Love Shrine

 From the time I was very

young, I've loved dioramas. 

These three dimensional vignettes 

often capture a snapshot of life

which tends to spark my imagination.

I guess that's why I'm drawn to

Mexican nichos and shrine boxes. 

The one I'll share with you today

conveys a simple message. . Love. 

I started out with some nice sturdy

boxes for the base and designed

frames out of cardboard. 

More cardboard cutouts were added

to enhance the dimension. 

I then made cold porcelain clay roses. 

Cold porcelain clay was fun to 

work with, but I learned a few important things. 

First of all, don't use a good pot. 

Had I've known my pot would be ruined,

I would've bought a cheap one at the thrift store

to make the clay in. 

Next, when coloring the roses I used

markers instead of paint because it was

easier and less messy.

The problem with that is it completely

dries out the markers and then they're no good. 

Next time I'll put up with a little mess and use paint.  

After that, I covered my shrine boxes with paper mache, let

them dry, and then painted them with a base coat. 

I added some gems along with 

the roses and coated the frame with

a glitter mod podge for some extra sparkle. 

The "LOVE" letters are made

out of folded magazine pages. 

I thought it was so cute. 

I'd gone to Hobby Lobby after

Christmas and picked up a bunch of 

ornaments for a couple dollars each

with the intention of using them in my boxes. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Terri

Painting Doors

I love painting doors! 

This is a door my dear friend 

Dede asked me to paint for her. 

One side is more Mexican

folk art inspired, and the

other side is Aztec design inspired. 

The whole door took me about 

a month to complete, and I had

to commandeer our kitchen table

as my work space. 

To prepare for the project, I draped the table with 

an old cloth and laid some wooden boxes down 

for risers to elevate the door off the table. 

I used my office chair on wheels 

to maneuver around as I painted.

It worked great! 

The only downside was that we couldn't

have company for a month,

which is hard for me to do. 

I'd love to paint our

front door in a Mexican

folk art style!

I'm not quite sure my husband

would be on board with that one though. 

It can be tough at times for a color

loving gal being married to a beige loving husband. 

Fortunately, it's a small price to pay all in all. 

Thanks for visiting!

Terri

Sugar Skull Dog House

I recently finished painting another folk art 

dog house that my husband built. 

In case you missed the first one, you may

see it here. 

This time I started with a lighter background. 

Pink is my favorite color right

now, so I try to incorporate it whenever I can. 

I may eventually go in an add

some more detail to it, but for now it's finished.

I love Mexican and Southwest

inspired designs as you can see. 

I made sure to use all exterior house

paints. 

Every time my husband and I are at 

Home Depot, I'm always checking the "oops shelf"

in the paint department. 

Now all it needs is a little Chihuahua

and we'll be all set. 

Thank you for visiting! 

Terri

Home Tweet Home Bird House Part 2

Here're the rest of the pictures

of my funky folk art bird house. 

If you missed Part 1, you can see that here.

My husband asked me to 

draw a couple designs for him 

to adhere to the sides of the house to

give it some dimension. 

I gave him my drawings and after looking at me 

quizzically for a second, 

(He's the first to admit he doesn't get art.)

he cut them out using his scroll saw 

and nailed and glued them to the house. 

He liked them much better once

he saw them in their finished state. 

I took the following picture so 

you can see that every visible 

surface is painted with some

type of design. 

I even paint a design on the bottom

(which I didn't take a picture of). 

There's more dimension and raised

elements on the back. 

I try to make the overall design balanced,

but not perfect. That's the fun of folk art for me. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Wishing you a wonderful day!

Terri

Home Tweet Home Bird House

This is the project I've 

been working on this past week. 

As I mentioned before, we're

building up our bird house collection. 

I'll post some pictures

of the other two sides on Friday. 

My husband is thinking it's too blue. 

Hmmm. . . I'll have to think about that. . . 

Thanks for stopping by!

Terri

Tangled Portrait

Sometimes I start

drawing and can't stop. 

Here's a prime example. 

This piece was fun as well as 

therapeutic to create. 

Repetitious drawing of shapes and designs

put me in the zone. . . . 

That's when hours pass like minutes. 

I was limited on my color

palette because I was limited on my

markers and pitt pens.

Looking forward to starting on 

a new project today. 

Make it a great day!

Thanks for visiting.

Terri

Felt Sugar Skull Magnets & Ornaments

Living in the Southwest, I have

a deep affection for all things Mexican.

I love the food, art, music, design, culture, 

you name it. 

I started making these felt sugar skulls about

a year and a half ago. 

My husband was interested in giving

his co-workers a Christmas gift

and I came up with these. 

I cut out the cardboard pattern first. 

The felt pieces were cut slightly larger than

the cardboard.

This one is a magnet that

I glued to the back. 

I used all sorts of buttons, baubles,

and jewels. 

I also added some puff paints. 

The felt is lightly glued

to the cardboard after

the faces are completed. 

Glue in ribbon at this

point if you're going to

make ornaments. 

Last step is a blanket stitch 

around the whole thing. 

I think they're so cute and

it's a very therapeutic project. 

Make it a great day! 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Terri

Folk Art Bird Feeder

My husband and I finally 

hung our bird feeder. 

It's the Chirp'n Chomp Cafe

where you can eat Cheep Food.

Cheesy I know, but I'm my Fathers' daughter. 

We learned a lot with this

project. It was one of the first we

made together. 

For instance, there're some things that

need to be painted before

the piece is put together. 

You can see the inside. It's

so narrow that I can't fit

a brush to do any painting in there. 

(As I write this, I realize I probably

could've done some stamping.

I'm tempted to go do that now, we'll see.)

Fortunately, most of that blank

space will be filled with bird seed

and hopefully birds!

Most of the painting was free hand work

with the exception of the "landing pad"

where I used a paper doily as a stencil.

It's a little hard to see in the picture.

Because I couldn't reach the inside,

I made sure to cover all

the sides I could reach including the bottom.

I want it to be pretty for any

kids looking up at it. 

All that's left is to add bird

seed and see who shows up. 

Thanks for visiting. 

Hope you make it a great day!

Terri

Bird Love Drawing

I drew this lady when I was first 

experimenting with colored pencils. 

Obviously I used markers and pens as

well, but her face is colored pencil. 

I'm thinking of remaking it now that I've

learned a little more about blending

and using colored pencils. 

I say remake it, because I don't have 

the actual piece anymore.

Another mistake I mistake I made was using

more of a textured watercolor paper instead

of a smooth Bristol Paper.

There're a lot of elements to the 

design that I do like, and some I'll leave out. 

Just talking about it is stirring up  

motivation to get started.

That said, I can't get sidelined!

I have to finish my current project first.

(More on that later). 

The one thing I don't want is a room full 

of partially finished pieces.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hope you have a wonderful day. 

Terri

Mayberry Musings Embroidered Pillow

Inspired by a book I have called

Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart,

I made this pillow. 

I chose Sheriff Andy Taylor as my

subject because there's a warm spot

in my heart for the show. 

It was a rather therapeutic process, and

rewarding results came quickly. 

I think there're two more pillows

with the names Barney Fife and Aunt Bee

waiting to be stitched. 

I chose some old fabric from the

'50's as backing for the pillow. 

Guests to my home seem to love

this pillow and have someone in 

mind that it'd be the perfect gift for. 

I'd recommend checking out the

book and gleaning your own inspiration. 

It's a fun one!

Thanks for visiting.

Terri 

Mixed Media~ "Aloha"

I had so much fun creating this piece. 

I've been dreaming of an island

getaway lately since our temperatures

have exceeded 105 this past week. 

I used texture, jewel embellishment, 

decoupage, paint, ink, pencils,

you name it. 

Today I'm working on another bird

house that my husband made last week. 

I'll post pictures of that when I'm finished. 

I'm feeling a little rushed today with

all I want to accomplish. 

Better get to it!

Happy creating and thanks for visiting. 

Terri

Folk Art Dog House

 

My husband made this 

dog house for me to paint. 

I love black with pops of color,

so that was my starting point. 

I like the way this one turned out. 

My husband's not crazy

about the black. He prefers

the lighter backgrounds. 

That's okay, as long as the dog likes it, right?

Thanks for visiting. 

Terri

Bird House No. 3

I keep this bird house in 

my family room of all places. 

My friend gave it to me as a gift 

to paint and keep. 

She designed it and her husband built it. 

I love the shape and the bent spoon perch. 

This project was one of the first

times I used a folk art technique. 

Prior to this I was more structured

and measured in my designs. 

I'm hoping eventually to have my 

husband make a stand for it. 

I'd love to move it to our front entryway. 

Thanks for visiting! 

Terri