How to Fix a Torn Stencil

Although you try to gently clean your stencils, sometimes you will get a tear.  This is easy to fix.

Take a small piece of scotch tape and lay over the tear.

Flip the stencil over and lay a 2nd piece of scotch tape over the first.

With an exacto knife, cut along the edge of the stencil removing excess tape.

Your stencil is now repaired.

Preparing an Unfinished Wood Piece for Painting

Although you’re excited to get to the painting part of a project, preparation before painting is very important. There’s nothing worse than finishing a project and seeing unfilled nail holes.

Supplies

Wood filler – A good filler is DryDex Spackling by DAP available in hardware stores. It goes on pink and when it turns white you are ready to sand.

All-Purpose Sealer –  Delta Ceramcoat All-Purpose Sealer, Decoart Wood Sealer and J.W. Etc. First Step All Purpose Wood Sealer are all fast drying and available in craft stores.

Sandpaper – medium grit (#80), fine grit (#120) Sandpaper numbers range from low for rough to high for fine.

Tack cloth- found near the sandpaper, tack cloth is a sticky cheesecloth. Different manufacturers use different products to make it tacky.

1.) For a new piece of unpainted wood, fill all nail holes and any other imperfections first with a wood filler. When the filler is dry sand with a medium grit sandpaper.

2.) Next, brush on a coat of all-purpose sealer. This will raise the grain and allow you to sand for a smooth piece. Sealer also allows the paint to adhere better.

3.) When the sealer is dry, sand your project with a medium grit sand paper. Go over it a second time with a fine (120) grit sandpaper. Use a tack cloth to remove all dust.

You are ready to begin painting!

Distressing Part 1

Distressing provide a wonderful old look to a new piece. Distressing gives an ordinary piece character and history. As you’re distressing think of the way your piece might get banged around or banged into if it had been around for a hundred years.

The tools are common ones you may have around the house, if not, they are inexpensive to purchase at your local hardware store. The ones I use most often are from left to right – a cross peen hammer, an awl, a wood chisel and a rasp. As you can see, I use them a lot.

For this project I used an inexpensive pine frame.

I begin with the wood chisel and gently scrape some of the hard edges from the frame.

Next use the wood rasp to make uneven scratches.

Use the back end of the cross peen hammer to make gouges.

Tap the awl with the hammer to make wormwood holes. Make groups of five or six holes.

Sand your project to remove any rough edges made by the chisel and rasp. Then you can paint or stain.

Gilding with Gold Leaf

Easy and fun! This is a great technique for a many projects especially those yard sale finds. Gilding means a coating of gold or something that looks like gold.  Metal leaf comes in many colors and is readily available at craft stores. An especially beautiful leaf is variegated green leaf which looks like an explosion. Leaf is wonderful on carved or raised pieces.

There are several types of metal leaf. The easiest to use is transfer metal leaf.  This can be cut into shapes and applied. Leaf also comes in sheets or as flakes.  Here we are using regular metal leaf, not the transfer. Regular metal leaf is very thin and light and tears very easily. Sheets are sold in packages with tissue paper between each sheet.

Metal leaf can be applied to glass, wood, metal, resin. Because the leaf is so thin preparation of your piece is very important. Brush marks, pits in your surface, even stray brush hairs will show through the leaf.

The gold leaf we are using is not 100% gold. Only the copper is 100% copper. Metal leaf is a micro-thin sheet of metallic composition metal. If you are looking for pure gold or silver visit gildedplanet.com.

Metal Leaf Frame

For this project we are using Mona Lisa Products. Work on a piece of cardboard or wax paper so that you can gather up the loose pieces. Once the leaf is on your project it cannot be lifted up.  Keep a small jar to store small pieces and flakes of leaf for another project.

Supplies

Inexpensive wooden frame (for this project I used a frame with a heavy grain, it gives a striping look to the finished project)

Craft sealer

Sandpaper

Acrylic craft paint – dark red, brown, dark green, dark blue, black, terra cotta.

Metal leaf adhesive size – For the leaf to stick to your piece a “size” is used. This is very thin glue that dries to a tacky consistency and allows the leaf to stick.

Green Leaf

Gold Leaf

Copper Leaf

Variegated flakes

Gold flakes

Soft paintbrush (I use an old mop brush)

Old paintbrush to apply size

1.) To begin, prepare your frame by brushing on a thin coat of sealer.  This will raise the grain of the wood.  Sand lightly to remove the raised grain.

2.) Basecoat the frame with acrylic paint.  Brush on a thin coat of paint, let dry and repeat.  Thinner coats will reduce the chance of brush marks on your frame. Remember to get the inside edge of the frame.

3.)Shake the size well. We are going to start in the upper left corner and the middle right side. Brush on the size. It will be a watery milky color. The directions say it will dry in 1 hour but I have found it dries MUCH quicker.  I begin to apply the leaf after 10 minutes. With a sheet of variegated green, gently lay (almost float) it on the sized area.  Begin to pat with a soft brush, don’t forget the inner and outer edges. Use your fingers to rub in securely.

4.) Pick up the leaf leftovers from your work surface, pile on to the middle right side that has been sized and tap with the brush to secure. If you don’t have enough leftovers, you can fill in later with other leaf. Clean your soft paintbrush when switching colors by swirling it on a soft cloth.

5.) Continue by applying the gold leaf, copper leaf and variegated flakes around the rest of the frame doing one or two sections at a time.

6.) When you are finished you may have some missed spots. You can leave them and let the basecoat show through or you can add more size and fill in with the appropriate color.

7.) Seal with a craft varnish or Mona Lisa Metal Leaf Sealer.

Leaf is like glitter, you’ll find small specks on things long after you think you’ve cleaned it all up.

A good book for learning more about gilding is Decorative Gilding: A Practical Guide by Annie Sloan

Baklava Tutorial

I did this recipe for a class I’m taking on ancient Greek history. I love baklava! Don’t be intimidated by the phyllo dough. It can be a little daunting to work with but it’s worth it.

Baklava
1 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tablespoon orange rind
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 package phyllo dough
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1.) Grate the orange rind, out skin only.
2.) Bring the honey, sugar, water, orange rind and cinnamon sticks to a boil. Let cool. Reserve 1/2 cup for the final topping.

3.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4.) Fit a piece of parchment paper to your pan, grease with crisco.
5.) Remove the phyllo dough from the package and keep under a wet towel. Phyllo dough are thin sheets that break very easily. They can be very frustrating to work with. They don’t have to be perfect.

6.) Place a sheet of phyllo dough on the tray, brush with butter, add another sheet of phyllo dough, brush with butter, add another piece of phyllo dough, brush with butter. Brush liberally with the honey mixture. Sprinkle with nuts.
7.) Repeat these steps until you use all the phyllo dough. The top layer will have butter only. Cut through all layers on the diagonal, then on the diagonal the other way to make diamonds.

8.) Bake for approimately 3o minutes. I have a convection oven and it took 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them. Remove from oven, recut your diamonds. Pour the remaining honey mixture on top. Enjoy!!

Elaine

Elaine’s senior picture.

This morning October 16, we woke up to snow. SNOW!! In October!!

Floorcloth Class September 30

This is the floorcloth we will be doing on September 30 at Arlington High.

Lilac Bathroom

Prior to renovation the downstairs bathroom before was very small, just a tiny sink
and a toilet (note the bowl under the sink, the awful paneling,
the harvest gold flooring and how about that wreath!).

After some construction – a tub and shower, a new toilet and
pedestal sink were added.
I lost some of the adjacent area which is the kitchen
but now I love going in there every morning!
It’s bright and cheery!

I hand painted vines and lilacs.

I need to paint the air vent the color of the walls (oops!)
The mirror is a mosaic I made from a wooden plate and a circular mirror.
I added tiles, stones, seashells and grey grout.

Can you believe that’s where the toilet used to be!

I learned to do molding and baseboard by trial and error.
See the picture above of the window trim, not bad!!.

I wish I could claim to have done the tile but I found a great guy who was
unbelievably inexpensive AND a perfectionist!!!
The odd shadows on the walls are from the
crystal light fixture I found at a thrift store.

A Book from my editor, Tina Skinner

This book was done by my editor, Tina Skinner. Tina is a wonderful person who has helped me with all my book writing needs. Follow this link and enter to win a free book!

Fun Felt Crafts by Tina Skinner Book Review and Giveaway

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Summerfun Day 5

Day 5 was painting day. This was also a big hit! We used acrylics instead of the usual kid paints. We painted large paper mache boxes. The creativity was wonderful!

One of my students was a young Japanese guy – an 8th grader. He didn’t speak English and stayed to himself. He was very creative, made wonderful projects. One of them was this box. He used a Pointillism technique which of course got me thinking about projects for next year.