Spring & Summer Festivals

 This past weekend the Craft Guild Shop had a Porch Party to celebrate 35 years in business. That might not sound like much to some but for a craft co-op that is a big milestone. The artists and crafters of the Guild have been through bad economic times , moved from one location to another more then once, lost members to cancer and other health issues and have had to deal with flood waters on more then one occasion. With each trial they have regrouped, worked hard and managed to get bigger and better. 

So back to the porch party, we asked other crafters to join us to celebrate. We had people with beautiful jewelry, floral designs, photography and my friend Michelle Sholund from By The Bay Bontanicals brought her candles down from Reisterstown MD.  You can find out more about her palm wax candles @ her web site http://www.bythebaybotanicals.com  

                                                                                                                                                              Also my friend Hans brought out a couple of wood lathes and people made pens. It was interesting to see what two blank pieces of wood turned into,  literally...LOL. Here's one that I made... Hans is a good teacher cause I could have never done this on my own. 

Ardith Young http://ardyscreations.com did a stained glass class and her students did some cute sail boat sun catchers. I think everyone had a good time Saturday. Sunday we had a reception and cake cutting to mark the 35th anniversary. And some of the long time members and some that have contributed extra to the Guild received plaques that were handcrafted by Hans. I received one for my work on the web site http://www.craftguildshop.com and Facebook page. 

 Chuck and Betty Harless who started all of this 35 years ago were on hand to cut the cake, it was nice to see them again after so many years. 

Now with all this said it's time to work hard and get ready for the St. Mary's Crab Festival coming up June 9th. 

I have a Strawberry Festival coming up next http://www.christepiscopalchaptico.org/strawberry.html

I'm looking forward to some good fresh strawberries.

If you have some time on the weekends check out the craft shows and festivals in your area. You'll find some interesting things to do and meet some awesome people. 

Well it's back to the paint and brushes to get more things painted for these shows.

Enjoy your day and Happy Painting.   

               

Time to paint for Spring...

Spring is in the air. Now that we are back to daylight savings time and our evenings are light longer it's time to get excited about spring. Trees are budding all over the place and flowers are in bloom, things are coming back to life, Yipeeee.

If you are thinking about painting something for the spring season how about painting something for the yard or your porch to welcome friends and family when they show up. I'm painting a new house number sign for my yard. Here it is in the works, it's a leaf design that will go from spring , summer, fall and winter. You can find this design in a series of last years Paint Works magazines.
I'll post this again when it's finished. 

 Everyone should have their house numbers displayed it's important to have them  displayed clearly visible from the street. Numbers placed where they are easily spotted by fire, police and ambulance personnel may save lives.

My advise if your painting anything to put outside is to make sure you seal the wood with a few good coats of sealer before you start painting your design. Then once you have finished the design the most important part is sealing the piece again with several coats of a good weather proof varnish. When buying varnish look for one that doesn't yellow, that's very important, the last thing you want is to have all your work turn yellow with time. It's not that easy to find in the stores, at least not in my area. I use J.W.etc. Right Step water base Clear Varnish.

Here are some picture of an orders I've done done for customers...

This one I have painted the monogram and I used vinyl for The Marshall Family.  

If you would like to have a sign for your yard you can contact me here or through my web site www.joycespaintnplace.weebly.com   just leave a message in the comment box there.
Until next time happy painting.

Something Different

As I have mentioned before I'm a member of the Craft Guild Shop of St. Mary's.
There are several artists in the guild that paint using one medium or another. But one thing I found unique is something called Intarsia. It's putting together a design with the use of different types and colors of wood. My friend Hans makes these detailed pieces with small pieces of different types of wood that all come together to make something so beautiful and different. Who says you have to use paint to paint a picture.

He also cuts these designs and puts together these wooden plaques that I really like. He does one for every branch of the military.

We have lots of talent in the Craft Guild Shop, go to our web site and check out what the others are using their talents to make. www.craftguildshop.com
We are working on opening and online store hopefully that will be up and running
in the next month or so.

A Fresh Start

Here we are at the start of a new year.
The Christmas season went by way to fast but that's how it is when paint right up to the last minute. My ornaments sold very well, it's so nice to know that people like your work and want to display it in their homes. But with Christmas behind me now is the time to clean my studio and get ready to paint for the spring and summer season. I've emptied out the closet and all the drawers in here and gone through everything to organize it. It's amazing the things you'll find when you do that, surfaces you forgot you bought last winter and all the odds and ends I use for different projects. I go through all my bottles of paint to make sure I have a full stock of what I'll need when I get back to painting. There are those few go to colors that I seem to use on almost every project I paint, sometimes I get into a rut have to make myself step out of my comfort zone and dust off a few colors and incorporate them into a design.
I have a color mix chart now and that comes in very handy because it never fails you'll start to work on a design and sure enough you'll be out of a color of maybe not have it at all, that color mixing chart has saved me from making a run to the store more then once and where I live there is no craft store down on the corner.

One thing I'm working on is making my own color chart. I have some old business cards that I'm not using anymore so I'm painting the colors on the cards, I use the color straight from the bottle then I mix the color just as I would use it to highlight and paint that on one end of the the card the other end I use what I would normally shade that color with. Once the paint is dry I write the color name and highlight and shade color on the back of the card. You can store these cards in the clear baseball card protectors and keep them in a folder or you can use a hole punch and put them on a ring to keep on your work table and another thing if you have to mix a certain color for something, paint that on a card and write what you used on the back so you can refer back to it at a later date. This sounds like a lot of work but it goes pretty quick and comes in very handy if you are painting with a friend and they want to know what you mixed to get the color.
I'm finding it get harder to remember what I've mixed after a few months. You can even make a note of the project you used the color for. It's kinda like painting post-it- notes...LOL and believe me I need all the help I can get when it's time to remember something. During these dreary winter days get out some colors and brighten things up for a while, color is good for the soul.

I'm also working on the web site for the Craft Guild Shop it's starting to come together, only a few more things to do and we'll have a online store.
Check us out on Facebook don't forget to "Like" us. Or you can go to our site to meet the members and see what they make, www.craftguildshop.com .

 Happy painting.

Tis the Season

If you have been following my blog the last few years you know that Christmas time is my favorite time to paint, and painting has filled every day the last few months.
I've painted so much that it seems life has passed by in a blur. Some times you have to take a break and go out and reconnect with the rest of the world. So last night all of the members of the Craft Guild Shop got together for their annual Christmas diner.There was lots of good food and conversation. The shop looks so nice with all the lights and decorated trees filled with ornaments that several of us make, all though the trees are not as full of ornaments as they were and that's a good thing, that means people are buying them.
On my way home I took the time to check out all the homes decorated with the beautiful lights of the season, here's what the house at the end of my street looks like...

 So my point is don't let the best season of the year pass you by without taking some time for yourself and enjoying all the beautiful sites around your neighborhood.
Now back to my painting projects, my buddy Hans is a wood worker and he always has some small leftover pieces of wood so now I'm using his scraps that he cuts for me to make word blocks. They have been fun to play with here's one of many sets for the winter season....

                                    

 This year folks are watching every penny trying to make ends meet and there might not be as much money for Christmas shopping so why not paint something to give to some on your gift list. Get out your brushes and see what you have laying around the house that you can paint up cute as can be. It doesn't mater if you paint ,sew, scrapbook whatever your passion is use it to make your gifts this year. 

Until next time happy painting.

My Web Site ~ www.joycespaintnplace.weebly.com

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, I hope that you had a wonderful holiday and have many blessings to count. It's been a beautiful weekend sunny and warm, usually by the time Thanksgiving rolls around the temps have dropped and it's cold, but this time it's been sunny and warm most of the weekend. 
Friday evening there was the annual Tree Lighting on the Square in Leonardtown, Md., 

The Craft Guild Shop participated in this event, they had a table set up and over 500 kids stopped by during the evening to make Christmas ornaments, everyone had a good time.
We have decorated the shop for Christmas we have trees up and lights are sparkling all over the shop. I love the lights of the season.


Here's my new ornament for this year...


























The background is a very dark green with just a simple pretty poinsettia.
I've been painting lots of ornaments to sell this year. I sold several at the craft show last weekend, so I've been restocking the shop and I've added some to my new web site. Yes, I have a web site now... www.joycespaintnplace.weebly.com
as I'm getting ornaments restocked I'm adding them on the site for sale, stop by and check them out.
Well now that Thanksgiving is over it's time to plan for the most special season of all Christmas, time to get out those brushes and paint something for a gift or to decorate your home.
Until next time happy painting.

Halloween

It feels more like Thanksgiving then Halloween with snow over parts of the country but that's how Mother Nature has decided to celebrate this season. I sure hope this isn't a preview of what winter has in store for us. Thankfully we didn't get anything but rain in Southern Maryland.
I've been busy painting away on ornaments and lately I've been doing small signs with cute saying like "Never underestimate the power of a hissie fit" And " I'm sick of reality I want a fairy Godmother" These are some of the things that I'll be selling at the Craft Guild Shop and at my next craft show. I did a show a few weeks ago at the fairgrounds with the Guild, we participated  in the Oyster Festival. We had a nice crowd turn out and people were in the mood to shop.
Also I'm selling my ornaments at a local gift shop Lola Belle Co. it's a pretty little shop that's all decorated for Christmas and ready to kick off the holiday season. We hope that everyone will come out to the local shops and support the artisans in your communities.
The Craft Guild shop has a new glass studio now, glass artists Ardith Young has set up a work space and is working at the shop three days a week.
I've been working to put together a new web site for the Guild and there you will be able to meet the artists as I'm going to do a small showcase piece on the site for each member. Check out the new site http://craftguildshop.weebly.com .

 

I'm also painting ice skates again here's a picture of one I just finished. I decided make them as door hangers this time. In the past I've mounted them on a base to set on a table top but I thought this would be a nice change from the normal Christmas wreath. The Christmas season is fast approaching and I hope your painting for the season. Until next time have a safe and Happy Halloween and keep those paint brushes moving.