Graduation Money Jar and Zentangled Wine Bottle Solar Garden Light

I am behind on sharing my Zentangle challenge pieces. If you don't know what Zentangle is, it is basically a fancy word for doodling. I joined an Ancient Art Zentangle group on Facebook, and each week a new set of patterns to use are posted and you design your own art piece. The first one is a bear. It is painted on a recycled, now upcycled into a solar garden light. After painting on the design my pieces are sealed twice and set in the sun to seal more. Then I took a solar garden stake, from the Dollar Tree, inserted into the jar, so the solar part is sticking out and then put it in the garden. I now have five solar garden lights completed. I think I have five more wine bottles left. They are all different designs, and you can see them in this blog. I think I am going to list them in my Etsy store as made to order only.

 The second piece, is a recycled, now upcycled glass pickle jar. First I sealed the bare jar. This was an experiment to see if it helps the paint go on smoother with less streaking, and yes it works quite well. I still added three layers of purple paint as the base coats. Then I used an owl stencil, won't do that again, and tangled the owl. At first I was very disappointed, but I outlined the eyes and beak a bit better, and that satisfied me. Then on the other side, I painted the saying You're A Smartie, tangled the words, and class of 2014 at the very bottom. Last but not least, I added some tangled borders on the sides, and top. The lid was painted purple and a smartie candy super glued to it. I filled it with Smartie candies for the party, and she can reuse it for anything she wants. A money jar at her graduation party this weekend, would be awesome I think. Jars can be used to store so many different things. Again, I think I am going to list these as made to order for birthdays, graduations and weddings. I am sure Baby and Wedding showers would be awesome too.

 I am caught up now, on the Zentangle posts. Now to get the rest of them done, lol. I am working on a super cute infant baby boy cocoon, so be sure to watch for that in the near future. I will also be having some new, and unique resin pieces to share.

Night Owl in Tree Painted Resin Heart

I was so excited today to give painting on the resin another try. I will tell you how I came up with this almost finished piece. First I mixed the resin, and added a tiny bit of black acrylic paint to the resin. I used a toothpick this time rather than squeezing a drop in. Even a drop was too much and it changed the property of the resin. After mixing it, it was this awesome smoky color, like when it just starts to get dark. Then I added the owl sticker to the resin, and let it cure 12 hours. If you use silicone molds the resin cures much faster. This was a silicone mold, my others take a full day. Then I popped out the cured piece, that is the very first picture.  Then I painted on the tree trunk, branches, leaves and moon.  I tried brown paint, but that did not show up well enough, so I ended up using black paint.  You can see the results in the bottom two images.  After I let it set a few days, I will seal it with a spray sealer, and then add a glaze over it.  Last but not least I will drill a hole and it will become my newest Christmas ornament.  It will be available in my Etsy store, with all my other cool resin pieces.  I made some more resin with gemstones too, but have not shared those yet.  So, watch for them soon.

Birds As Artwork

Here is this week's theme items. I chose birds this week, because I love birds. Please visit each link to purchase the item you love. Owl girl's hairbow ,  
Peaceful Painting With Dove Painting 
Stained Glass Blue Bird Suncatcher  
All the items shown are handmade, and available for purchase on Etsy.  Give the gift of handmade.