Mural on a door

I hope everyone enjoyed their thanksgiving.  I greatly enjoyed my with my family and friends. I continue to enjoy having my daughter home for the holidays.  We both are working on our to do list of creative work that we have wanted to finish up.

I had over the spring sketched and blocked a mural on a door in our kitchen/dining area.  The door leads to the garage.  I wanted to give it some interest since it is a boring door to look at.  I will start painting the mural in the next few weeks to finish it up.  It will follow the theme of a vineyard mural I painted on the bi-fold doors that sticks out like a soar thumb in the dining area into the kitchen.  The doors hide the laundry area.  

Painting the doors gives some interest and camouflage the doors that break up the wall in a awkward way.   The murals give a sense  one being part of the outdoors especially during the cold months when our days are shorter and we lack good day light.

I will be creating a video of the process as well.   

Please visit my store on my website and have a look around, I'm offering free shipping through the 12th of December this excludes furniture as these are heavy items in most cases and do require special packaging and shipping cost.

Rainbow Village Gala

(Photo: From Rainbow Village picasa web album.)

(Photo: Back view)

(Photo: Front view of bookcase)

I had the pleasure and great delight to work with Rainbow Village on their Gala event to help raise money for this wonderful organization.   The children of Rainbow Village all work on an art project together with a theme in mind which represents the organization and what it means to each child every year.

An unfinished bookcase in shape of a dollhouse was donated and used for this years gala project.  The children and I talked about the possibilities and the theme what does home mean to me was chosen.  Each child had to draw a house, a representative picture of what home meant to them and write a small essay expressing this as well. 

Unfinished pieces of furniture and dollhouse furniture was purchased and donated towards the art project. The children were divided into groups and each painted the dollhouse, doll house furniture and the older kids decorated the inside of the dollhouse with the drawings and essays and bright colorful scrapbook paper.

(Photo: unfinished doll house book case)

The kids and little babies hand prints were stamped on the roof top with their individual names hand painted on each palm which represented the roof shingles that shelter and protect a loving home.

The back of the house was painted in a whimsical style.  On October 22, 2011 this art project raised an overwhelming $8,900 dollars.

At a time when our economy has been at a historically all time low, how inspiring it is to see people gathering together for such a wonderful organization as Rainbow Village and raise the money that was raised that evening.  We are all affected by this economy there are real families hurting who are finding themselves displaced and organizations such as Rainbow Village fill the void to help get them back on their feet.  Anyone of us could easily be in the same position as nothing is guaranteed in this life. 

I'm honored that I was asked to play a small role in getting this project started for the kids and the families of Rainbow Village.  Continued success and growth to Rainbow Village.  Please click on the link to find out more about this wonderful organization and how you can help.

Swarovski Crystal Box

Always have boxes on hand

Another cold day in GA and going on 4 days of no school! Even my daughter is aching to get back to school.

I'm putting the pictures I took over the summer of the black swallowtail butterflies that visited my yard and I painted a box with one of those images.  So I'm finishing up with adorning it with Swarovski crystals and it is giving the box such a beautiful shimmer.  I'm going to finish off the box lining it with hemp fabric on the inside for a finished look.

Eco-Friendliness of it all: All high-grade non-toxic acrylic paints and varnish.  The box I have used has been recycled, I purchased this box at a yard sale from a crafter who was selling all of her paints and supplies her trash certainly my treasure.

I'm looking forward to posting the finished product and sharing with you why painting boxes play an important part of my product line.