DYI Doll/ Lego House /Playroom Scene

I had the privilege of teaching some Art Camps this Summer, and I asked one of my students what they would like to make and she said a Doll House. Well, we weren't going to have time for that in the camp, so I suggested a Doll House Scene. I wanted it to be able to be folded and put away, so here is what we came up with.

Materials:

•  4 Hinges 1-2 inches tall (they come in packs of 2) you don't want the screws longer than .5"
• Paint, brushes, water, palate, etc.
• Paper and pencil to sketch designs
• Modge Podge Matte
• Drill

• Wooden Board, I used the pretty kind of wood about $13- $14, lol      2' x 4' piece

- Ask the very pleasant Lowes or Home Depot People to cut your board like this:





Step 1: Lay out your boards with the 2' wide sandwiched between 1' wide boards (all are 1.5' tall)

 Step 2: Screw 2 hinges to one of the 1.5' x 1' boards (I did use a drill), about 2" from the top and bottom
 Step 3: Place something straight under the board you have just "hinged" and the 2" middle board to make sure they will be level and then screw in the other side of the hinges.
Step 4: Add hinges to the other 1' board and other side of the 2' board with same method, make sure bottom is even across.
Step 5: Stand up and admire your wooden fold-able masterpiece and get inspired. Have your kids sketch out designs to paint on the insides and outsides of your scene.
Step 6: Paint. Let dry fully. Have fun!
Step 7: Seal with Modge Podge Matte (Unless you want the glossy look)

 Lola had the idea to paint a TV in the Playroom scene so she could paint different pictures and tape it on her Scene. Then change them out as she wanted to, very clever young lady=)

Don't forget to do a scene on the back and outsides too!

Hope ya'll have fun with this, I know we did. If you decide to venture out and make it happen, please send me a link to your picture!!! Hope you have an awesome summer! Thanks for reading.

Mixed Media Owl Journals

Inspired by all the owls we decided to do some Mixed Media Art Journals!

I recently inherited a lightbox my Grandy had made for my Nana's Watercolor Hobby and decided to put it to some good use! It makes this project easier but not essential.

Items Needed:

• Composition Books
• Modge Podge (or elmers school glue with a little water)
• Scrapbook paper (variety)
• scissors
• pencils
• template (we did owls, but try horses or dolphins or bears!!)
• lightbox (optional- you can also use a glass table with a light underneath)

• acrylic paint (with a small brush) or sharpies for accents

Owl Template

STEP 1:
Make a template with basic shapes. You don't want to get too complicated here=)
Here is an owl I did in Paint... 

STEP 2:
Decide a color scheme with your paper. Encourage students to layer complimentary colors so each part is visible.












STEP 3:

Place Template on light box and one at a time place scrapbook paper upside and on top and trace the part applying to that paper. For example: I want pink polka dots for the wings so I place my pink polka dot paper upside down and trace out 2 wings from the template.





STEP 4:
Cut out your traced pieces. Organize next to your journal.

STEP 5:

Mixed Media Owl Journal

Glue- start with the background first and then to the big pieces to the smallest.

STEP 6:
Add a layer of glue on top to seal. (Be careful not to glue the journal pages together, opening the books would help)

STEP 7:
Add any final touches you like! Voila! Be free to do this on wood or canvas too!

I did this with ages 5-13. (More help to the 5 year old of course, but they did great!)

Deco Mesh Turkey Wreath for Thanksgiving or Fall DIY

Deco Mesh Turkey Wreath

I was praying for a creative Thanksgiving/Fall wreath and thought of making this cute deco mesh turkey  wreath!! Thank You Lord=) I had so much fun making it and thought you might want to join in the fun!
So here is the tutorial! =)

Materials:

• Deco mesh 21" Rolls - brown, yellow, and orange
• Deco Tubing - Red, White and Orange
• Pipe Cleaners - Gold (or any color)
• Scissors
• Wire Cutters
• Wire Strong wire - I used a wire coat hanger and re-purposed wire

Substitution Ideas:

• Instead of the white deco tubing for the eye and pipe cleaner use a button and tie it in...
• Instead of Red tubing for the gobble use mesh or felt and tie it in...

Enjoy it! May we all find things to be thankful for=) I am thankful to create, what are you thankful for?

Polymer Clay Mosaics

Polymer Clay Mosaic

This was a project we did at United Artisans Shop and Studio in downtown Fort Mill, SC during our Summer Art Camps with the 10-16 year old group. I think it would be fun to do at home or school, but it would be hard without a bunch of pasta machines=)

Necessary Tools:

• Polymer Clay - varying colors - Any
• Pasta Machine (To only be used for Polymer)
• Dull Knife
• Grout and Adhesive
• Surface to put the mosaic on
• non-food spoon
• gloves
• 2 Tiles (the size you want to make your design on) or Clean workspace and 1 Large Tile

Would be nice:

• Cookie Cutters (To only be used for Polymer or crafts)
• A pretty Frame and Backing to Seal it

To start have a clean workspace and tile, cleaned pasta machine


Make sure your hands are clean and warm up the clay in small increments and run through the pasta machine on "9". Ball up and run through again on "9".

Put your flattened sections on your workspace. Cut out squares, triangles, circles, etc...with your dull knife. If you have craft cookie cutters, those work great.

Carefully arrange the Clay cuts on your large tile, and Repeat steps for different colors. (It will be important to keep a paper towel on hand to wipe the pasta machine in between colors.)

Student keeps arranging until they are satisfied leaving about 2-3mm or 1/8" in between. Make sure they gently press the edges down so that the appearance is like flat tiles, don't press too hard to make it smash.
Note: In the design below some of her "tiles" were too close and did not fit into the final design... Make sure to leave space in between the clay pieces.

Rachel's finished design before grout=) 

 

Rachel's Finished Polymer Mosaic

Bake the Polymer Clay on the large tile in a normal oven what the directions tell you. It will vary in the type of Polymer you get. I like Sculpey premo myself. Do not over bake !!! Toxins released= bad times! Trust me!!!=) Make sure you have the right temperature too! =)

Let the hot clay sit for a half hour and cool.

Choose a surface: a pot, wood, glass- whatever the grout and adhesive will stick to=)
Get a spoon and gloves and spread across the surface.
Remove your gloves and place the Polymer Tiles( on the large tile) you have created on your surface=) Fun fun fun!

If you do this please, please please post pictures so I can see the beautiful things you have made!!!! Have a blast creating!

Also, if you have any suggestions or questions, don't hesitate to ask=) Thanks for reading!

Revamping the Rear

Started by blocking with a colored pencil ;
natural sponge with 3 colors;
synthetic sponge damp to wipe...

We are working on revamping our rear store front and this is our fun process.

I went on youtube and found a cool Polish fellow that does amazing murals. I watched his one for stone and got the inspiration.
I then prayed fervently for an airbrush gun, and then last Saturday a gentleman listened to Holy Spirit and bought me an airbrush gun. So this past week my friend B.R. and I went to work...
This is our first mural so give us some grace, I didn't find exactly the colors Mr. Polish man listed on his video so I did some compromising.  But I like the result anyhow. And with grace and practice we'll get better and better.

What fun! So here is what we did.

Rubbed Hard on the top of the stone and the right
side to give them some 3 D look to it and blocked out space for windows.

Airbrushed blue into the sky because, it was my first time using an
airbrush, so I wanted to get used to it.
Then we airbrushed lines a light cream color for highlights...

Airbrushed dark shadows and used a jagged
cardboard piece to accent in the stone.

I added some white with  a hint of yellow with the airbrush for the clouds.

Do Over thoughts...

• Use some sort of tool to make my lines straight... Lol I'm sure you can see the giant blocks verses the small. I also thought of using a rectangular cardboard piece to trace with colored pencil.
• Some say to never use black in the way of art, so one can use raw umber or some dark brown color instead. I see be free=) But know what look you want to go for. 
• I wish I had one of those laser tools that tell you where things are level for the windows too... They aren't exactly symmetrical, but its good enough for jazz...

Well I enjoyed myself, and I'm pretty sure B.R. did too! She is an amazing helper and I am so grateful... Because of her help this 10' x 17' wall was done in 6 hours.

So come on over to United Artisans of America and book your next meeting or party in Fort Mill in front of the wall;)

Retail Pricing - how do you price a product??

Retail Prices and Business

For those of you out there who have not yet ventured into the world of retail I'm going to share with you a change in my mindset towards product pricing.
When I used to look at a product at the store, I would only think of how much it "cost" to make, you know, the materials used in it. And then think of how ridiculously priced things are. And now that my toe is in the water I have had a very real awakening. I have been reading this book called "How to Start a Home-Based Craft Business" and the author, Kenn Oberrecht, gives a very good basic formula for calculating how much each item costs.
Materials + Overhead + Labor +Profit = Price
Seems simple, right?
Labor $10/hour
Time per unit = 5 hours = $50.00
Materials per unit = $8.00
Overhead (indirect costs like your website, lighting, electricity, tools use) = $50 x 10%= $5
Profit = $62 x 10% = $6.20
Price per unit (wholesale!) = $68.20
What?! I seriously didn't ever think about this sort of thing before. I never understood before how many costs are really behind each product! I also realized that my original pricing didn't even include any profit, because I was thinking my labor wage was the profit. Even though the materials in the above scenario was only $8, with the other costs it becomes $62!!
Talk about turning my retail knowledge around! What an awakening!
So how do we have $1 products??? VERY low labor costs...  Which is a whole other topic that I will get into another day.
A few months ago I attended the KBA (Kingdom Business Association) Conference and was rocked (in a good way). I have a greater vision for business than I ever had previously. One great thing that was said by Rick Joyner is about the business advise with which you could never fail.
How can you never fail in your business??
1 Corinthians 13:8 he said... "Love Never Fails"
So if you love your products and are passionate about them, you love your employees, you love your suppliers, you love your customers, you love your boss, you love yourself... YOU WILL NEVER FAIL!!!!

Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you!!! Even if your technical business "fails" or goes under, if you conducted it with love, it is everlasting in the Kingdom that counts!
Now that gets me excited about business!!!!! So let's love! Let us love!

Check it out AJoy's Enterprise, LLC

(This is a post from my personal blog.)

 

How did I learn to crochet?

While at the Banner Elk Herb Festival a very kind and beautiful woman that bought the scarf to the right(Thank you again S. B. !!!!) asked me how I learned to crochet. So here's the story...
There was a woman, F.G. and her daughter, M. G.  that used to crochet REALLY fast. I would stare in awe, so confused as to how they knew where to put their loops. I glanced at a pattern and decided to myself this was way too complicated for me. I knew how to knit and pearl a scarf, or pot-holder, anything with straight edges and that was it.
Fast-forward 4 years to a year ago... I saw these really cute patterns for crocheting online and noticed this book I had forever had how to crochet in there. So I bought a crochet hook and yarn and stared at that book. Oh how I studied it! I figured out how to chain, but how to make the second row, I could NOT figure out. I took my hook and yarn to my home group to see if anyone knew how to crochet to no avail. I was determined, so I sat in my car waiting to go babysit. I said, "God, please give me understanding on how to do this. I don't get it." I looked at the book again and I tried to make a row and I did it!!! I understood how to do it! Thank You God. And it was then that I understood that all my life God had given me understanding. I always did very well in school, but I never realized that it was because of His grace with me. I am so very grateful for this lesson and to be able to crochet. He is so good to us, even when we don't give Him credit or know He is the one helping us. Thank You again Abba, I love You=)

You can learn to crochet too!!! It is very fun, although I have discovered my favorite thing is creating things with God. I don't like making the same thing over and over and over! =)