St. Patrick's /Spring Door Hangers

These are fun and oh so easy to make.

I traced a pattern from a door hanger onto cardboard and cut out 2 door hangers. If you don't have a door hanger they sell wooden ones at the craft store, however, the ones I bought did not fit my crystal knob door handles throughout the house.  You can also find door hanger patterns on line if you do an image search.

Now, I love to mix things up mixed media art style, so I began by  adding various papers using a glue stick.

 

On the other side, I used some finger paint paper to get started. (Yes, my friend had given me several sheets of finger painted papers from her students.) Green for St. Patrick's and green for the Spring side of the door hanger.

Using my finger, I applied some white gesso to soften the harshness of the green and then I began to add some random stenciling to both sides using yellow gold, white, black and green. 

And I stenciled on the butterfly.

I gathered up little stacks of colorful bits of paper and create  clusters as a backdrop for each saying. 

I embellished with some designed  printables  that I found on Pinterest and added those to the St. Patrick's side. 

This little bee was made using a silicone bee ice tray and hot glue. What a fun way to mold up some goodies. Then, I painted those bees.

 I spelled out the word SPRING on little triangles and added those. Next, a little buzzing trail using a permanent black marker. 

Silly, fun, springtime color is popping up everywhere around the house now and these are a nice little addition.

Enjoy the nice weather.

With love and gratitude

Michele

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Artist Trading Cards August Theme Trees

I'm calling this set of five numbered cards, "Into the Mystic", yes like the song. If you know the song let it be your background music to this post.

This was inspired by a mountain morning camping at Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville, AL.  It was a misty morning and everything was sort of grey but with an excitement.

The challenge for me was to find supplies to make the monthly themed cards with, things along the way on our road trip. I did have my travel art bag but I did not have paints or inks or watercolors . I knew I had to find something along the way. And a thrift shop gave me the paints. But even when I found these paints I had no idea how I would make them work. The colors I found were black, grey, gold and color shift hot pink. That does not even feel remotely like the theme of trees. See that hodge podge in the corner?

Blending the grey and black with the pink paint, I was able to create a lavender grey base on some upcycled cardboard. In my mind this was the early morning misty day.

Ok,  so now what? Oh , wow I'm surrounded by leaves. So perfect.

I mixed the gold with some black paint and was pleasantly surprised with this greenish gold. And I used this color to paint the leaves and press them into the background to get some veiny, leaf impressions.

Since we were in the woods camping, I had packed a rosemary bush to keep outside our camper door to help keep away the bugs. A sprig of this provided additional details.

I used some upcycled plastic to help press the painted sprigs onto the background.

A little gold helps to highlight the fronds of the trees.

And the words, inspired by the morning, Into the Mystic.

With love and gratitude

Michele

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Greeting Card and Seed Packet Set

Saving seeds from my plants is a favorite addition to my gardening routine, but being able to share those seeds is even more fun.

I love to save seeds in pretty paper seed packets too. It just makes me happy. 

These seeds from my Texas Star were headed off to a friend so I thought let me add a quick card to take them on their journey.

I started with a blank, textured card and gave it a coat of blush pink.

Onto the card I dry brushed some gold paint to help highlight the texture and add dimension.

And I found a distressed, decorative paper with blush pink to use for the seed packet and the front of the card. 

A quick stamp.

Cut and make the seed packet. You can download the packet template here . I fit two of these on a standard sheet of paper. Fold the paper and lay the stencil dotted line on the fold. Then trace and cut. Think of all that paper you have in your stash and now think of all the pretty seed packets! I mean you can use old maps , flower catalogs, old book pages, oh my.

The seed packet is easy to make. Just glue the side pieces together with a glue stick being careful not to get glue on the onside or you'll glue your seed packet closed. Trust me, I've done this. 

I used a coordinating polka dot paper to back the image for the card and I used a brown distress ink to create a vignette around the edges of the card, the image and the greeting. Position and glue your pieces to the card and don't forget to stamp the envelope for a little zhoosh.

I'm not a big card maker but in this case I thought the combination of the card and seed packet made a beautiful ensemble. 

 

Wouldn't these be adorable gift items for gardeners or a garden club? 

Now, if I could get someone to make and send me one. LOL.

With love and gratitude

Michele

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For Inspiration

Paints, stencils, stamps and  inks . Mixed media art bookmarks.

With love and gratitude

Michele

Find me partying here all week, at these link parties, with some great bloggers.

Follow us out on Facebook, Pinterest , Instagram, Linkedin, or Bloglovin .