Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. . .

One of my neighbors kindly gave me

a big mirror a couple of months ago. 

It's 38" x 32". 

Another neighbor that knows about the mirror

keeps asking me if I've done anything

with it yet. 

Well, it's finally time to call her over

to see the mirror. 

I should say, the frame of the mirror. 

I'll let my husband get the mirror

part securely back in the frame. 

The frame was initially a brown

mottled paint and it was primed

in white to start the process. 

These first few pictures were taken at sunrise.

That's why they're a little dark. 

Next, I drew out my design and made

patterns for wood pieces that my husband

gladly cut out for me on the scroll saw. 

I placed the pieces where I wanted them

just to check my design, before

they were adhered to the frame. 

Voila! The finished piece. 

It's much more bright

and cheerful now. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Hoping you have a wonderfully

creative week! 

Terri

Giving New Life to an Old Guitar

My dear friends and neighbors

will sometimes give me things

they think I may like to paint. 

This old broken down

guitar is an example of one 

of those things. 

It's been sitting in the corner

of my art room for  a couple

of years waiting to be brought

back to life. 

I had a design percolating 

in my mind, now it was a matter

of putting it all together. 

The same friend that gave me the guitar, 

also gave me the cool wooden heart she'd

designed and had her husband cut out for her. 

I designed a pattern for wings and the "Love"

sign, and my husband cut them out for me

on the scroll saw. 

I strung beads where the tuning keys

would've been.

I used my wood carving tools to 

give the "Love" sign a little dimension. 

I also decided to change the plain heart 

into a flaming heart. 

My husband made

sure every piece was secured

properly with a combination of 

liquid nails and nails or screws. 

Here's another view from the front. 

I'm pleased with the way it 

turned out. 

It was so much fun to create. 

I hope you have a wonderful week ahead! 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Terri

Last Week's Menagerie of Artwork

Here are some of the pieces 

I've been working on this past week. 

Purple kitty wearing a 

polka dot tie. 

These butterflies make me laugh.

Not the pieces themselves, but 

the fact that my husband hung

them in our pond area upside down.

I asked him if he realized he did that

and he was insistent they were right side up. 

Oh, how I did not want to look at

those things hanging upside down

every time I looked 

out my kitchen window. 

I'd decided just to zip it, and

not say another word about it. 

Well, to my surprise, the next day

I saw that he had flipped them right

side up. 

"Thank You Lord!" 

This is a sign that I made

for the bathroom. 

It has resonated with me

since the first time I saw

it in an old Victoria magazine

many years ago. 

Frida magnet

                                

This is a large 'welcome' sign I made

from a long cabinet door

someone was getting rid of. 

Mermaid magnet

Kitty Plaque

Fish magnet

That about wraps it up for 

now. 

Hoping it's a wonderful week for you.

Thank you for visiting. 

Terri

This House is for the Birds

I hadn't planned on posting more

than once this week, but I took

these pictures this morning and

thought, 'Why not?'

 This is another one of our collaborations 

(my husband the builder, and me the artist). 

This is probably

my favorite bird house that we've

made together. 

I think it's because the design

is the funkiest he's made so far, and

I'm all about the funkier the better. 

It also makes me think I'm sort

of weird as an artist, because I 

love color clashes. 

(as is obvious by my pieces). 

Sometimes it's intentional,

and sometimes it's just because

I have to use whatever paint

I have on hand. 

Either way, I try and make 

it work and am usually 

pleased with the outcome. 

Thank you for visiting

and saying hello. 

Terri

Bunny Hutch

I received this bunny hutch

when it was looking a bit

tired and needing a little lift. 

It was stained wood

with black grating. 

Why didn't I take a picture 

before I started??

* * *

First, I drew out patterns of a flower

and butterfly and my husband

kindly cut them out of wood

on our scroll saw. 

I decided to spray paint the base.

With all the wire and intricate structuring

it just made more sense. 

That said, I rarely use spray paint, but

I'm glad I did in this case. 

You can see Maybelline came to check

things out. 

On a side note, we've noticed she's been 

biting the fur off the back of her tail. 

She's 11 years old and has never done 

that before. 

Hmmm. . . 

I'm hoping the bunnies will enjoy 

their new digs. 

Thanks for visiting! 

Terri

Paintings and Orange Season

It's citrus season in Arizona! 

Here's a view of our orange tree

from out our bathroom window. 

We need to get them off the tree before

blossom time around March. 

Needless to say, we've been eating a

lot of oranges and drinking a lot of juice. 

There's a bunch of trading and giving away

amongst the neighbors this time of year. 

Some have lemons, ruby red or yellow grapefruit,

navel or valencia oranges. 

The smell of their skins is heavenly

when they're fresh off the tree. 

I look forward to blossom time. 

The perfume in the air from 

the orange blossoms is intoxicating. 

I wish I could share it, and our oranges too!

The following is a sugar skull that

my husband had cut out of wood for me. 

It's 19" x 13", so it's a perfectly fun size. 

Instead of hemming and hawing about my design

for this one, I set myself an imaginary timer of 15 minutes.

I worked quickly and just let the design flow naturally. 

When my husband came home from work and I showed

it to him, he said, "That's cool, but the eyes are kind of low."

I said, "Really? They may be a little on the small side, but

I don't thing they're too low.". 

Then I realized, he thought the cheeks were the eyes! haha

Oh well, I'm not changing it. I kind of like it like it is. 

I'm back to my pink cacti in this next piece. 

I just love cactus and I love the color pink. 

It was fun figuring out what to do with her glasses. 

Maybe next time I'll experiment with a glaze

as well as highlights on the lenses. We'll see. . . 

Wishing you a wonderful and creatively

productive weekend! 

"Home Tweet Home" Bird House with Stand

It feels so good to have this one finished. 

I've finally freed up a little more floor

space in my art room. 

It's funny though, solving one problem can 

sometimes create another.

The newly created space in my art room

is now filling up space in our guest room.

Oh well, hopefully we'll get some of

these sold and that'll free up that room.

Dream big, right?

I wanted to take this out in the yard

to get some pictures, but we had

a much needed rain storm last

night and the ground is still wet. 

This'll have to do for now. 

We've made two stand sizes for our

bird houses. This

size is the shorter of the two. 

The flower embellishments on the sides of 

this house are raised wood cut-outs. 

I drew a couple flower patterns on

wood and my husband cut them out

and affixed them to the sides. 

The next two pictures I took from underneath

so you can see that every spot is painted. 

This was an important tip I learned

from a very wise gallery owner and art dealer. 

Don't leave any blank spaces!

Thanks for visiting!

Folk "Heart" Bird House with Stand

This cute little bird house has been sitting

on our guest bed just waiting for me 

to paint a stand for it. 

I've had 2 unfinished bird house stands sitting in my 

art room/studio FOREVER (it seems). 

They're taking up a bit of floor space

and starting to get in my way. 

It's one of those projects that I know

will take some time, so I put it off. 

One day rolls into the next and

well, you know. . . 

Last weekend, I felt the need to check 

it off my list and "get 'er done"!

I set a goal for myself of one day

to accomplish it. 

It was such a good feeling to have 

finished it in the time I allotted myself. 

Today's goal: 

*Paint the 2nd stand. 

The only problem is that today's goal

is in competition with 5 loads

of laundry AND changing the bed linens. 

We'll see, I'm going to push myself. 

I'm all about striking while the iron is hot!

Folk Art Bird House 5

This bird house gave me a little

trouble at first. 

My initial idea for it (which I was

really excited about) bombed when 

I told my husband what I wanted to do. 

He told me how hard he worked

on certain features and I was going to cover

them up with my idea. I could see his point 

(after a long discussion) and I decided 

to move on to a plan B. 

By the way, after this incident, we made

the decision that he'll do his thing when it

comes to building, and I'll do my thing when

it comes to painting. Our team projects have been

harmonious ever since.

Back to plan B. .  . I had to come up with

a new idea, and instead I just sat and sat in

front of this thing, starting at it and 

wondering where to start. 

Ever been there yourself?

After a grueling amount of time passed I 

decided enough was enough. 

I set a timer for 20 minutes and started painting

a base design without thinking about it. 

"Just paint!" I told myself. 

After all was said and done,

I really liked the way it turned out. 

Sorry my pictures aren't the best.

I keep this bird house in my daughters

old room and the lighting isn't the best. 

I think the gist of it comes across though. 

Hope you have a fabulous day!

Happy Creating. 

Terri

Hearts, Flowers, and Cross Shrine

This was such a fun project to make.

Just looking at the picture inspires

me to want to make more of them. 

(In case you missed my other shrine posts

you may see them here and here.)

Everything was handmade from the

paper mache shrine box, to the 2 kinds 

of clay that I used. 

One was cold porcelain clay,

and the other one had a flour and glue base. 

For the candle wicks I

stripped a twist tie of it's paper

and used that to suspend the flames.

The cross, leaves, flowers, and candles

are made from the cold porcelain clay. 

The top center heart was made from the 

flour and glue based clay.

It was a little harder to shape

into specific designs, but it was

good for building up dimension. 

I also used some puff paint to add

some texture. It worked great. I was

a little unsure because I think it's mainly

used for fabrics. 

Now here's a behind the scenes

look at what usually goes

on when I'm trying to take a picture

of my work outside. 

"Maybelline! Move your head!"

She's always at the ready

to lend a helping hand paw. 

She loves being the center

of attention, so I thought

I'd give her that honor today. 

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