Pet Memorial Stone

Years ago I made a memorial stone for one of our beloved dogs named Foxy. The first time I made it was not properly sealed. I don't remember what sealer I used, but it didn't work. Unfortunately, being out in the elements had caused parts of the grout to crumble off. Needless to say, the stone needed a fresh application of grout. Taking advantage of a very warm December day (in the 70s y'all!), I got to work. First, the grout was applied (use gloves, folks, 'cause this is messy stuff)...

I used Jennifer's Mosaics Indoor/Outdoor Powdered Grout in black. Honestly, I wish I had used a lighter color but this was my first mosaic and I'm still learning about aesthetics. I feel that the mosaic design would have been more noticeable had I used a lighter grout color.

Next, I let it set for about 15 minutes. After that comes the fun part - wiping off the grout to see your mosaic underneath!

When the stone dried completely, the sealer was applied. This time I used Minwax Indoor/Outdoor Helmsman Spar Urethane in Clear Semi-Gloss. Two coats were applied. Honestly, I don't know if this will be ample protection. Only time will tell. In my internet research I could not find any information on how to properly seal mosaics, especially those that will be outdoors. The result looks beautiful so let's just hope it works.

Volume Pedal

I painted a homemade Guitar Volume pedal I built as a Christmas present. If you would like to read and see the build process click here

A black pedal is pretty common, and this one is not different. I spray primer and painted the pedal black. I'm thinking it would get some non-slip tape put on it at some point anyway.

The body is a flavor or red. I knew I needed to paint "IN" and "OUT" to show which cable to plug into which jack. So I did that first and looked at it. Then I just started drawing arrows. I originally was thinking that the letters would be in Yellow, and "VOLUME" along each side. I may do something like that on the next one.
This one I also put Volume on it, but I wrapped it around the front. The input side has "VO", the front has "LU", and the output has "ME". The V is not prominent as I would have liked.

I think it came out good, I was searching for an abstract appearance, and I think I got it.

Kalimba

I made a Kalimba as a gift for Christmas. I really enjoyed painting it. If you would like to see and read about the build, click here.

One part of the Kalimba was the picture inside. I sprayed the wood with gray primer and white paint. I marked the wood so I would know where to put the picture under the sound hole.

I really like how the grain showed up in a few of the places after I painted the wood white. Gave me some ideas of painting a winter scene. I will keep my eye out for any other wood that shows that it would.

You can see the grain better in this picture.
It wold make for a nice winter scene.

Obviously I'm a real beginner at painting. Ive spent more time drawing than anything. During this project I learned that you can take the brush, and go over where I wanted the highlights. I look forward to learning more of these types of things when painting.

Photo of Kalimba build

Keys

I built this to give as a Christmas present this year. Years ago I found the idea on Pinterest. We had an old piano that the harp was warped and could not be tuned. I kept a lot of the parts.


If you are interested in reading and seeing the build click here

I still have some more piano parts. I hope to build some more "Piano Art"
There are some really cool things I've seen with the hammers.

BW Keys

shape it

Piano Keys

Drawing rectangles, then decided to draw the keys on a piano.
Why not label them?

Simple Shapes - TRISquare

Experimenting with Triangles.
Meet "TRISquare"

Our Stained Glass Journey

This is where our Stained Glass Journey Began

We have been talking about getting back into Stained Glass. Never seems to be enough time in the day.

Over the years my wife has made a number of stained glass things, I've only made a few.

In the Beginning...

Many years ago, when we moved into our house, we were not happy with the plain front door. We looked at doors in different stores and just did not think they were worth the prices they were charging. Besides, nothing was wrong with our door, we just wanted it to look different.

We decided to just make it ourselves.

Well to be honest, my wife wanted a stained glass door, and after a while I said well if you want a stained glass door make one, because I'm not paying  over $1000 to replace a good working door.

So classes, tools, glass.... Surely that was not a grand worth of stuff. 😳

Other than the cuts on fingers, the feeling of accomplishment is way better anyway.

Besides one year we made stained glass Christmas Gifts for family members. I think they liked them. We'll post about them at another time.

Stained Glass is fun and a rewarding hobby.

Simple Shape - Rhombus

I like arranging and drawing simple shapes. There is no pressure on trying it to make it look like something really. Put some shapes together move them around some and voila!










The more I look at them the more I see things.

Simple Shapes - Tree

In the Spirit of Christmas, figured on a simple Christmas Tree with Triangles, Rectangle and Circles. Few straight lines for the ribbons on the presents, and a little free hand for the bows, but all very easy and fast.

O Christmas Tree

Tonight we put up the Christmas tree and the kiddo was extremely happy. Watching him gazing at the ornaments on the tree gave me an idea for a photo. Just a simple one with a silhouette of him in front of the tree.

Now, when I want to take a decent photo, the camera on my phone just won't do. So I grab my trusty Nikon D90. I've had this camera for several years and I can trust that it will take the shots that I envision. Most of the time anyway, but it's usually user error whenever I can't get the shot I want.

And because of the darkness, that meant I had to lug out my big ol' heavy-duty Bogen tripod so I can use a slower shutter speed. My ol' Bogen may be cumbersome at times and heavy but gosh, I've had that thing for a good 25 years and I love it. It's so sturdy, I don't worry about it tipping over.

I just love this photo. It's simple and captures the love that my family has of Christmas. I'm always in awe at seeing the wonder of Christmas in my child's eyes.

Settings:
Nikon D90
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6
80 mm
f/5.3
1/40
ISO 3200
No flash

Gingerbread Cake House

Christmastime is here! Every year my kiddo asks to get a gingerbread house kit and every year I regret getting it. Those things are basically non-edible cardboard (as the hubs says). *I'm* afraid someone will break a tooth biting into the rock-hard gingerbread. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with that anymore!!

Behold the Gingerbread House Bundt Cake Pan!

Yes, this exists! Nordic Ware makes it and it is awesome! For $25 at Amazon, this thing will pay itself if you use it a couple times in one Christmas season. Here's an Amazon link if you're interested in purchasing one: Nordic Ware Gingerbread House

Needless to say, I made one as soon as I could, which was a few days later because you know... life. There is a gingerbread cake recipe inside the package so I just followed that. Easy-peasy. Here it is on the cooling rack:

How cute is that? And the smell was divine. I just loved the smell of ginger wafting throughout the house. It was hard to keep from eating it but I did have to shave the bottom to make it flat so we got to eat those bits. Delicious! 

After cooling I made some Royal Icing, which I messed up and ending up breaking my hand mixer but I'm not going to get into that. At least the icing was edible AND usable for "glue". Now, before I post the picture of the decorated house, let me warn you, I am not a baker so my piping skills are nil. BUT my kiddo was happy with it and that's all that matters. I think he was more concerned with putting the candies on it (and eating them!).

If you don't want to use icing, you could sift some powdered sugar on it to look like a dusting of snow. Or leave it alone, whatever. It'll be gorgeous. I'm telling ya, this will be a hit at Christmas parties. Hope you enjoy!

The Gourd

Some Thanksgiving decoration. Looks like it is floating.

Treble Clef Flash Cards

We wanted to start introducing our kid to reading music.
I made up some Treble Clef flash cards to help.

Black & White Challenge

Recently, I was challenged to do the 7-day black & white challenge on Facebook. Thought I'd share the photos here and to be able to see them all together.  -Ann

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

The HOZ and VER

City

Splaterizm

Splaterizm

Im sure there is a correct term for this type or art. Please post below and let me know, or forever be called "Spaterizm"!

Watercolor

I want to get into watercolor painting. Here are my first 2 painting. Impressed? I knew you would be. 😁

I was experimenting on backgrounds. Trying to see how colors blend or not blend.

Pen

We picked up this fountain pen. It writes really well, but the line is thicker than I would like. Probably for bigger writing.

Cone Flowers

These Cone Flowers come back every year with little to no maintenance.

Hand Writing

Our Latest Art project, is actually trying to improve our hand writing. We have been watching a ton of videos online, and practicing. After drawing those butterflies and wanting to write the kind of butterfly. I really saw how poor my handwriting is. I have been practicing for a few months. I can tell improvement. Look for some Art in the near future with writing within.

My father gave us a couple of fountain pens that were my grandparents. With the Fountain pen bug, I bought a Cross Pen from Office Depot for my Wife. I have not used it yet, but the line if pretty thick compared to the old gray Sheaffer's.

Ive posted some very short posts about these 3 pens:

• Shaffer's
• SCRIPTO
• Parker 21

Sheaffer's

Sheaffer's fountain pen. I have no idea how this pen is, but it has to be at least 50 years old or older. It was in my Grandmother house. I picked up a cheap pack of multi-colored ink cartridges from HobbyLobby (5 different colors).
I really like how this pen writes. Very smooth.
I have purple ink in it now. I used up the black ink. The black seemed to work better in the pen, might have some difference in the substance. 

SCRIPTO USA

SCRIPTO fountain pen. I do not know much about it, other than we found it in my grandmother house. I have not tried this pen yet, so I'm not sure how well it works.
 If you know anything about this brand pen, please post something.

Parker 21 fountain pen

We found some fountain pens that used to belong to my grandparents.

One of them is this Parker 21. It is a nice looking pen. I found out it is missing one of a part (the "eye dropper"). One of the other pens has one, I may see if it fits.

Some more information about Parker Pens:

https://parkerpens.net/parker21.html