Art for a cause

As some of you may already know, my mother-in-law passed away last April from a brain tumor. My sister-in-law said she was running this race in memory of her mom and asked if we wanted to join. 

Miriam, my mother-in-law had a very tender spot in her heart for children. Hearing her tell stories of her own five kids growing up and witnessing how she loved and interacted with her 12 grandkids it was quite evident.   As I am sure that she would love cancer research to progress as much as possible for everyone, I know that she will be even more greatful for the help that we can help little ones in our area that are going through the tough illness that she did. 

This is the race...

The Keep Pounding 5K Stadium Run, 

presented by North Highland Consulting, is Charlotte's first "stadium run" that will take runners up all five levels of the Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers, with a finish through the players' tunnel onto the field. 

This is a fundraising event that benefits pediatric cancer research at Levine Children's Hospital.  When a family is faced with a diagnosis of cancer, their entire world gets turned upside down as they face an extreme fight.  One of the most important resources that is vital to beating cancer is a strong local support network of family and friends.  Thanks to Phase I and Phase II clinical trials now offered at Levine Children's Hospital, familes have access to the most advanced treatments available where it matters most - close to home. 

I added the link on the previous post.

I am selling children's room decor paintings to raise money. All the proceeds will go to this charity.

A 16x20 Acrylic on Canvas is $30. 

An 8x10 Watercolor and Ink on watercolor paper is $15 (unmatted and unframed).

If you are interested please leave a comment below with contact information and we will work out the details. Thanks for your support!

To get a sense the style here are some examples on canvas.

This is the most recent painting I did. It is for the sweetest little boy. His mom said that when he wakes up he says, "Hello Dinosaur." 

Watercolor and Ink examples:

http://events.carolinashealthcarefoundation.org/site/TR/Events/PoundthePavement?fr_id=1280&pg=entry

http://events.carolinashealthcarefoundation.org/site/TR/Events/PoundthePavement?fr_id=1280&pg=entry

Flip Flops!!! the best accessory of summer

Who doesn't love a good pair of flip flops? 

 I think I have found my new obsession. Rather then hairbows that my girls wear, I can wear these too! The pink and blue flops I made for my sister-in-law's birthday. So, happy birthday Connie! And here is how I did it...

Cut the original plastic straps off. Then I added four strips of fabric about an inch wide to the sandal. Pulled all four through the center hole and tied them so the knot fit in the hole, then glued, then trimmed. 

After that I twisted two stands of fabric per side. Then threaded it through the side hole. There are your straps.

I made a fabric flower in the same manner I make my flower rose hairbows. 

Added bling because I know my sister-in-law would like that. Hot glued that sucker on the top.

And Voila! 

(please don't look at my toes which are in desperate need of a pedi). 

On to the pink sparkle. I left the existing straps and simply hot glued glitter ribbon.

 Added one of my favorite hairbow flowers...

And there you have diva flip flop #2. 

Next go round I think I will use a black sole. I think it would make the additions pop more. Oh, there is nothing I love more then a fun pair of flip flops. I will post more when I make them. At least one pair per swimsuit! Summer here we come!

Farmall Tractor

This is a painting of a tractor for a little boy's room. My client's father made the wood fame. A great idea, but since neither I nor my husband own a saw, it was impossible for me to make. Thank goodness for dad's, right!

I asked for a few scraps of wood to get familiar with the surface. That makes big difference. Knowing how the material takes paint is very important. I was pleased with the wood. It still allowed for me to maintain my "watercolorish" style. The main thing I had to remember was to keep the brush as dry as possible. If the brush was too saturated with water the colors would bleed in the wood. No one wants runny lines!

The family will add the painted wood frame. I hope they will send pictures. I asked if they could wait to add the frame until after I was finished. I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of space for the painting. Now that it is complete I don't think it would have been a problem. It is best to play it safe.

Here is the inspiration for the wood painting. My client found these and asked if I could do the Farmall tractor. And of course my answer was "I can paint anything on anything!" Okay, that might be a stretch. I doubt I could do the Mona Lisa on wood. Thankfully there aren't too many requests for things like that.

Decorative Paintings

These are paintings that I completed a few years ago.

This triptych I sold on ebay. It was hard to let this one go. 

 I created these for my mom's dinning room. There is a large mirror in between the paintings. I applied molding paste to the canvas first to create the peonies. Then painted them red. In the picture the gold looks very intense, but it is not that way in real life. The gold is a paint is only visible with it catches the light in a certain way. If I remember correctly it is called gold interface? 

 This was a commissioned piece. This is a large watercolor. 

 Another painting I sold on ebay. 

This is a study for a mural for a powder room. It turned out to be a nice stand alone painting. Happy accident!

Mod Podge Dry Erase Board

 As I was making my "to do" list for the day I thought of something. It would be so nice to mod podge scrapbook paper to this ugly board and make it pretty. Then looking at the long list of things to clean I decided it would be more fun to do a craft then do all my "to do's." 

Simple. 

All you do is:

1. apply mod podge to the board 

2. slap on the paper

3. run a credit card over it to squeeze out bubbles and excess glue

4. trim with exacto knife once it is dry

And TA DA!

Now on to the rest of my "to do's." I didn't list all the things that needed to be done around this house. It would scare you. 

Bleach Pen Shirts

Anything 100% cotton you better watch out. I have a new obsession. Really easy. Draw on a shirt with a bleach pen. Like the Tide pens except it is Clorox. This isn't a new idea, but the first time I tried it. I used the entire bleach pen in one afternoon. I was kinda dizzy to say the least. Not really.  

The teal on in the top left was my demo shirt. It already had paint on it. I learned that you have to get it started on something other then your nice shirt. It comes out liquidy like ketchup at first. You would never open up a bottle of ketchup and put it directly on a nice grilled hot dog. Same concept. 

It works best if you use 100% cotton. Synthetic fibers don't bleach as well, or not at all. I tested out a small dot on the underside of the hem to see how well the fabric would work with different shirts. Easy way to test the 60% cotton 40% polyester. It worked on one but not the other.  

I really loved the concept of the palm trees. I pulled the design from a screen printed shirt from American Eagle. But the 100% cotton shirts really accept the bleach. You might want to let it set for a shorter time. Some places said 30 minutes. I wish I had only let this one sit for 10 minutes. You can tell when it starts to bleed. So since the trees' leaves bleached larger with less detail then I wanted I added some paint. Just tulip fabric paint watered down in pink and brown. I thought it added more depth. And at the bottom it says "Nothin could be finer then to be in Carolina." If you don't know, it is from an old song. I am referring to the beaches and state in general, not the school. 

And this one I was inspired by a wall mural I saw on pinterest. And isn't pinterest the best thing in the world? I did take the design to the back of the shirt as well. This shirt has spandex in it. I also got impatient so the bleach made some neat halo effects.