Watercolor Easter Eggs: Using A Paintbrush Techinique

Watercolor Easter Eggs: 
Using A Paintbrush Technique

Find your Inner Artist- Artful eggs

 If you're like me, always on the lookout for a new Easter-egg decorating technique, you will enoy the creative freedom you'll get from this technique:

Using a paint brush and watercolors, brush the color over the egg with a few simple brush storkes and then let the color do its own thing. The color will run, bleed and fade while drying.  That's what watecolors do.

Experiment while you create. Be artistic!

Photo credit: Michael Partenio

I developed this egg decorating project for Good Housekeeping magazine last Spring 

while working on concepts for our Easter photo-shoot. Brushstrokes of a variety 

of color mixed with water envoke a pretty pastel appearence.

Materials:
Tubes of water color paint in red, orange and yellow
3 bowls of water
3 small soft, pointed round brushes
White hardboiled eggs dyed in soft colors of pastel pink and yellow
Egg carton for drying eggs

In each bowl, mix approximately 1/2 inch blob of pigment with 

1/2 cup of water while disolving all of the pigment.

Using one color at a time, simply brush the color over and around the egg with one simple stroke. Then add another brushstroke of your next color, in another direction, until you have added 3, 4 or 5 storkes. The colors will bleed and run into each another while fading.  Place the egg into the carton to dry.

A large amount of eggs makes the most impact!

 Your studio might not look as chaotic as mine (above) but, experimenting is part of the creative process. Should you not like your design as you develop your technique, you can 

wash off the egg before it dries completely. Then wipe with a paper towel and start again.


For more Easter decorating ideas, grab a copy of Good Housekeeping April 2013 on the stands! 

Celebrate With Spring's Blooming Branches

Celebrate With Spring's Blooming Branches

Spring's glorious display of blooming branches is apon us! Cherry, Quince, Dogwood, Apple and  Forsythia are all coming our way! I'm so ready for the Spring season!

I'm anxiously waiting for my 'Spring Floral Arrangment' story to debut in the current Spring 2013 BH&G Country Gardens Magazine.  It talks about designing Spring bouquets in vintage watering cans.

In the very near future I will share this feature with you and post about displaying and forcing Spring's blooming branches. It's a sure way to celebrate and encourage an early Spring. Stay tuned and check back in this month.
 

A sneak peek showing a glorious variety of flowering 

branches form my photo`shoot last spring! Don't you love the color of these flowers on this green table?

Kids Crafts- Make a Marshmallow Bunny

When my kids were young I designed many holiday craft projects for Parents magazine.  As a Mom, I  loved designing children's projects, since it involved my children. They were always willing guinea pigs!

Favorite projects were often ones that involved food, like this marshmallow bunny. If your children are old enough to pierce candies with toothpicks, this is a fun project to make with them.

Marshmellow Bunny 

Gather:
Large Marshmallows
Small pastel colored marshmallows
Smallest size cupcake  or muffin paper


Fruit by the foot, unroll and cut with small scissors to make buttons and boys bow tie
Small cookie and cake decorations can be used as decorations too!

Toothpicks

Use small tubes of white cake icing  to adhere candy dots like glue!

Assemble body parts with toothpicks (the toothpicks push through the paper, too!)

Have bowls on hand with a variety of other candies like gumdrops and jelly beans. Kids are great at coming up with all kinds of ingenious creations.

Enjoy the fun!

Replace your Spring Wreath with a unique Basket Idea

Beckon Spring to your doorstep:
Assemble this "Homage-To-Nature Basket'!

 Several years ago, and in celebration of the eagerly awaited spring season, I designed   this bushel basket door project for the Good Housekeeping's Easter feature. I was so excited about creating this design as I had never seen this done before. And, its so simple! It opens up so many possibilites for creating your own natural display.  Add any natural elements you find in the store or in your garden! Plan ahead,... The  basic basket is easy to order online!

Read below to see how you can jump in and make one too. It may look challenging, but the happy surprise is… it's not! Planning a shopping trip to collect the materials will be your only challenge, and that is the fun part.

All photos by Michael Partenio

                 Enter Spring!                 

Materials Needed:
-    (1) 15" wide 'big squat round bottom basket' from Crate & Basket:
         http://www.crateandbasket.com/big-squat_1017_p.aspx
        Phone: 1-800 223 7823 

-      (1) Bag of Green Moss (Spanish moss)
-      Small 6” Birds Nest
-      Faux Eggs
-      Small Bird
-      Pussy Willow Branches

-       Glue gun

5 Easy Steps:

1- So you can hang your basket to your front door, use your glue gun to attach a wire to the top of the    back side of the basket.
2- To create your diorama, glue layers of moss starting in the bottom of basket, filling the basket from front to back.  Build moss up slightly higher on left-hand side. 

3- Glue bird’s nest to moss on left-hand side and on top of the moss (see picture below).  Hint:  Cut a piece of cardboard from any household box and use to help adhere the underside of the bird’s nest to the back of the basket for additional support.

4- Add small branches of pussy-willow along with a small branch you can break off from a tree limb.
5- Attach the bird.

OK, get going! You can do this, and make it your own!  Hang it on the front door, inside the house or even over the fireplace mantle!!

By, the way, the pansies are fresh picked from the garden and will stay fresh for a few days , believe it or not, with a light mist of water daily on the moss!

Lets Celebrate!   Spring is almost here.

A Spring Wreath for Woman's Day Magazine

Making Wreaths

During my career as a crafter, I've designed and published hundreds of wreaths, but none quite as unusual as the paper cupcake liner wreath I designed for the March 2013 Issue of Woman's Day Magazine.

Last October  I received a call from my good friend and Deputy Editor of Woman's Day magazine, Sara Lyle. She asked that I redesign 2 wreaths for the Woman's Day spring issue that she discovered on the web which were designed by 2 talented bloggers.  Sara also asked that I design a third wreath.

My Assignment: 
1- Design a wreath which is different in style from the 2 they had already chosen.
2- Make it easy to create.
3- Materials should be inexpensive.

After sending 5 sketches to Sara at Woman's Day the editors chose  the easy-to-make paper cupcake liner wreath you see above.

 Here are the quick and easy 'how-to' instructions:

Choose approximately 500 cupcake liners in colors of your choice.

Fold each individual paper liner in half and then into thirds, ruffling the folds.

Use floral greening pins to attach the folded paper liners to the wreath. Pin each close together to create the ruffled appearance covering a 17" Styrofoam wreath.

Happy Crafting

Look for the new March Issue of Woman's Day magazine to see the entire feature and other wreath projects designed by crafters Trenna Travis and James Farmer.  Thank you, Sara Lyle, for another great opportunity to work with you!

Before & After - Create This Hip look With Painted Windsor Chairs

Looking for a fresh look?

Color can be a major game-changer for your home.

The photos below may appear familiar to you for they first appeared in the February issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.  I produced and styled this feature along with Connecticut interior designer, Ann Rae. Ann applies color in unique ways.  The blue color she used on her home's front door is an inviting and fun eye-catching element which suggests the extraordinary use of color to be found once inside her home!

Interior Designer Ann Rae in front of her home in Connecticut.

It was the door color above that inspired us to do something really fun to spice up Ann's kitchen. Although we loved Ann's kitchen before the shoot, the room lacked the color that Ann had used so creatively throughout her home.  Inspired by Ann's color sense, we decided to rev up the color in the kitchen by bringing in new chairs for her fabulous table.

Style Idea: Add Painted Chairs
First, we went to the Warren, Rhode Island based O&G Studio to purchase their fabulous and colorful Fox Point Windsor Chairs in this vibrant finish (below). Unfortunately, the chair wasn't available for our shoot.  http://www.oandgstudio.com

Solution: Let's Make The Chairs Ourselves
I shopped for 4 mismatched Windsor style chairs and found them at thrift, consignment and junk shops. The day before the photo-shoot my assistant, Monica and I went to work in Ann's garage to paint the chairs.

Before...

... and After!

I love the idea of mismatched chairs at a table.  We added two of Ann's antique wooden Windsors into the mix. The strong blue color of her chairs are the unifying factor which makes it all work. Ann added the rug which visually anchors the table to the floor.

Day-To-Day Styling 

I found the blue vase (above) at a local shop and then added a floral arrangement which we made from Ann's garden.

Styling tip
Create a strong and colorful focal-point by adding a unique element such as the vase seen in the photo above. Change the appearance weekly with a different variety of fresh flowers.

It's Amazing What A Fresh Coat Of Paint Can do!

Winter Log Centerpiece

Have The Winter Blues? Get Flowers! Part 2

A dding to last weeks post I decided I had to share another floral project that I created for the Good Housekeeping magazine feature.

With spring approaching crocuses, tulips and grape hyacinths making their debut not only in the garden but even sooner in small pots in supermarkets and garden centers.

So here's an idea for creating a small garden centerpiece using these tiny gems of spring.

PERECT FOR A PARTY!   This is the kind of project that needs some planning ahead, but it's not complicated. If your having a party, it would be worth scheduling some time to make this as your centerpiece. 

This is important! You need to be handy and very careful with a drill to make the holes on top for this project.  If you're not, Even easier, take the log to your local lumber yard or a carpenter and pay a pro to drill the holes for you!  It will take them no time at all.

How to make this centerpiece! 

Materials

A birch log, a size that will fit comfortably on a table. 

A drill aand a 1/2 inch drill bit 

1 block of wet floral foam

Pots of Hyacinths, crocus and tulips to cut flower heads, (available in supermarkets 

in February).  The key to this arrangment is picking these flowers that have thin stems that will fit in the drilled holes.

Prepare log 

Lay log where it naturally will sit with out rolling. 

Holding log firmly, drill 1/2" wide holes, 1" deep.  I drilled the holes 

( well my husband did!)  in an alternating pattern to give the design some depth.

A few hours before the party, soak the floral foam in water, then fill each hole with a small plug of wet floral foam you cut with a small sharp knife. Cut your flowers with short stems ( 2-3") and push the ends into the plugs of foam.

Add  small amount of water each morning to holes to keep flowers refreshed. Voila, a centerpiece everyone will be charmed by!