A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I  thought I would try something different...

CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of my latest piece of art!

This really is a work of heART...

I wanted to make you SMILE as I shared some childhood memories and some things I love.

The church is in the middle  (well, kinda) to show that my Faith is the center of my being...

Our house was filled with love...
Our hands and our minds were kept busy creating and working...

Candy was homemade or bought for...REALLY--A PENNY!!

Our life was filled with COLOR!

I was taught to love and to respect the land and her inhabitants...

Clouds were there to entertain us as we hunted objects in the sky...

A tree to remind me of deep roots...to stand tall...to weather the storms of life...to stand for what is merciful and just...to grow...to spread my wings...

A sheep is a reminder that I wish to follow THE GREAT SHEPERD as He leads, comforts, protects and fights evil for me...


A dog, cat, owl--nature is to be cared for...

A frog to remember the laughter as Mother told about the BIG MOUTH FROG...

Beautiful flowers...Mother made gorgeous arrangements for our church altar...

Flowers to remind me to BLOOM...

Sunflowers as a reminder of feeding the birds and being planted by Daddy on the side of the road...

Black and white to remind me of our farm colors, Roma Land Farm, that reflected our Holstein cows that were milked to provide our income...

Homemade happiness!!

We all have a path to follow...

Our journey should be filled with good things...learning from our trials and roads we should have avoided...

Each day, I try to wake grateful...to reflect on the goodness and to follow my dreams!

The love of my parents really does flow through each stroke of my brush that is filled with DecoArt  Paint!

 (see how I snuck that in there! Lol)

Thank you for visiting

 my little corner of the world!

 I do not take my blessings for granted...
I am simply blessed to create ~charlotte ♡

Tutorial Thursday: Fall Tea Kettle

I got an order for a Fall Teapot, so I will share 

some of the steps of how I created it.

When doing a special order, I try to find as much information

 as I can from the customer.

I discovered her kitchen is Navy/Burgundy.

One of my favorite things about Fall is the warm, rich colors.

I decided that I would make the background a warm tan.

I chose DecoArt's Chalky Finish in Heirloom.

I love to use Chalky Finish as a base for many of my designs.

Painting a teapot meant that I would need to choose 

a paint or a medium that was for a slick surface.

I could have chosen several different methods, 

but the most popular are:

1. Use DecoArt Paint Adhesion--this is my favorite method for most slick surfaces.

2.  Spray the object with Flat Spray Paint or with a Primer.

3.  Use Chalky Finish Paint--SO easy. 

 No preparation except to clean the object and paint!

American Acrylics work perfectly with the Chalky Finish Paint.  

These are the colors I used on this project.

I cleaned the teapot and added 3 coats of DecoArt's Chalky Finish. 
Just make certain it is dried well before adding another coat.

I added Checks of Deep Midnight Blue  and Deep Burgundy.  I didn't worry that they were even, because I was going for a slightly primitive style, since it was to have a crow on it to match her decor.

As decorative artists, we sometimes get stuck in the way we do things.  I REALLY did not want to shade/highlight every single check, so I decided to do what I call a MESSY LINE on the top of the checks and then I added some more messy lines to the Deep Burgundy checks.
Again, instead of highlighting, I used the Heirloom and added criss-crossed lines to the Deep Midnight Blue checks...PERFECT for what I was aiming to do!

As I said, my customer wanted crows.  I took one of my patterns and added a scarf to it, because she also liked that look, 

and placed them on top of pumpkins.

I thought the design needed something else for color and to cover more space, so I added a sunflower to each end.

I was much happier with that!

I stenciled Deep Burgundy all over the teapot using dry wall tape and 

added a vine at the top.

I also splattered the entire pot with Lamp Black 

to add to the primitive look.

I painted a round disc like a pumpkin and wrote Happy Fall--whew it was hard not to put Y'all on it, cause I am a true Southerner! 

I also tied some cloth around the tea spout to cover that hump that was left when I removed the ugly plastic piece...I wish teapot makers would design ALL teapots for us to paint when they weren't used~~HA HA HA

This is the finished teapot

A look from the Top

And another angle...

Here is a free line drawing for you to use on a teapot or a sign or a...

Simply right click to save it to your computer and print it...

Resize as you wish...

Use part of the design or all of it

...it is ok!

IF you do not know how to save this, simply send me an email at

romaland2.1@juno.com

and PLEASE put the subject as: Free

so I won't delete your email!

Thanks for stopping by!

I am simply blessed to create~~charlotte

IF you would like the crow pattern,

 you may purchase it in my etsy shop.

Click here to magically appear in my etsy shop! =)

Tutorial Thursday: Winter Village

What a fun project.

I know...you all are sick of seeing the same project over and over. 

I  apologize. I really do work hard to not over share myself, but if I don't promote my stuff, whose responsibility does it become?

So, please just smile, roll your eyes and go forth with your day. I really do understand! 

I also want to thank you all for your support and encouragement. It means so much to me. I Hope that I somehow, return the love!

I thought I would show my finished box. It has taken me since Saturday to finish it...good grief, right?!

I have painted crooked houses...wonky windows and then, just as the villagers were settling their lawsuits against the contractor, what happens, but that a GIANT SNOWMAN builds his Church on top of the box!!

The Winter Village is a pattern for the Puddles of Paint Club (POP) by Susan Kelley. It is a fun group...we get a pattern each month a year before any one else--how cool! Click here to go to Susan's website.

I am not the best Saltbox painter, but it still turned out pretty adorable, despite me...lol

I designed the snowman to go on top of the box. 

All of this was a fun paint, and now the pattern for the snowman and the actual painted Box is available in my etsy shop By clicking here for the box and by Clicking here for the pattern.


I used DecoArt Glass Texture for the snowman and for the icicles. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Honestly, I need to work with it some more...anybody out there got any ideas how to better use it?? Lol.

I  do like how shiny it was. I like the texture it created.

 I added white paint to mine. I really didn’t see much difference between it and the dimensional effects, so time will tell. It could be one of those things that I will learn that I can't live without! Lol

So, I am not sure that I have been very helpful today!

Grab your paints, or scissors, or crochet needles, or knitting needles and create!!

If you want to learn something that I know, please ask...I will do my best to help...

I am simply blessed to create~charlotte ♡

Technique Tuesday: Harvest Pumpkin Canvas

I knocked something off of my table the other day that I needed, so I decided to move the little table to see what else I had knocked off the table.

WHAT?  I cannot be the only person to lose their brushes, dry wall tape, pens, pencils, Peanut M&Ms (ok, they fell off WHEN I moved the table)…AND

I pulled out the White and used Payne's Grey

My DecoArt Green Pallet knife!  I now, once again, have all 3, but sad to say, I lost the 3^rd one just as quickly as I found it~~HOW in the world do I do that? I distinctly remember putting it somewhere safe, but for the life of me, I am not certain where SAFE resides…heavy sigh…

I shall look for it on another day.

As soon as I found that knife, I knew what I wanted to do.

I smeared the Turquoise Blue, some Saffron Yellow and  Spiced Pumpkin on the background.  I left some white showing.

I have been spending too much time in Pinterest-land this year.  It is not my fault.

I keep reading what we all need to do to make people notice us, and to be honest, I feel like a hamster on a big ole spinning wheel.  I started pinning like crazy in February and have gotten over 600 followers, but really, I cannot see that it has done one thing for me, other than making me want to pin more and to make more and to….YIKES…

I painted the pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin and outlined it with Dark Chocolate....Pumpkin and Chocolate.  When I draw a pumpkin, I think of it as in three sections.  I draw my center section first, and then add a section to each side~~like an orange slice.

I need to get off of this spinning wheel!  LOL

As you have been reading, you have seen the steps I did to create this little 2x2 inch canvas.

Highlights were added with Saffron Yellow to the middle of the stem and to each section of the pumpkin.

I thought about doing it with my fingers.  I wanted to show that it is possible to CREATE with simplicity.

I like my edges dark, so that is why I used the Payne's Grey instead of the white.  I smeared it around the edges and under the pumpkin to ground it into the piece.

I have holders filled with brushes~~some untouched, some specialty brushes, scruffy brushes…and yet, I still need more good 10/0 liners, #4 Flats and #2 round brushes.  They are my work horses!

I have bottles and bottles of paint~~enamel, patio paint, satin multi-surface, Americana, Traditions, SoSoft, Chalky Finish, Metallics, Neons, Glamour Dust…Just about everything that DecoArt Offers…

I have mediums to make paint stick to ANYTHING and to seal it and peel it and crackle it and stick it and…

I am a happy girl.

BUT some days, I just want to do simple!

I do want to share another take on a trick I shared earlier this year.

When I get ready to design something, I start writing down everything I can think of that goes with the season I want to paint.  I doodle as I think and sometimes, it takes me on a fun trip…other times, I wonder what in the world I was thinking and how I do not want to go down that road again.

Reminds me of going for rides in the country around McKenzie, Tennessee, in the fall when I was a freshman in college.  I took my friend, Amy, with me, and she was a city-slicker from Memphis.  I had grown up exploring country roads and I knew that most all country roads lead to a main road, so I was fearless.  I am pretty sure she was miserable by all of the questions and comments.

My favorite thing about art is the exploration~~new colors, new techniques, new brushes, new mediums, new paints, new ADVENTURES…

I can paint my world any color I wish.

I can live in a land where the Pears are bigger than the Saltbox Houses, or my world can be filled with froggies and daisies, or I can magically be transformed to a Winter Village with crooked windows~~oh, so many crooked windows!  ROFL

This is a pattern by Susan Kelley from our Puddles of Paint Club...I am doing an awful job of painting this...heavy sigh...

Oh, what fun awaits me with each stroke of the brush.

Follow your dreams…Find the HARVEST that awaits you as you explore and plant seeds of creativity…and, you know I have to say it~~LIVE your Life in FULL BLOOM!

This is not my style at all, but how fun was this.  It took all of 10 minutes to create!  I LOVE to play...

I am simply blessed to create~~charlotte♡