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In Craft

Summer Art Class

Despite the wind and rain in Kerry (cats and dogs I tell you!) it’s time for summer art class.

There was nothing else for it today, it lashed rain all day. Not what you expect for the first of August, but it was a perfect day for staying inside and getting the paints out.

This morning’s class was fun, Eva and Megan love art and are very sure of their colour choices. They were in the first kids class I taught four years ago, they still have the aprons we made!

We used 20 x 5″ stretched canvases, and introduced some new products such as heavy body acrylics, Mod Podge and Gelatos. If you’ve used these you know that the Mod Podge acts as a sealant .When you add Gelato on top you can move it with your fingers or a wet brush, so you can shade and blend colours.

Here are the paint layers.

Time for some detail.

The girls used Gelatos to shade the features of the faces and to add tone to the hair.

The finished pieces.

I love how they turned out! It was a pleasure as always to spend the morning with these two.

Thanks for coming girls.

Felicia xx

02/08/2016 By felicia

In Craft

The Perfect Gift.

The perfect gift.

Last week I went to the Craft Makers gallery to drop off some artwork. I am wrong to call it a gallery, it’s more than that. As their website says, it’s a craft store, gallery, workshop and studio. Their ethos is wonderful, make, learn , buy.

“At Craft Makers we follow a Make Learn Buy philosophy… we encourage you to make craft as we believe it is good for the soul; we offer you an opportunity to learn about craft making in our workshops and courses; we offer our customers a wonderful store and gallery in which you can browse, buy or commission work by craft makers from all over Kerry and beyond.”

If you’re looking for the perfect gift you will find it in the beautiful corner building on Ashe Street, Tralee, Kerry.

Deirdre Enright is the very welcoming manager. It was extremely busy the day I visited so whilst Deirdre dealt with the customers it gave me a chance to have a good look around. These were only a few of the photos I took…

Jewellery by Amelie Gagne.

Hand sewn gifts by SwinkyDoo

Scented candles by Fleur Daly – The top one actually smells like a turf fire!

I love wood, so when I saw this I may have swooned a little! Made by Gary Marcham of Goose Island Workshop, it is a work of art.

More wood… This time by John Murphy. Isn’t it beautiful?

Skellig Pottery – such happy pieces.

Then of course there was the paintings….. I think they will have to be a post of their own!

This is the lovely Deirdre – Call in and see her, I’m sure you will find the perfect gift to give to someone and maybe a gift or two for yourself!

Felicia xx

29/07/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Upcycled Briefcase.

Upcycled Briefcase.

Black briefcase? yes, I’ve got one of those.

Uses for a black briefcase? – none.

Something to display handmade gifts in for craft shows?

See where this is going?

Firstly, I painted it all over with gesso.

Removed all the pockets from the inside, which left a wooden panel.

I was going to paint inside the lid so I covered that with gesso too. That plan changed though.

This fabric has been waiting for the perfect project, and this was it! I used it to cover a piece of mount board that was cut to size, and glued it onto the bottom.

Next, I gathered a length of contrasting fabric and hot glued it into place around the sides.

I thought I could add some text inside the lid, so I painted some more mount board. That way I can change out the board whenever I want to change the text.

On the outside I used acrylic paint, pale blue (no surprise there then!) and pink on the handle.

Some swirls, paint splatters and painted hearts added just enough detail.

And that, as they say is that!

It will definitely be used more now then when it was black. I wonder what is next in the ‘waiting to be altered’ pile?

Have a lovely day,

Felicia xx

19/07/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Lazy Sunday Afternoons… by Felicia.

Lazy Sunday Afternoons…

Its Sunday. Actually it is not completely lazy. I love Sunday mornings, my family are either up and out early for work or they sleep in. The house is quiet, even the dogs sleep in. I get up, stay in my P.J’s (that is most important for maximum enjoyment), make coffee and then spend at least an hour on Pinterest or YouTube….

Oh, the absolute luxury!!

I have an obsession with home renovation shows, I have recently realised that although I can’t get HGTV in Ireland I can watch ‘Fixer Uppers’ on YouTube to my hearts content!

I love Chip & Joanna Gaines, I want to build a farmhouse like theirs, I want to make houses pretty. They live in Texas so there is the added bonus of cowboy boots. (Another love of mine, always, even when they aren’t in fashion – much to the horror of my very stylish kids!)

If you look at my Pinterest boards you’ll find a fair amount of house related content, grey painted rooms & bathrooms that are just yum, there are also boots (in ‘My Style’) lots of rings and bracelets (in ‘It’s a Bling Thing’) and items of general gorgeousness. You can also see ‘Yes, I like Cleaning‘ – but that for another post. Its easy to see how my Sunday mornings just vanish.

But, I did go out and do a bit of a walk / run at Cardiac Hill – its called that for a reason, its not easy but having climbed up you get to run down which makes it all worth while. I didn’t take any photos today. I left the phone in the car. When I got back I was sweaty and red, no one wants to see that!

Now its 3pm, Ireland are playing France and although I can hear it on TV I’m not really one for football (I am of the Guy Martin school of thought here). So I’m in the art room and have just finished making a necklace. It has taken me ages (being the digitally challenged sort that I am) but here it is in the making:

And finished:

So, that is my Sunday so far. At some stage I will take the dogs out but nothing more energetic than that. Sunday dinner is usually omelettes. Open the fridge and use the left over veggies and make omelette. There could possibly a glass of wine too ( who am I kidding, of course there will be wine!)

I hope your Sunday is as nice as mine. I hope you get to enjoy whatever it is you like doing.

Felicia xx

26/06/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Altered Household Item Swap :

Altered Household Item Swap :

Good morning,

I took part in another swap organised by Aideen. ‘An altered household item’ was the theme.

My swap partner was Kirsty, we messaged back and forth for a bit and got to know a bit about each others likes – she sounds really lovely and I hope our paths cross somewhere soon!

I thought i’d be so organised and I would video this project as I went along ( I blame all those home renovation shows i’m addicted to – I was going to be the Joanna Gaines of my own art room!) well, it started off OK……. then I just got into what I was doing and forgot to film it!

Here is the bit I did film : FEEL FREE TO SKIP OVER THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR ME WAFFLE A LOT!!

(You should know that I am not even slightly technically minded. I got a fab little Flip camera for Christmas about four years ago and I have yet to even think about learning how to edit videos – I should because its a great little gadget.)

Right, so after I took it to pieces I painted the whole thing with metallic copper acrylic paint. (This is what gives it the shimmer Kirsty!)

Because I was painting onto metal you could really see the brush strokes, so to hide these a bit I covered it with a layer of Distress Collage Medium with a ‘crazing’ finish. Then I thought it was a bit too coppery so I add some Titanium Buff acrylic here and there just rubbed in with my finger.

I covered the outside with a strip of paper from the Prima Vintage Emporium collection and buffed some of the paints over it so it blended in.

Then glued the face of the clock to the back cover and added the hands which left a lovely big frame to fill.

Here it is! Filled with flowers, ephemera, leaves, butterflies and some fibres. Sitting half way, I used a 3×4″ notecard from the same collection. I tore it up a bit, inked the edges and glued it in place. This provided a ‘wall’ to lean all the flowers against.

The hanging charm ( I think it was from 7 Gypsies) was hung from a ribbon and secured with hot glue. I added the ‘Memories’ from the print on the papers.

The hot glue on top was disguised with more flowers, leaves and fibres. ( Didn’t take a photo of the top…)

I love swaps, it was fun to make and most importantly, Kirsty liked it – Happy days!

What’s the next swap theme Aideen????

Have a lovely weekend,

Felicia xx

27/05/2016 By felicia

In Craft

The Most Amazing Class Ever!

The Most Amazing Class Ever!

Last Saturday the alarm went off at 4am.

There was a very good reason for this, I had to be on the first flight to Birmingham to take part in a class given by Mr. Tim Holtz. Who? well this post won’t be nearly as exciting as I had hoped if you just asked that question. If you are a paper crafter or mixed media artist I am pretty sure that amongst your stash there is something that he has designed (if it says ‘Distress’ on the label that’s a big clue).

So, I arrived nice and early, met up with Kate and Julie and waited for the class to begin. Kate and Julie had both met Tim and Mario several times, (I had met Tim once many years ago and as it was the last day of a trade show he was tired and understandably so over smiling at the crazy woman who stood grinning like a Cheshire cat in front of him) so I was ridiculously excited when he came out and said hello to us!

The were several new products that we were working with, Collage medium, Opaque texture paste, brushes, the wooden frame and most exciting, the new Distress Crayons.

Mario made sure that we had everything we needed, he is just so lovely! Tim gave us direction and information about the products and then just let us have fun – the three hour class seemed to pass in about thirty minutes!

(Excuse the fuzzy photo, I took it with my phone – this man is ridiculously patient when it comes to having his photo taken!)

Background layers

Embellishments ready – its so hard to think of a word, thank you Kate for giving me an extra ‘D’!

The finished project.

The Gang…

This is Julie and I pretending to be good!

with Tim and Mario

This is a terrible photo but its the only one that Kate got into!

Sadly, it was all over so quickly, we were back on the plane at 2.30pm. I had to catch a train from Dublin but missed it by about 5 minutes…… so I went to a nearby hotel, ordered a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine and thought about what a great day it had been.

p.s. The Distress Crayons are fab…. I don’t say that about a lot if products, but I will definitely be getting more of these. Think Gelatos crossed with lipstick, love them!!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend too,

F xx

25/02/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Valentines Swap.

The lovely Aideen from Aideen’s swaps organised a swap for Valentines day and since I hadn’t joined in since Halloween I was delighted to take part.

My partner was Kay and today my gift arrived – look!

The box is full of little love themed die- cuts, as well as a tag book, card and chocolate! this photo doesn’t really do the metallic colours much justice – it really is gorgeous.

I had made a shadow box that held a heart and a valentine card which I sent with a bag of chocolates, I wish I had thought to send on some extra bits and pieces. I posted my gift on Monday and on Tuesday the post man knocked on the door and handed me back my own package…… An Post had delivered it to the senders address rather than the ‘To’ address….. sometimes the postal service is questionable!

This is what I made;

The heart is raised from the back of the box to give more dimension. The box is made from chipboard and covered with old book pages.

The card is super simple but I was pleased with it (in case you don’t know, i’m not the worlds best card maker)

It is so lovely to have a pretty package delivered to you,to unwrap it and see what someone has put time and effort into making for you. So thank you Kay and thanks Aideen for organising the swaps, I look forward to the next one!

F xx

12/02/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Homemade…..

Homemade…..

If you had a leftover piece of timber what would you do with it?

Make a homemade house maybe? (get it?)

That’s what I thought too.

This is a work in progress, but this is what it looks like so far……

I drew a pointed roof and cut off the angles. I saved the cut offs, they’re useful for later in the project.

The edges were sanded and then I painted the sides and edges with white acrylic. Next came Heavy Carvable Modelling Paste . Using a palette knife I added a thick layer, and then drew wavy lines into it that will be roof tiles. (It might be a stretch to see them as roof tiles at the moment…..)

To cover the back I sorted through all my design papers, and gathered everything with text on it. I used some other papers from my stash, anything with vintage, muted colours.

Mod Podge is great for sticking paper to any surface, (thank you for the loan Jacinta!)

I don’t have a firm plan for the front of this house yet. It will be a bit of this and a bit of that until i’m happy with it.

I will be back with more photos as soon as there is something to show.

Since we have a shed full of off cuts, I might end up with a whole town. They won’t all be tall & skinny. Some will be shorter and others wider. Some will have They will very definitely quirky but loved house.

Felicia x

21/01/2016 By felicia

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