Here we are again...

I have had a couple of fun projects going on and tried some new things. I have pretty much finished up the Madonna painting. She is set in her shadow box. I am still undecided what to put in front of her, but the shells look nice for now. One of the new things I tried is the finish on the outside of the shadow box. The box was already black, which was a plus for this technique. I saw this on U Tube. I painted white glue fairly thickly and let it tack up for a few minutes, then painted white paint on top of the glue. You kind of float the paint. You don't want to disturb the glue. As it dries you get the wonderful crackle finish, but when you touch it, it is all smooth and won't peel.

I like this next photo. It is at kind of a weird angle. I had a hard time getting a good picture because of the gold and silver leaf, and the clear finish I sealed the painting with want to glare. I am going to have to play with it.

See the rose in the shell? It was one I had hanging to dry and it had dried to a dark blackish red. I poured glue all over it...slathered it, my new favorite word. I slathered it with glue and let it dry for a couple of days and to my surpries, as the glue dried the color lightened back up. I had done this years ago with some roses from a loved one's funeral and they lasted for years and years. The petals get an elastic rubbery feel to them. Here are a few more...The white spots are where the glue is not dry yet. They take a couple of days after a good slathering.

So, here she is framed and ready. I will have to decide what should sit on her alter and get her listed soon, but for now she is keeping me company. I had hoped to capture the compassionate look of the statue of Mary that I knew as a little girl, but she seems very sad to me, beseeching....

As is usually the case, the photo does not do her justice. I will have to get better pictures to list her. Her halo is gold leaf and really pretty. Her dress is pearlescent...

Here is the other fun thing I have been working on. I saw a couple of tutorials on U Tube by a gal named Jenniebelle on making art journals out of greeting cards and decided to try my hand at it. I like them a lot and hope to make one for each of my grandgirlies and their mom before long. They come out pretty fun. Some of the pages are blank because the cards were. Some I painted with the left over paint from the Madonna and some I will cover with papers and pictures. Some I will draw on, some I will paint, and some I will leave just like the are because the cards were nice to begin with...

That's about eough fun for now. I am all caught up to date. I have to spend sometime now getting photos taken and listings written for my etsy store so I won't be doing much new for a couple of weeks, but I will catch up when I have something new to share. Until then... ta ta.