Decorative Painting!

Here we go! This is my first post EVAH! At least on my new arts & craft blog! I thought I'd start out by posting pictures of my paintings! I started tole painting way back when Miss Jess was a baby... so almost 20 *gulp* years ago! wow.... The pictures I'm posting tonight early this morning are some that I took between 1994 - 2005 and then I scanned so I'd have them to post online. Yeah, that was before digital photography... or at least before WE could afford a digital camera. LOL

The following photos are of things I painted over 10 years ago when we lived in our "old" house. It was a small house... barely 1,000 sq feet. eeeks! Funny thing... we were a family of 4 when we moved in and when we moved out we were a family 6 and had accumulated oxygen supplies including an O2 concentrator, a motorized wheelchair and a ton of other things. Jessica had also done her Make A Wish and had received a computer desk with a computer! Yeah, it was time to leave at that point. We were laying on top of each other and all 3 boys had to share one small bedroom. Jessica's bedroom was the size of a closet! LOL! It was a cute little house but we like this one much better. We are snug in our current house but eventually our kids will start leaving home. At least I hope they will. Please tell me they leave!!!

Here is a cabinet that we bought as a kit at Costco. Karl reinforced the back since it was a bit flimsy but this cabinet is made of real wood - not that cheapy particle board stuff. I painted the flowers and ribbons on it. We also bought ceramic door knobs that have pink flowers on them to match my painting. It was our first big furniture project to work on as a couple. We still have that cabinet 14 years later.

See how the cabinet matches our comforter? And yeah, my MANLY husband likes the florals.

Karl made this smaller cabinet when I was pregnant with Brandon who was born in July of '95. We realized that we didn't have any place to put baby clothes so Karl built this one to fit the door. You see, I had a book with patterns for the door but not even the dimensions for the cabinet. The pattern was sectioned into pieces since the door was way too large for the pattern to fit on one 8 1/2 x 11 page. I changed the pattern around a little and did my own thing. Karl had to take the dimensions of what we estimated the door to be, cut out and sanded the door and then build a cabinet to fit. We worked together and decided how deep to make it, how to do the decorative curve on the back and what color to paint the cabinet. We did a great job, don't you think? It took me several months to paint the door and the bigger my belly got, the harder it was for me to lean over the door to paint. hehe... the baby would kick against the table or door when I would lean against them for very long. I would have to sit back on a chair and rest until I felt up to starting to paint again. I also made the bunny doll that sits on top of the cabinet. After this picture was taken I made a baby bunny to coordinate with the momma. I have those items in my current bedroom since Brandon, now 15, doesn't think little bunnies and teddy bears are cool anymore. LOL Once my craft room is finished I will most likely move them in there.


The main bathroom in our "old house" didn't have a cabinet so Karl and I designed and made this one. Unfortunately when we sold the house we had to leave the cabinet there. At least I have a picture, right? I think that this was the first piece of furniture that I painted on.


This bench was really something.... I bought a book which had the pattern for the flowers to paint. The pattern was sectioned into pieces like the light blue cabinet was. It also didn't have any instructions on how to build the bench. Here again Karl and I worked together to figure out how we wanted to make it. This was done after we moved into our current house (which we intend to live in forever). We are always working on a budget and a large thin piece of wood for the center panel for the pansies to be painted on was quite expense, Karl pieced together two medium sized pieces of plywood. We sanded them really well and once the bench was made, Karl took the panels off and secured them on each end with pieces of wood in order to hold them together for me to paint the whole painting on. (I sure hope that makes sense!) We measured where we wanted the bench on our small front porch and once it was completely finished, Karl secured it to the wall! We didn't want anyone to steal it! We have spent quite a few evenings sitting on it. Last year when Karl decided to enclose the carport and turn it into a craft room for me, he took the bench from the front porch and it's been hiding in a shed in our back yard. Once the craft room is all done we will put it back onto the front porch. *woot*!


This is one of my favorite items that I've painted (and kept). I really stretched my painting abilities with this one. It took more time since I had to learn the techniques needed to paint these types of roses and sunflowers but it was worth it! Both sides are painted too.


This isn't the best picture but here is another fun thing that Karl and I made together. We designed the shelp and of course Karl made it. He knows how much I like hearts so he cut out the hearts on the bottom and routed them. He also cut out the wood pieces I needed for the birdhouses and the angel. Of course I painted them. The white birdhouse on the left was something we came up with together. Karl thought it would be fun for me to have apples cut out of the front of a birdhouse so that's what he did. I base coated it white and still haven't had a chance to finish painting it. I have it put away for now. I haven't painted much in the last few years but I hope to get back to it once my craft room is together and I have more room to get out all my paints, brushes, etc. {I'm drooling just thinking about it! haha}


Here's another wall cabinet that Karl and I designed. I painted the apple and apple pie... they are called "Love Chunks" ... the center heart pops out. Aren't they cute? Karl had fun making it and we thought the chicken wire on the doors was a nice country touch.


This is one thing that I painted and gave away that I wish I had kept. *sigh* Santa took a heck-uv-a-lot of work! He it about 18" tall. I had to learn a lot of new techniques in order to do the beard and fur. In case you were wondering, I learn techniques by reading books and practicing. Practice. Practice. Practice. (I think I got Santa's cheeks a bit too rosy but ah well, it was a cold December day!)


Well, that's all I have to show you "tonight". It's actually after 4:30 AM! Jessica is up again so I'd better go get her settled and try to go to bed myself. Hopefully I'll have time to upload some of the paintings that I did when I had my JOB painting! Yeah, I painted things for money. A LOT of things. Probably too many things since I got burnt out on painting for quite awhile... but I'm anxious to get back into it.

Toodles!