hobby Hut to do an interchangeable shelf sitter. Very cute design, there is a “bird house” base and the door and central design can be changed out. I painted the base at the studio but took the highland coo in the honey home to paint.

Photo description: interchangeable parts painted by me of a highland coo in a honey pot with three bees

The original design had antenna on the highland coo, which I didn’t care for, so I cut them off before painting.

Photo description: original laser cut wood highland coo bass with antenna
Photo description: antenna removed with a band saw and the horns smoothed down with sand paper

I did have to fill the space on the next layer where the antenna were supposed to go, but some cutoff bits of wood and a heavy layer of paint did the trick.

I will post the glued together finished project once I’ve done a clear UV protectant spray coat. It has been raining almost every day, so I haven’t had the chance yet.

Sing design

On By CarynIn art, Craft

I needed a new design for the other side of the van in the upper corner of the back window because it makes the vehicle easier to spot in parking lots. So I designed one.

Photo Description: white vinyl decal on a car window with the word “Sing” in script letters and four concentric circles of varying thickness

The concentric circles represent the Barbershop cone of sound, just looking down from the top, where the largest sound should be from the basses, then baritones (when their note is below the leads), then leads (who have the melody in Barbershop), and then tenors. Fun fact, in Barbershop the voice parts are not related to gender, but to the role the part plays in the harmony balance. So we use bass, baritone, lead, and tenor for low voice, mixed voice, and high voice choruses and quartets.

I designed the graphic in Adobe Illustrator and cut it out with a CRICUT electric cutter.