Sprinkle Love

I was raised that when you feel down or sad, doing something for someone else will make you feel better! 

I believe this.

Thursday would have been my Mother's 86th birthday.

She and I butted heads, as most mother/daughters do, but I always knew she was a good mother.

She LOVED.

She told most everybody that she loved them--yep, even strangers.

Today, (Friday), a FB friend is flying high with the angels.

She was quirky, fun, positive, and full of encouragement and love.

My heart is broken for someone I never met.

She made a difference in my life, and I already miss her.

My prayers are for her puppies--Max and Mia, and her husband, Glen.

She was a true Renaissance woman.

Life is fleeting.

We are here to fill our chairs, only for a brief moment.

Most of us have empty chairs
in our lives. 

Live your life so that people will notice your empty chair! 

Love people.

Encourage others.

Support your friends and family. 

Leave a trail of love 

Everywhere you go!

Sparkle on, my friends.

I am simply blessed to create~charlotte♡

Sprinkle Love in pdf is found by clicking here.

Note: this pattern was created as a free giveaway in www.toletown.com during Christmas.

I am blessed to be a designer on their team this year. I will be doing 4 of my FUN, FAST, and FABULOUS designs for them. Please join our town. 

Happy New Year!

Holy moly...this was written before Last Friday. The highest it has been has been 32, and that was yesterday!

It is so warm today, the heat kicked off and has been off most of the day! 

We have spent most of this year in the single digits at night.

I have spent most of my time sitting inches away from the heat and watching painting videos.

I have watched Laurie Speltz 12 days of Christmas videos--painting them in your head counts, right??! 😁😂🤣

AND now they say we are in for a wintry mix on Friday! 🤤

Today, as I made Veggie Soup from my leftover Sunday's roast, I was thinking of how good it was going to be with a pan of hot crunchy cornbread.

Charcoal ate 3 wedges of cornbread! He thought It was so yummy, too.

We played a little fetch outside in CELEBRATION  of the warmer day.

I was sitting on the back porch in my no drama lama pajamas without shoes, enjoying the 60s.

I giggled at how "warm" the 40s felt after the past 2 weeks. It is all perspective, after all.😁😂🤣 

I thought I needed to share SOMETHING with you, since it has been awhile.

I have enjoyed "piddlin'" around with mixed media. I like how it gives a creative outlet to those who haven't learned the strokes of decorative painting.

I enjoy shading with the water soluble pens and Charcoal pencils.

I really like peeling off the DecoArt Decoupage glue from my fingers. I know, I might have a bit too much of an inner child.😉

I found the coolest stencil from www.stencilgirls.com.

Nope, I am not compensated from them. It is just a very cool stencil.

I reinforced my knowledge that I cannot stencil with a cosmetic sponge! 😲

I just played with this until I liked it.

I used a 6 inch wooden canvas and painted it with Indian Turquoise.

I used copies of recipes from my Great Aunt Jenny's box of recipes. Most were written on the backs of things--it must be a family trait. 

I am sharing a pdf file of these copies.

Click here to download some backgrounds for mixed media

A note about the copies: IF you have an ink jet printer, you will need to spray the copies with a matte or Satin Varnish before you apply any kind of glue (decoupage) to them. Just a couple of light mists...If you have a laser printer, they are ready to use.

I added the papers with Decoart Matte Decoupage.

I smeared some Indian Turquoise and Titanium White down the front with a palette knife, and then wiped most of it off with a babywipe, because I really wanted the background to show.

The stencil was added with Tuscan Red. I LOVE this stencil!

Using a Soft Charcoal pencil, I outlined around the stencil.

I added the word "remember" with the Decoupage. I bought that word in a package of other wood veneer cutouts at Joannas, about 3 years ago --imagine THAT! 😉

I colored the "remember" with watered down Indian Turquoise, but it didn't show as much, so out came my container of DecoArt Metallic Lustre in Gold Rush. Mine is dried up, but adding a bit of water worked perfectly for me to smear it over the top of the word with my finger. I smeared some lightly around the canvas, too.

A helpful hint when painting is to include colors from your design in your background to help lead your eye around the painting. I figure that philosophy is true in Mixed Media, too! 😁😂🤣

I used a Black Sennelier oil pastel to outline the edges. They are so creamy!!

Payne's Grey was used to stencil some background words and numbers.

Well, of course, I had to use my punchinello to add a few Bleached Sand circles, and dry brushed areas on the red.

So, I pulled out my fudeball pen to again, outline the heart and circles. I used my finger to smear it...so cool to play with!

Since many of the things I used are water based, I  will have to spray it to set everything in place. If I add a brush on varnish, it will smear everything! 😲

This is aged perfectly for my taste. I can still see a lot of the background, and I like that.

The word "remember" is perfect, as I recall all of the baking and cooking that was done in this 100+ year old home.

It is good to REMEMBER our past, but important to live in the present.

I am so thankful for my heritage, and hope that I would make my parents proud.

I hope you will CELEBRATE your life, creatively.

I am simply blessed to create~charlotte♡

Gingerbread Ornament

As a member of several groups, I see the same questions over and over, but I guess it is true, if you don't know, you don't know.

My question is: what have you done to find the answer?

😁😂🤣😃

Basically, you have 2 forms of surfaces: wood type, or unslick, and glass/plastic types, or SLICK.

If you have a non-slick surface, basically, paper, wood or mdf, then the choice is yours to seal it or not. If it is a more porous surface, or, a surface that "drinks" your paint, then, yes, by all means, seal it, or you will be painting for days, and quite possibly will never get an even coverage.

Seal it with an all-purpose sealer. You can even mix this half/half with your base coat for the first coat. This isn't a bad habit to make!

Now, slick surfaces. 

If it is slick, then you MUST prepare your surface in some way to give it a "tooth", so your paint will have something to hold it in place. 

What  are some slick surfaces?

Metal, glass, vinyl records, plastic, slick mdf, candles, soap...

Today, I will share ONE of many ways to paint on glass.

My favorite product for painting on slick surfaces, especially plastic dominoes, metal and glass, is to use DecoArt Paint Adhesion.

CLICK HERE to go to the #decoart website to order

You simply mix it with equal amounts of Acrylic Paint, and basecoat it. I base coat it again with straight Acrylic paint, and paint as I normally do.

I love this product! 

This sweet gingerbread is painted on a flat glass ornament that I bought at Hobby Lobby--half price, of course! 

I mixed a small puddle of Paint Adhesion with the same amount of my base coat, Honey Brown this time, and using an old scruffy brush, I stippled it on, because that is the look I wanted.

Note: the fact that I stippled on the paint, gave it some texture, or "tooth", to help more by giving the top layers something to hold onto! Lots of people will sponge on the basecoat for this reason.

 

Since I didn't get a complete coverage, I used the same mix to again stipple my ornament, but I picked up a lighter brown, Camel, to mix with it to give it the look of texture.

Be sure to allow both colors to show, because you don't want mud!

Some people forget that Fast, Fun and Fabulous painting does not have to be boring! 😉

I started adding the face.

PLEASE purchase a good liner, and learn to use it. It makes a world of difference in the quality of your work. 

I suggest an 18/0 liner. 

More details were added, and again, I strongly suggest learning how to float color.

Highlighting the eyes, top of the nose, and mouth add such quality! 

There are many videos on you-tube.

Any Mogish has an excellent video on her blog.  It isn't the method I use, but it is worth learning her way.

CLICK HERE to go to Amy's blog to watch the video.

Adding the icing is always fun. Again, done with a 18/0 liner. And those eyelashes! 😲

The comma strokes were done with a #2 Round --another must have brush for me.

Again, floating shade around the eyes, icing, under the nose, under the mouth adds such dimension, and will set your work above! 

Learn to float--did I mention that? 😁😂

Have fun with eyes. 

Learn where to place highlights so that they look in different directions.

I can't tell you how much I can't stand to see Santa's with their eyes looking in their eyelids--heavy sigh...

Pinterest is filled with eye tutorials! I have a board on my pinterest account  (Charlotte Fletcher) that you can follow...

click here to go to my board on eyes

Now, aren't these adorable.

Look at the details on these cuties! 

But wait...the fur was a flying! 

Don't they look like Phyllis Diller?!

I LOVE THEM! 

Cuteness overload! 

Just because it is 

something easy, 

it can still be

FUN

FAST and

FABULOUS!

I am simply blessed to create~charlotte ♡