DIY Victorian Mantel

I have always loved the look of a Victorian Fireplace! Our fireplace was very pretty to me before, but I got it into my head when I saw a lone mirror for sale at GOODWILL for $19, it could be transformed into my dream fireplace. The cool thing is, this mirror was originally attached to a bedroom dresser! You never know what treasures or potential treasures you will find at Goodwill!

Anyway, first I had to get that big boy home, then I had to talk my husband into painting it. I knew I wanted my husband to do it because he is a genius with spray paint. I leave runs every time, but he is a spray paint artist. (I don't have a picture in its original mahogany state). But, being the all around good guy that he his, he agreed.

I taped around the three "mirrors", last go 'round adding newspaper so there wouldn't be a lot of scraping of paint off the mirror.

Sorry for the mess, but we decided to finally "attach" this to the wall when putting up Christmas decorations! This is after removing tape and newspaper.

Then, my husband drilled a hole in the center top of the frame to anchor the mirror to the wall.

Next, my husband and daughter lifted the mirror in place and measured where the anchor bolt would go. Hubby also used another bit to countersink the screw so we could spackle. (Getting ahead of myself!)

 Up, down, up, down. I'm glad they love me!

Anchor bolt.

I'll come back and repaint when I have time.

Ahh...Sitting back and enjoying my new mantel!

Pet Portrait

I went to another painting workshop this past weekend.  Had a blast painting my snaggled toothed Lillie!  I'll be doing another one for a friend soon, and I'll post the "how to's" soon!

Painting Gourds

Well, another fail in that I forgot to take pictures in the making of these little fellows!

I did take this one which shows I first spray painted them in white, then went over them in red.  I obviously painted the faces on the white part, using a flesh tinted paint color for the face.  Everything else is pretty much self explanatory, except for the hair.  If you do decide to paint Santa's or anything else with hair, a must have is a "rake brush".  For Santa, you base coat your beard and hair a grey color, then dilute white paint and slightly go over the grey with an almost white wash.  The rake brush really gives the appearance of hair!

While I don't have any step by step instructions, I would add that if you want to add texture to the "fur" of a Santa hat, or add snow to an art object, Snow-Tex is an awesome and easy to use product!

Making Candles!

As a maker of soap and lotion, I knew I wanted to make candles when I saw pins on Pinterest.  This was my first attempt.

I bought some soy flakes off ebay.  Big mistake.  The soy was good, Golden brands 464, but the transaction...not so good.  Anyway...

First I hot glued the wicks (make sure you get the right size for the opening of your jar) into the bottom of my jars.

Then, I melted the wax in an old rice cooker.  It worked great!  BUT, you must watch it and make sure you remove it from the heat source as soon as it gets to about 180 degrees. Use a thermometer.  Can't stress that enough!

Then, I make my mistake.

I used a water based colorant to color the wax, FIGURING that if it worked with soap and lotion (oil based) it should work with candles.  Nope.  Left little clumps of colorant that I had to strain with cheese cloth.  No pictures of this little mistake as it took two hands to fix my mess.  You'll see my boo boo, as in flakes in my candle, in a picture to come.

I found a great place for supplies and oil based colorant, Candles and Supplies

Painting Class...gulp!

Recently I took a painting class at Jerry's Artarama in Nashville, TN.  The artist was Frank Baggett, a Middle Tennessee Artist.  I was so scared to paint this picture as I am what I would call a "painting piddler."  I can tole paint until the cows come home, but it was a challenge for me to paint a picture from a real picture.  I would have done a step by step of this painting, but it changed and changed and changed!  The main thing I would say is BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.  Even if your confidence isn't what it should be, "do it anyway".  You'll never know what you can do until you try!