Painting Archives - Page 24 of 41 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

“Spin-spiration” Folk Art (A Tutorial)

July 11, 2011 by Ashley Hackshaw

Spin-spiration DIY Folk Art using a Lazy Susan via lilblueboo.com

When I first found a used lazy susan at the thrift store, I envisioned making it into a piece of “spin-able” art….but the first one was way to large and heavy to hang safely onto the wall (so it was turned into the wine-barrel lazy susan). I bought a slightly smaller 18″ lazy susan, and made this fun piece of Sticks-inspired art. On the Lil Blue Boo Facebook page I asked people to fill in the blank “I am____” and got some great words and phrases to use (Boo’s contribution was “Iron Man”):

The lazy susan was painted to be a fun piece of wall art that Boo can turn every day and pick her mood:

Today I will be……awesome.

This was a fairly simple project that took about 3 hours in total. The carving was easier than I thought it would be with my new rotary tool and accessory kit:

I also had my expert painter Boo as my helper. The key to painting with a 4-year-old is letting them paint freely and then just fix any large mistakes after the fact….when they aren’t looking.

Here’s how the art piece was made:

Photos 1, 2 & 3: I used a pencil to sketch my design out.
Photo 4: With a rotary tool, I started carving. I found that it is easiest to carve a faint line to serve as a guide and then carve deeper on your second pass.

Photos 5, 6 and 7: I carved all the designs out. They don’t have to be perfect…..I like slightly imperfect!
Photo 8: I used a block sander to clean up any rough edges.

Photos 11 & 12: I blocked in the main colors using basic acrylic craft paint. I like to paint “imperfectly” for character. I let Boo paint the black and white border.
Photo 13: After all the colors were blocked in, I let the piece dry.
Photo 14: I used gloss varnish…..

Photo 15: …..and painted a light coat over the whole piece to protect the colors from the glazing step.
Photo 16: I carved out excess paint from the designs.
Photo 17 & 18: I made a glaze of black liquid acrylic and added some water. I worked it into the designs, quickly wiping off the excess with a damp cloth.

The finished painted piece!

Using my Silhouette machine, I cut out the words “Today I will be” and applied the quote to the wall above where the lazy susan would hang:

Some heavy hanging hardware was used to attach the lazy susan to the wall:

Today I will be……on cloud 9.

A Mini Birdhouse Fairy Village (A Tutorial)

June 12, 2011 by Ashley Hackshaw

This total cost of this project was approximately $10…..not counting trinkets and paint I had on hand already. An inexpensive and endless possibility project for a large range of ages. We purchased the mini birdhouses from Michael’s craft store for $1 each!

Update: The little fairies are from Disney. There are several different sets you can get from Amazon, Target, Toys R Us or Disney.

Boo and I had so much fun this weekend turning these inexpensive mini birdhouses……

….into a realistic neighborhood for her tiny fairy dolls:

I couldn’t resist adding the tiniest of details like a “welcome” sign:

Potted plants:

Copper accents:

Vintage stamp bunting:

A clock made from old watch parts and a tiny twig ladder:

The first step was to cut open the birdhouse holes to make larger doors. I marked the opening with a pencil first:

I used a small electric saw but you could also use a hand saw. Don’t have a saw? This wood is so lightweight you could cut through it with a serrated knife as well with a little more work……or just ask a neighbor!

I carefully cut out my door opening:

…..and the bottom of the door opening will pop right out:

Use a file or sand paper to smooth the edges:

The new houses:

I spray painted the houses different colors:

For the mushroom house, I painted the base color of off white first and then cut small circles out of adhesive shelf paper to block a coat of red spray paint:

I had some small watch parts on hand from Silver Crow Creations and I used them to make a realistic clock:

Tiny letter stamps and part of a popsicle stick…..

Note: Micheal’s also has a ton of these tiny letter stamps in the dollar bin section! ($1 for 26 stamps….in many fonts!)

…..made a perfect sign for Tinkerbell’s new house:

Boo helped me glue some silk plant leaves to the roof of one of the buildings:

I used a hot glue gun to add some bark to another roof:

Copper adhesive tape (from the craft store) was added as an accent:

……as well as some copper hinges (from the scrapbook section of the craft store):

Some small twigs and a some hemp twine made perfect ladder:

Boo painted some small wooden pots (from the wood hobby section of the craft store):

…..and we filled them with silk flowers. I filled the bottom with hot glue to keep the flowers in place:

A few vintage stamps and an airmail envelope……

…..made some mini bunting:

Mr. LBB helped out by spray painting a plastic tub dark brown……

……and filling it with dirt, bark and plants. Our friends Walker and Amy sent us a beautiful pot of these mixed houseplants for my father’s memorial…..and they were the perfect little forest setting:

The fun part is you can add to it all summer long! Use an existing garden to make a huge fairy village. Michael’s has a bunch of intricate birdhouses of the same scale in their clearance section right now….pirate ships, temples etc. It would be a great project for so many different ages. You could tailor it to a boys liking too for lego people!

Tinkerbell in her new house:

Fawn in the town square:

Silvermist at the clock tower:

Hours of entertainment:

I love miniature. I could go on forever. Try to visualize what you would reuse around the house if you were “fairy” sized:

Make a mini pond with a jar lid.
Paint mini wood plates and milk bottles.
Add in thimbles for buckets and trash cans.
Pennies or broken tile bits for stepping stones.
A small stamp for artwork or a poster.
Popsicle sticks and toothpicks for signs.
Wine corks cut in half for stools.
Small beads and trinkets hung from plants for wind chimes.

Accidental Painting (A Tutorial)

May 9, 2011 by Ashley Hackshaw

Each and every time I finish one of these little hardboard nursery paintings I laugh a little at how “accidental” they are. I don’t plan them ahead of time…..and I never quite know how they will turn out until I’m about 80% done with them.

I took photos as I painted this recent painting to show my design process. I always start with just a basic light color. It’s easy to paint over and allows me to use the broadest range of colors.

I usually print out a few different mixed fonts and sizes of each name letter and cut them out so I can visualize the layout.

I start with the first and last letter and then fill the center letters in.

I kind of have a theme in my head….like flowers, or animals, or geometric shapes. For this particular painting I was trying to match some floral bedding so I started by sketching what I thought would be the largest objects in the painting: flowers.

Before I even have the rest of the painting planned I’ll start blocking in large areas of color:

I even start outlining letters and detail:

The first thing I noticed about this painting was the large empty space at the top. It needed something large and sweeping…..so I added a bee spelling out “sweet girl.”

To unify the painting, and add some cohesion between the flowers and letters, I added some large circles. I grabbed a few random objects in different sizes to trace:

I then blocked in the circles with colors that would balance the painting. If an orange flower is on one side of the painting, I try to pull some orange to the other side of the painting by painting one of the circles. Light blue circles balance the blue “S” and pink and yellow pull the other colors around the painting:

I then started to add some more detail in the painting using my black paint pen….like the dotted line pattern in the large circles:

Tiny white dot flowers were a good way to subtly fill in some of the background area:

More detail:

The letter “a” looked bare and a little too mustardy so I added some white polka dots. I added a few white polka dots throughout the background as well as some dark pink dot flowers. The last thing I added was a dotted line throughout the painting as if the bee had flown through almost every letter….an easy way to help unify the painting: