Some Wine, a Bride and a Lighthouse

I worked on some stuff for my winning followers last night, but took a minute (actually 2 hours) today to do some little paintings.  I love miniature paintings, and I wish I had started making them earlier in my career.  They are so much fun, and I am really an "instant gratification" type of person-so being able to knock out a painting in less than an hour, makes me very happy.  =)  When I do large paintings and commissioned work, I have a tendancy to work for hours and hours and hours, without stopping for food, drink or bathroom breaks.  It's kind of ridiculous!  But I just get so eager to see the end result, that I forget about all the things I need for my body....  That wasn't the case today!  I would work on a painting, finish it and then take care of something I needed or hang with the kids.  And then it was back to the grindstone to do another.  So here is what was cranked out today:  an abstract, an word painting, a bride, some wine bottles and a lighthouse.  =)

1 1/4"x 1 1/2"

2" X  2"

1 3/4"  X  1 1/2"

1 1/2"  X  2"

1 1/2"  X  2"

They still need to be framed and then will go up on etsy.  Unless, I am out of frames... then they will be mounted on a heavy cardboard and listed after that.  =)

Also, remember that you only have until tonight (11:59 EST) to enter my giveaway!  Go HERE for that.

Thank you for consistent support!

When it came to wanting to do a giveaway for reaching 200 followers, I really wanted it to be a reward for those that have been around for the last two years, reading my ups and downs; offering words of encouragement and advice; high praise; asking questions; and generally just talking to me.  Because of this, I spent the morning going through the past 563 comments.  I omitted the ones that are on giveaways completely, because you always get a spike of comments then, and really, most of them are from blogosphere buzzards.  Which I normally don't mind.  Everyone likes free stuff!  I just really wanted to reward those that have been around and are still around when the giving is done.  That left me with a heck of a lot of comments still.  So I typed them all into Wordpad, the names of the commentators, that is.  Then I printed them out and , cut them up and dumped them in a glass bowl thingy.

I didn't fold any of them up since some names were longer "rosamargarita" and some were considerably shorter  "ann."  They just got dumped in there.  Then I shook them up, with a hand covering the top of the jar.

 And enter my cutie patootey assistant!

Charlie loves doing these.  :)  I told him to pull out a name-which was really hard to do, get just A name, so on the third try, we just went with what came out.  The really great thing about having the 2 year old do it, is that he can't read and be biased about what names he pulls out.  :)

So, to that, the following 5 winners of my 200 followers giveaway are:

• Maria of Maria Ireland (Pretty things Ireland)
• Rosa of Rosamargarita (La Tapatia)
• Dale of dale's dreams
• Brae of Otterine
• Karin of Craftland

Thank you for being consistent in your support and love.  I really, really appreciate it.  :)

I will be sending you EACH a surprise gift to thank you personally, and each will be different, tailored to your personal style.  I hope you enjoy your coming gifts.  They should be sent out to you in the coming days, but I will give myself a two week deadline.  :)  Please, make sure that I have each of your addresses!  You can email me here or at my facebook page!

And remember that you still have today and tomorrow to enter my Christmas in July giveaway.  :)

Success!

I reached 200 followers today!  So a second drawing, for a surprise gift, will happen.  I am not sure if I will do it from the comments or if I will do it from the followers... but I will figure something out and draw a name.  :)

I am currently leaning towards compiling ALL the comments on ALL the posts up until now (that means no comments on this post or comments posted after this will be considered) into one large pool and drawing from that.

Thank you to everyone that has been following my blog for the last... 2? years.  Thank you to those of you that joined new.  I am looking forward to many more comments. posts and all the new friends there are to be made.  :)


And, so you aren't left without eye candy, here is something that is being included in my secret build!  Such a pain to make, but beautiful results!  :)

Additions to you mini Garden?

So I was playing around with scrap wood the other night in my craft room, and I realized I had all the pieces to build a planter and a potting bench.  So I put on some Pandora and got to work.  Here is what I came up with:

The planter measures roughly 1 3/4" cube.  I painted it Cool White by Americana and sealed it with Satin Varnish.  Then, I filled it with floral foam and some coffee ground dirt.  Voila!  A planter that is ready for your unplaced plant and flower kits.  :)  I think this would look swell in front of a cafe or on one of the large Victorian porches.

A container garden would be a great idea for this, too!

The potting bench really just started out as a table with a sink in it, and when I got stumped, I asked Brae what I should do.  She voted potting bench, and not really too much change in color.

So I finished painting the sink this really great silver that I have.  I think it's for models....but the label is pretty obscured, I just know that it ROCKS!

I love how the washes picked up the grain of the wood.

Then, I had to go back a step and drill a hole for the faucet!  Oops!  Thankfully, I didn't mess any of the paint up.

The bench itself got four washes of paint: Light Buttermilk, Honey Brown, Slate Grey and , my personal favorite, Bittersweet Chocolate-all by Americana.

This country faucet looks just perfect with this sink!

Then you throw in a few accessories and BAM!  A really gorgeous potting bench!

Uh-oh.  Watch out for bunnies!

Planting can be so messy!

Both items are currently listed for sale in my Etsy shop.

Remember, if you haven't signed up for my giveaway, you should!  Do it here.

Christmas in July Mean Freebies for YOU!

Hello joyful followers!  I see that a few more people have tagged along for the ride.  Welcome, welcome!  I hope you have been enjoying the few updates that I can share with you about the ____________ I am building.  :)  I am really dying to share with you, because frankly, I am rocking this build, but we will all have to be impatient for another 151 days.  Aaaargh!  Sounds awful doesn't it?  But, them is the rules.  The mighty rulers over at HBS say I can't share it publicly or it's off with me head I'll get disqualified.  And seeing that I really really want that prize, my posting will be limited.

So, to appease the masses for the time being, I thought I would hold a GIVEAWAY!!!  It's been a while since I had one, and as soon as I get 200 followers, I will have another!  Yes.  I know I am only 10 or so from that.  Yes, I know that chances are, I will get more followers with this fun little party.  If that happens, I will draw two names and the second person will get something totally awesome, of the surprise variety that is.  Hooray!

Enter anytime from today until 11:59 (EST) on July 31st.  I will do the drawing on August 1st in the morning.

All you have to is:
                   *Be a follower of my blog.  :)
                   *Leave a comment below on this post.  Extra points if you comment on other things and are just not here to hoard goodies.  ;)
                   *Link up in your blog's sidebar.

Get an extra chance to be entered by liking my face book page and the link to this post.  Must like both!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lyssa-Wyn-Creations-Art-and-Face-Painting/177924772264250

So the lucky first drawn winner will get everything in the pictures above: Two books, a white woven basket with floral base, a small towel, a maple leaf punch, a bottle of wine, wine themed subway art and a small potted geranium.

Lucky second winner will be informed of what they are getting at the time of the drawing!

Good luck!

A Birch Tree with Leaves!

The birch tree finally got some leaves last week.  I used the method that was on the DVD I was following, which requires you to spread watery Elmer's glue across the steel wool base of the foliage....  then you sprinkle on the "leaves" and knock off the extra.  This is what I got:

Rather thing for a full summer tree, don't you think?

So I was sad and thought that I had done something wrong.  It just didn't look right.  I wallowed for a minute and then emailed Brae.  She said the magic words.  Spray.  Adhesive.

So I used the spray adhesive (the craft kind that Elmer's sells) and redid the process.  This was a very messy process, so there are no "during" shots.  Sorry!!!  Here is the tree in it's finished state:

Much fuller!!!

And the realism check?  How do the branches and leaves look from underneath?  I think, fabulous!

A quick share!

Hi! I hope everyone had a really splendid 4th of July.  :)  My kids had a blast lighting fireworks and throwing poppers. I had the obligatory heart attack when Charlie waved a sparkler so hard that the actual firework flew CLEAN OFF the stick that you hold onto.  Ugh.  Nobody got hurt though, and through out the night there was lots of laughter, cheering and clapping.  Memories were made. They loved the little frilly fountains just as much as the big boomers.  :)

Cayce with a sparkler

we got some good firework pics

Charlie holding a sparkler!  with grandmas help after he flung one like a lunatic!!!

I started to put foliage on the tree today, but after some talk with Brae, I need to go get some spray adhesive and then shred some more foam.  Here is where we sit so far though:

In Diane's tutorial, she instructs you to use steel wool as the base.

Then, there was some work on the ____________, which I cannot show you.  :P  And I did these:

The island of Santorini, Greece.

They will be listed in my Etsy shop tomorrow.  Along with the books that I have yet to list.  :)

Tree, Part 3 = A paint job.

When I was doing research for my trees that would be around ____ ______ _______, I settled on 3 trees to put on the "property."  A paper birch, a black cherry and an american elm.  All big, green and beautiful.  They will fit the feel quite well.  When I do the unveiling in 5.5 months, I will explain to you why I chose these three trees.

A paper birch is very smooth in spots and very "peely" in others.  Since I am not skilled with the water putty yet, and wasn't sure if I could "shave" a "peel" off of it, I instead took the easy route.  I used little peels of paper and glued them on in no certain fashion, except, horizontally of course.  And under where each peel would have come from, I carved a little notch.

See the little pieces of paper?

And the painting process begins for the paper birch!  After I shaved off all the excess and was certain the tree was dry, I painted the whole tree a combination of Light Buttermilk by Americana and Parchment by Folkart, with just a hint of Dark Chocolate by Americana.

Back to white the poor little tree goes... well, off white technically, but a lot more white than the putty is. 

Then, I mixed my own dirty grey color using the three above and some Lamp (mars) Black by Americana.  This was dry brushed all over the tree; a little heavier in the nooks and crannies where the branches, well, branch out.  :D  I also took care to get all the little peels, too.  Couldn't have them sticking out all stark white now.  (Here is where my skill runs away from Brae's... I didn't take pictures of this part at all...)

Next step was to go back to all the little notches from the peels and to wash them several times with the brown and black, creating depth and bare bark.

 Lastly, I made little dirty dashes all over the tree.  It's by no means perfect, and perhaps a little dark, but I think it looks awesome!  Especially for my first tree.  :)

And here, is my little tree out on my back porch with all the big water oaks.  :)