Working It Wednesday: Time to paint!

I missed posting last week because I had way too much going on. I was covering for my sister in law at her work, we had to move into a different apartment due to a leaky roof (gotta love an old, historic building) and I had the Beeline Bazaar leaving no time whatsoever for blogging.

The Beeline Bazaar was a success! I didn't get a lot of booth shots but here is a glimpse of a portion of the booth. There was more but I didn't get a shot of that half of the booth. 

My next event is just under a month away, The East Buntyn Artwalk. And so that means it's time to get busy painting and crafting! At this event I'll be selling everything I make and not just my story stones like this past weekend. I'll have lots of projects over the next few weeks but first up is canvas painting! Here's a peek at what I've started working on!

You can read more about the East Buntyn Artwalk here: www.eastbuntynartwalk.com

Working It Wednesday: Event Booth Prep

This week I've been working on my booth for my upcoming events. The event I have later this month is the Hutchison School Beeline Bazaar, which is an indoor event. I love indoor events! That means my booth doesn't need a tent and I don't have to worry about wind or weather situations. 

I haven't participated in any events since last April and that was an outdoor event so needless to say, my booth needed some re-vamping. I started by sketching out the vision in my mind of what my "indoor" booth should look like. Here's what I came up with:

How I hope the booth will look!

I still had all my old signs from events I'd done last year but they were the wrong colors so I repainted them and am so much happier with the new color scheme than my previous one. My previous colors were more primary colors and now they're more of a beachy pastel scheme. Yellow, Coral, Aqua and Light Grey. I also used my newfound skill of hand-lettering to redo my chalkboard sign. My writing still isn't where I 'd want it to be but it's much better and will do for now until I can sharpen my skills.

My pile of table fixtures and signage, all freshly painted!

Next, I needed a backdrop of sorts. I already had tables and shelves but have never had a backdrop because I've never wanted to shell out the money for one. Everything I found that would work in the past has been upwards of $100 or more. I hate spending a lot of money on display stuff and just won't do it. I'd rather put money into my products. Luckily for me, I scored a wonderful shutter folding screen on a yard sale site for only $40! It was old and dirty as the previous owner had used it outdoors but I figured it was nothing a little elbow grease and painting couldn't fix up. 

The shutter screen before my handy work.

Let's just say I had no idea how much work it would be to sand and paint shutters. All those teeny tiny wooden slats! It took 2 days of working on it to get it how I wanted it. Eventually though, I got it looking decent enough to make me happy. I was so happy to be finished with it that I actually forgot to take a picture of the finished product before I put it in my storage unit. I painted it a light grey and made sure it had a distressed and worn look to it. 

 Me, all smiles before getting started! I had no idea how much work was ahead of me!

I can't wait to see how everything comes together at my first event and I'll be sure to post lots and lots of pictures on here, Facebook and Instagram afterwards! If you're local to the Memphis area and want to come see the booth all finished and set up, please come visit the Beeline Bazaar on Saturday, March 19th! You can read more about the event here: https://www.hutchisonschool.org/beelinebazaar

Working It Wednesday: Record Bowls

So I haven't worked on anything at all lately because I was out of town for vacation. No worries though! I can still offer up a blog worthy post. Record bowls!

Last year I made a bunch of them and took pictures along the way intending to blog a tutorial about it but never actually did it. These are crazy easy to make and are a fun rainy day activity if you have kids. Super cheap with no mess.

You will need:
Old vinyl records (find them at Goodwill or yard sales)
Metal or Pyrex bowl (shape and size don't matter all that much)
Cookie sheet

To make:
-Preheat oven to 200.
-Place bowl upside down on the cookie sheet.

-Place record centered, on top of bowl.
-Place items in oven and watch through the window as the record begins to droop.

-Once record has drooped, pull cookie sheet out and pull record off. You may want to use pot holders when handling the record but I personally don't. It's too hard for me to follow the next step if I have oven mitts on. But for safety's sake, do what is best for you.
-Immediately mold and shape the bowl by pinching and bending the edges. The record will harden very quickly so you have to work fast.

-Let the bowl cool for about 10-15 minutes.

While these bowls are not food safe, they do make awesome decorative items. I've used them as a quirky catch all by the door for cellphones and keys and I've hung them like artwork on my wall. I've had a friend use one as a base for a cool gift basket. Every bowl will be different, no two alike. Whatever you use them for, it's sure to be a fun activity and create a conversation starter.

I'll be back in my normal groove of things next week and have a real post to share!

Working It Wednesday: Learning Hand Lettering

I am super excited about what I've been working on this week-Hand Lettering! All over everywhere I always see the prettiest script and I'm always jealous. See, my own handwriting is awful. I don't really print and I don't really write in cursive either. It's some hodge podge blend of the two and while my writing is legible, it's anything but pretty. Just ask my mom. She's a former teacher who grew up in strict Catholic schools so her handwriting is always, always picture perfect. As a child I can remember her buying handwriting workbooks and making me practice them during the summer. She tried but my messy, bubbly scrawl won the fight. And honestly, I never really cared all that much. Until I started seeing people do beautiful canvases and other art with hand lettered and artful script. Nope, then I was just jealous. I messed around with it a little on my own here and there, trying to see if I could figure it out but it was never what I would consider good work. 

And then I found, at random on Facebook, a local hand lettering workshop! Melody Tartera with Tartera Sign and Design was hosting the class and had just 2 spots left in the next class. I hesitated before signing up, not sure if I'd be good enough to learn how to do this in just one, 2 hour workshop. Finally, I decided to go for it, signing up for the class and handing over my $50 along with the hope that I'd get something worthwhile in the end. And boy did I ever! 

The class was great and I walked away with some great advice and instruction. During the workshop she taught us the basics of what we would need to know to get started and we worked on learning to write our letters. We were given pens and worksheets to take home and practice with. Much to my surprise, hand lettering isn't as difficult as I'd imagined it would be. It's certainly not easy but it is learnable and with practice (lots of practice) I am positive I will be able to do this well. 

All week I've been doing my worksheets and practicing writing my name and address. Usually until my hand cramps, insisting I stop for the day. I've burned through not one but two Sharpies and countless sheets of paper so far. Next week I plan to start trying to letter on canvases and eventually I want to get some of my favorite scriptures and quotes written out and posted for sale in my Etsy shop. I'll keep you guys posted on my progress but I expect you'll be seeing beautiful, handwritten words in the very near future!

Practice will make perfect, eventually!

My pile of practice worksheets!

Working It Wednesday: Dabbling

So this past week I've been mostly just dabbling as far as projects go. I've done a few different things that were just little projects working with supplies I already had on hand. In the past, this has sometimes led to learning how to make pretty cool stuff.

First, I made something for my sister for her birthday. Granted I forgot to take it to her when we had lunch but I made it for her just the same. (Emily if you're reading this, I hope you like it-I'll get it to you soon!) I took one of the medium-large stones I had on hand and made a little monogrammed rock. Thought it would make a nice paper weight. I liked how hers turned out but tried to replicate one for my sister in law and hated how I did hers. I think I need more practice. At any rate, this is what my sister's finished rock looked like.

I also took a few of the very small, flat and smooth stones I had and used E6000 adhesive to affix a sterling silver bail to create a pendant for a necklace. I painted little designs on the stones and then used a satin gloss varnish to seal them and add a little shine. These were fun to make and I could see myself making more of these at some point in the future and possibly eventually listing them in my Wishes and Wonderment Etsy shop. Here is a picture of the pendants when I was halfway finished painting them. 

The other thing I did was a little play on what I did last week with the garden markers. I made herb garden markers out of polymer clay! I shaped the clay, oven cured them and then painted them similarly to the polymer gift tags I made awhile back. And of course to make sure these would be durable, I did multiple coats of polycrylic to seal them. 

These were fun to make and I did list them in my Etsy shop and you can buy them here: www.wishesandwonderment.etsy.com

Working It Wednesday: Garden Markers

This week my new project has been making Garden Markers! Now, I am not, have never been and likely will never be a gardener. Nope. This girl has black thumbs. I can't keep a plant alive to save my life. But, other people like to garden and two of those people actually sent me pictures of garden markers over the past week and suggested I make some. I've even had a couple people tag me on pictures of garden markers on Pinterest too. So, I figure, why not? Let's make some!

Normally the stones I use are relatively small in size since I use them for story stones but lucky for me, I had a few larger stones in my stockpile. If I end up keeping these in regular stock in my Etsy shop, I'll have to find a local place where I can buy larger stones. The first thing I had to do was paint them solid, bright colors. This step ended up being slightly annoying to me because I'm so used to painting story stones which typically only have one side needing to be painted whereas these stones needed paint on both sides. That meant I had to be patient and wait for the first side to dry before I could flip it over and paint the back side. But patience is a virtue, right? So I waited for paint to dry, flipped them to paint the back and then did it all over again when I decided they needed multiple coats of paint to make the colors more vibrant. 

Once all that was finally finished, I got to start working on the fun part-The details and decorating! With these being my first pass at garden markers I kept them fairly simple in design. If they end up being a popular item I may make them more elaborate. We will see how it goes. Once I had them all decked out, I applied a clear sealant to protect against fading from the sun. Overall these were easy enough to make (if you take out my annoyance at waiting for paint to dry) and I could easily make more. 

Just starting the decorative part of the project!

Want to see the finished product? They'll be up in my Etsy shop later this week and you can check them out here: www.wishesandwonderment.etsy.com

Working It Wednesday: Vendor Events

This week instead of actually making some sort of art, I'm spending some time researching local festivals and events for 2016. I've done a few events in the past and have been successful at all of them but now that I'm living in a new area, I have to research new events to see which ones might be right for me.

Personally, I love an indoor event. It's cleaner, temperature controlled, no worry about rain, etc. So far, I've only found one upcoming indoor event and I immediately sent in my application. It's an annual event held by the Junior class at Hutchison School called Beeline Bazaar. It's being held on Saturday, March 19th from 10-4 and is free to the public. At this particular event, I will only be selling my story stones. All of my regular sets of themes will be available as well as single stones for creating your own mix and match variety set. You can read more about this annual event here:
www.hutchisonschool.org/beeline_bazaar

Outdoor events can be fun too so long as the weather isn't terrible. Some events offer rain dates while others have a rain or shine (read: no refunds) policy. Last year I lost money on an even that was "rain or shine" because it was raining cats and dogs complete with thunder and lightening so I opted not to attend even though I'd paid all my booth fees already. I have zero desire to stand in the rain and mud trying to keep my art dry while hoping someone will be crazy enough to come out and shop in the rain. No thank you. So, that said, I hold favor for events that offer rain dates. Through Facebook I found a local neighborhood event called the V and E Artwalk. It is outdoors but they have a rain date just in case so I feel like I have a safety net if needed. The event is being held Saturday, April 23rd from 11-6 and is free to the public. For this event I haven't fully decided what products I want to sell. I know I will have canvas paintings for sure and most likely I will also sell mix and match individual story stones. You can read more about this annual event here:
www.vandegreenline.org

My goal would be to find an average of 1 event per month that I could participate in. As I apply and get approval to participate, I'll be sure and post them to my Facebook page so anyone who is interested can stay in the loop. If you haven't yet "liked" my Wishes and Wonderment Facebook page, you can check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/wishesandwonderment