Trending right now; Owls! I'm loving it!

Lately, everywhere you turn you see owls! Cute, fun, funky owls!  And I must admit, I'm completely on board with this whimsical trend.  You see, I have a secret, I have an owl fetish   Those big beautiful eyes, their cute little wings-just swoon worthy.  Then slap a pair of black rimmed glasses and I'm done-too cute for words! Whenever I "have to" paint them, secretly,  I'm totally enjoying myself.  So. when it came time to do this next piece, can you say ecstatic ! I practically squealed with girlish delight.

These are the the pics they sent me of her room, the patterns and colors, plus the inspirational owl.

This is a mirror that I sell in my Etsy shop.  

You can custom order them in any particular style or design, to match any room, or any space. You can find this simple version with just a small owl accent in the shop as well.

Now, I can paint all kinds of stuff. Use any color scheme you so choose, but my personal favorite; kids items. Can I get a WHOOT! Whoot! (like how i worked in the owl sounds?) They always make me smile just a bit-and lets be real, it's hard to be depressed when you're painting flowers and owls in hot pink and aqua.

So, this was the final piece.

And mom was even kind enough to send pictures of the piece in her room.  Guess what she liked best about the mirror?  Yep...the owl!

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Syracuse University Chair

 As promised here is chair #2!  If you remember it started out looking like this:

 And ended up looking like this.

 How cute is this little guy?  He’s Otto, Syracuse University’s orange mascot. 

Just a quick note; I had someone ask me a really great question on how I do the stripes and here’s what I told her, maybe it’ll help, who knows, it’s just a little trick to make life easier.  We could all use easier, right? 

Once you have your tape in place (and you can use Frog Tape or Scotch Blue I really have no preference, they both work well. But I've found cheaper ones really stink, so get something more towards the top shelf) you will paint, your first coat, whatever your base coat is.  What happens is the first coat A.) Bleeds the most, so if you’re using the same color no one will see the bleed. B.) The first coat seals the tape not allowing more paint to bleed under. For instance in the case of this chair, I primed (let that sit a couple days), painted the rungs white (let that sit at least 48 hours) Then taped and painted white as my first coat between my tape lines.  Once dry I went back and painted blue (at least 5 coats).  Let that all sit over night and removed my tape the next day.  Now, like I told my friend this isn't full proof.  I did have SOME touch ups but not nearly as many as I would have (especially when doing a white/dark stripe).  We've used this technique on walls too and it really works.  I also let my tape sit over night before I pull it off which helps with less bleed and peeling. AND, I use Benjamin Moore Interior paints which helps because the paint is thick-the waterier it is the more bleeding can occur. 

So there you have it…Here's the next piece in Santa’s workshop…so look for "reveal" in the next week.

Again, this is going to be a Syracuse University inspired chair for my friends classroom!  So, get ready for some more orange and blue!

Happy Painting! Mary

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Snoopy and Stuff

So, I’m finally getting back on schedule with the kids being back in school and summer officially being over, I’m finally getting back into a groove. I know all you parents feel me! It usually takes about a month before we are all deprogrammed, right?

The Etsy store has been crazy busy with orders, which is good and we have finally moved into a store in Oneida called The Market, where we finally have a permanent home for our pieces.  I’m working on a cupboard that will be donated for auction to The William Johnson Scholarship Fund  in October (great cause) so look for that story on the blog soon and we have several custom pieces in the works. Plus, without starting to panic, Plowshares in just around the corner in December and I need to start building inventory! Da, Da, Da….cue the scary music! But with all the craziness, life couldn’t be better and I couldn’t be happier because I’m doing what I love to do. 

Like this next piece for example, who gets to get up and create cute little nursery pieces like this for a living! I mean how lucky am I!

Mike had written me and asked if I could paint an end table that would match the linens that were in his infant son’s room. He sent me a link to the comforter and asked if there was any way I could do something similar to this motif? I’d never done Snoopy before but I thought sure, I’d give it a try. 

If you’ve been on this blog long enough you’d know that this particular style of table is one of my most popular  tables in the shop. I’ve done them in many designs. Check out this one for example, or this one, or this one, or this one, or maybe even this one, the list is as endless as your imagination, but this cute Snoopy stand is a personal fav. Maybe because it’s Snoopy & Woodstock, let’s face it, they’re irresistible.

I’m hoping to have some more pieces to share very shortly! Thanks for sticking around! In the mean time, have you caught the “Pinning” bug!?! My friend Lucy (of Lucy Designs), totally introduced me to the crack (caugh, caugh, I mean...) wonderful world of Pinterest and I have not been able to stop pinning since. So, if you are on one night look me up! I’d love to follow you back I’m always up for new stuff/pins!  And if you are on Face Book stop on over to my page and chat! I’m on there to all hours of the night! Hahahaha! Okay, maybe it’s not the kids that keep me from painting! See Ya soon peeps!

Happy Painting (or pinning, or facebooking or whatever....lol!),

Mary


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Patriotic Plant Stand

Recently, my friend Gina asked me to revamp an old highchair she had been storing in her basement. She wanted to turn it into a funky place to showcase her plants. What a great idea I thought, “A plant stand!” How many times do you see a cute highchair at a garage sale or thrift store, but you think…“What the heck would I do with that?” Well, now you know!

From the moment I picked it up I knew I was going to have to remove this cute lil’ doggy decal that was on the back, it seriously had seen better days. I tried scraping it with a razor first, but it wasn’t budging. So, I took some stripper (Peel Away 6; Paint & Varnish Remover), saturated the sticker with it, let it sit for a few minutes and waited for it to bubble. Then took the razor to it again and it came up like butter.

Once I had removed the entire sticker and all its residue, I gave the whole piece a good cleaning with some soap and water. I then put wood putty in all the small cracks and holes, sanded and primed.

Gina had pretty much given me free reign over design but she did give me one stipulation, “Make it patriotic!” So, red, white and blue is what I did!


After I laid down the base coats, I started with the stripes. On this piece there were 3 different sizes. I usually always use tape when striping. For really thin lines I use auto detailing tape. You can buy it at any auto supply store. For larger stripes I use either Frog or Scotch Blue tape usually in 1-2” strips. Both are good, but both tend to bleed. Not a problem though, I just go in with a little brush and touch up the bleed marks at the end.

See, I usually use 3 different size brushes in a 3 step process. First, I use my Purdy (love, love, love, my Purdy!) to cover the large areas and get a solid base coat. Then, I go in with a medium brush closing in the gaps, laying down the design and filling in the color. The final go around is with a tiny brush for all the detail work.

Once the painting was finished I added the wood appliqués for whimsy (also to cover some unsightly screw holes in the rear) and wrote the word “LIBERTY” across the back to finish it off.

I usually finish my pieces with a spray coat of lacquer. This piece got extra coats of Poly Lacquer (brushed on), because it was going to be used as a plant stand and I wanted to make sure the seat was sealed extra good (just in case water spilt on it).

So, what do you think? Does this seat get your vote? And how do you like Gina’s creative idea to turn this highchair into a funky plant stand? What would you have done with it? I'd love to hear your ideas...let me know!




Happy Painting!


Mary