End Of Summer Sale!

This post will stay here until my End of Summer Sale has ended, on Labor Day 2012.  Since I have been learning to paint, I have a wide variety of nice items in my Etsy store.  Used to be mostly just jewelry.  Now I have paintings, painted gifts such as Christmas ornaments, finished cross stitch pieces, loose gemstones from my collection, and of course the jewelry I make.  I still have tons of painted items to add, but I am trying to add one new piece each day.  So, be sure to check back often.  Even new items will be included in the sale.  It is simple to get the sale price, at checkout use code SUMMER12, to get 15% off my already awesome prices.  It is never too early to start thinking about the holidays, and I am not sure if I will have another sale or not.  So be sure and get the piece you love, most are one of a kind, or two of a kind.  Give a unique and specially handmade gift this year. 

Peridot August Birthstone

Upcycled Hand Painted Mosaic Candle Jar

For the past couple of years, my kids and I, have been learning about reusing, and reducing waste. Now I have found a new thing called Upcycling. Upcycling is basically where you take garbage, and make it into something new again. I have found so many cool ideas for Upcycling products. Anyways I love candles, and I love to paint. So, I decided to put it all into one project. The result is this beautiful hand painted, by me, mosaic upcycled pizza sauce candle jar. So far I only have one of these, but will be doing more in various mosaics and colors. It almost looks like stained glass. Anyway there are at least three layers of paint for each color, and some colors took up to six layers to be dark enough for my liking. Then, I put on two more layers of black outlining. Then it sits for two weeks, and then I seal it with two layers of durable sealer. This one is not dated or signed, but my future pieces will be. I then filled it half way with marbles and added a votive candle. You could add or remove marbles as you see fit. I think I would like them less to get more of the mosaic lit up. You could also add one of those candles that don't actually burn, so it will stay nice and clean. That is a good idea actually! This piece is now listed in my Etsy store. Plus, I am having a Summer sale. use code summer12 to get 15% off all store items, even new ones. Soon I will be listing loose gemstones, from my huge gemstone collection. That should be fun and exciting too.

Painted Ornaments For Facebook Theme Challenge

Each week I post a theme on a Facebook group I am in. Members who fit the theme can upload items to be featured in a treasury. This week another member chose religion for the theme. Since I didn't have anything to fit that theme, early this morning I sat down and painted some. I painted two angel dogs, with wings and a halo. One has blue eyes and the other green. They were supposed to be cats, but my daughter agreed with me that they definitely looked like a dog, LOL! Then I did two crosses, that were styled after a place mat I made earlier in the year with the same style, just larger. One has red and orange roses, the other purple and white roses, as the garland at the arms of the cross. Then there are other flowers going down to the bottom of the cross. I really like this design, but I think I definitely like the darker wood cross, like I did on the place mat, as opposed to the lighter wood cross. All four of these will be available in my Etsy store, as soon as I can get everything photographed and loaded. These ornaments are hard to get good images of. If I hold the ornament, then obviously my hand is in the image. I tried lying them in an egg crate, which works OK for drying and images, but still you see the egg crate. So, today I hung them on a hanger outside, so at least the background was pleasing, but because they are round, the image is still kind of distorted from what I want. So, I keep trying. These have to be sealed yet as well, which adds a glossy sheen that is not seen in these images. They are signed, dated and numbered. Currently I am only making two ornaments of each theme I like, with some only getting one. So, you could be the owner of a very unique piece of art work. Plus, right now I have a Summer sale. Even my new items are 15% off this listed price. Just be sure to use code summer12 at checkout for the discount to be applied. I have had two sales in the last two weeks, so I am very excited about that. It has been jewelry though, no paintings yet. But, that is OK, I know I am new to painting. I think I will be done doing the ornaments, for now anyways. I have run out of containers to safely store them in. I have other things I would like to paint also, so that is fine too.

The Blue Footed Booby Galapagos Bird

I first saw the Blue Footed Booby while watching a nature show on the Galapagos, with my children. I thought it was such a unique bird with its beautiful blue feet. Then I saw a picture of one in National Geographic magazine that was donated to my children for school. So, I decided I wanted to paint one, or two, lol. Since I am continuing to learn and grow in my artistic skills, I decided to do some Christmas ornaments for the upcoming holiday season. I must tell you painting on these little ornaments is not easy. You drop them, and they need several layers of paint to look real nice. After I paint them, and am sure how I want them, they sit for two weeks, then are sealed with a good sealer. They are dated, signed by me, and numbered 1 and 2. I am not sure if I will do more of these, right now working on pairs of all ornaments I make. So, you could be the sole owner of a pair of Blue Footed Booby Christmas ornaments. Check out my Etsy store to purchase. Also all items in my store are now on a summer sale. Use code summer12. at checkout, to get 15% off listed price. Plus I offer a layaway service as well.