Sunday 30 June 2013

Decorated Blackboard

The other day someone asked me why I had some MDF boards in the shop, well this is why.......


...they are perfect for turning into notice boards.  Some Jo Sonjas black Gesso, Clear glaze and a cheap paint roller set will give you a perfect blackboard finish.....



.....add a (in this case) stencilled image or stamped image, a few gems (a bit of sparkle never goes amiss!)  and voile....now I can remind the kids that I like flowers!!
 



But if you don't fancy making a blackboard........how about decorating a box or a tray?


We have lots of wooden items available in the shop.

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Decorated Tissue Box

 
 
 
 
 
 
So, the other Saturday, we had the lovely Jeanette White from Crafty Needs visit us to run a workshop decorating a Tissue Box.
 

 
Here she is helping Deborah with her work.
 
 
Now, Jeanette has picked some lovely colours to work with - but they did not match my new spare bedroom (I must get her better organised!), so I had to make a few changes and this is my version.
 


Now, I was fairly chuffed with it (modest!) - but then I showed it to GC and he declared it one of my best pieces!!
 
The boxes were made by Jeanettes lovely hubby, Alex (who you might know from Eureka Crafts Templates).
 

Wooden Tissue Box - size 27x14x 8cm
Simple box holder with hole ready for you to decorate as you wish with paint, papers and serviettes available in the shop or on-line.



The tissue boxes were painted using the Jo Sonja's Acrylic paints (I used Aqua), then we used Decor Crackle followed by a layer of Opal.  Finally a layer of Crackle Medium was used.
 


Once the paints had been dried and the crackle effect made, we stamped up on the plain layer of a serviette and applied that to the box using Jo Sonja's All Purpose Sealer.
 
A few flowers, a ribbon box, some pearls and voila!! one beautifully decorated tissue box.




Here is a small collection of Wooden and Papier Mache items waiting to be decorated using Jo Sonja's paints, papers, napkins, stamps and embellishments.
 
And if you would like to learn about using these products, take a look at our workshop list:
 
Come and have fun with me and my guest teachers, on my Jo Sonjas classes.
 
Lynn x
 


Friday 14 June 2013

Altered Rocking Chair - Acrylic Paints

Well, here you are - for all of you that have been following the renovation of the child's rocking chair - this is the finished article.


The chair has sat in my attic for around the past 25ish years and then in the workshop, waiting, for this transformation and I am so pleased with the final effect.
It is hard to believe that it started out looking like this:



I began by giving it a very gentle rub over with a bit of sandpaper (I am basically very lazy, so I did not put too much effort into that!!), then I gave it two quick coats of Cornflower Blue.



I then did some crackle effect, under a Soft White, on the seat, arms and head rest.  I used both Decor Crackle (a sandwich crackle) and the Crackle Medium (top coat).  It gave me a mixed range of cracks.

.
I then sponged some Soft White over the Cornflower Blue on the struts, legs and rockers.


Shock, horror, these photos actually show me working!!


Then, once it was all dried, I added some serviettes using All Purpose Sealer, and finally gave it a bit of a rub-back to show a bit of the Blue through the White.



Beautiful, even if I do say so myself. 
The chair is now sitting in the shop and all the little ones that come in cannot resist a quick rock!!


All this was achieved using the fabulous Jo Sonja's Paints



And my next challenge is to paint up this unit that holds the paints!!
Watch this space.

Lynn xx

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Wooden Pails - Wedding Favours


We have in stock, many wooden items ready to be altered but one of the cutest is this wooden pail.  Dimensions : Height = 1.5" x Width = 2"


Catherine Inglis has quickly decorated the wooden pail by adhering flat backed pearls around the rim and tied some cotton lace around the pail.


She has used a rubber stamp for the initials of the wedding couple on the wooden pail.

Simply fill with your own wedding favour sweets, and this would be easy to decorate in bulk, for your wedding guests.


  For more wedding ideas or wooden items, please pop into our shop.