Painting Completed

It's done. I least I think it's done, or else I've taken it as far as I am able at this point. Here are two shots (different lighting) of the completed (?) painting of my Alexandrine parrot, Gonzo the Great. Thank you, Susan Christiansen, for your terrific art lessons. :)

Work in Progress

As mentioned in my last post, I have been taking art lessons from Susan Christiansen at our local Michael's store. I have been doing a painting of my (deceased) Alexandrine parrot, Gonzo the Great. The first step was to transfer the outline of a blow-up photo to my canvas. Step 2 was a tonal (shades in neutral) painting, which I published in my last post and also here. Step 3 was to start adding color. These photos will show you my progress, as I near completion.

Tonal Painting

White highlights and starting the feathers

Feathers completed

Eye, Cere & Upper Mandible (beak)

Thanks for stopping by. I will post the finished painting as soon as I can get a good photo of it.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

Long Overdue Post

It's been like forever since I last posted. I thought it was about time I let my followers know what I have been up to lately.

My family are very happy with all the healthy & delicious improvements in my food preparations skills. Today I cooked 3 whole chickens in my oven roasting pan. For supper we had some of the chicken, organic carrots, mashed potatoes with parsley & chives, and a salad with fresh raspberries & homemade raspberry dressing.

Once the chicken cooled enough to be handled, I tore apart the meat to use for future meals and started a big pot of chicken stock, using the bones, stock from the roasted chickens, chicken giblets, turnip, onions & garlic. (First I added an acid to draw the calcium from the bones.) I brought everything to a boil, skimming off the scum that rose to the surface. Then I moved the big pot (hubby helped with this part) to the back of my stove and put it to simmer.

My home will smell delicious for the next 2-3 days while the stock simmers. I will stir it occasionally throughout that time. During the last hour of cooking, I will add sea salt, pepper, bay leaf and maybe some tarragon. Once it cools a bit I will strain the broth into another stock pot and pop it into the freezer so the fat will thicken & rise to the top and I can skim it off. By the point the broth is finished simmering, the bones will be so soft I will be able to crush them between my fingers. I'll pick out anything I don't want (like the bay leaves) and dump everything else into my food processor to make a soft food for my dog.

To store the broth, I fill Mason jars to about an inch below the shoulder of the jars and freeze them with the lids off. Once the liquid is completely frozen I put the lids on and I've not had the jars break on me by freezing them that way.

Homemade broth is one of the healthiest foods you can eat and it can be used in many recipes as well. I learned how to make the best broth from my studies at GNOWFGLINS.


On another topic, my family recently bought me a few art classes at Michael's. I have been learning how to make a painting of a photograph. The first step is to transfer the image to the canvas. The next step is to make a tonal painting, kind of like a B&W. That is what I have done so far.

THE PHOTO

MY TONAL PAINTING

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying your spring and not in line with the terrible tornadoes that have been pummeling Oklahoma.

Blessing hugs,
Teresa

He is Risen!

It has been quite a while since my last post. I made some Easter cards during the last week, but didn't have time to photograph them, so I made sure to take some pics of my final batch to share with you. I would also like to share some sentiments (some new) with you, my loyal followers. But first the cards.....

Yesterday I was itching to try a new technique - wax paper resist. It's really easy. I found lots of tutorials on You Tube. My favorite was to use an embossing folder on the wax paper before transferring it to card stock. I like Gina K.'s suggestion of using two pieces of cardstock to get double duty out of the embossed wax paper and my iron. That poor old thing. I had to dust it off - literally - before I could use it. I don't even remember the last time I actually ironed anything.

First I dry embossed my wax paper using cuttlebug embossing folders. Next I transferred the design to card using my iron. I put a paper towel on top to prevent wax getting onto my iron. Then I sponged ink onto the cardstock to bring up the design. I masked 3 of the cards first so I would have a straight line of each color - peach and light sage.

I made my flowers from little tissue paper squares from the Dollar Store. I took a few layers each of orange and peach; then I rounded the corners, adding a little shape. I used only 2-3 layers of green, cutting points at each corner. I put everything together with a tiny brad and started separating the orange & peach layers, scrunching each layer to the center. I scrunched the orange (first) layer tightly and looser with the peach. I did this on a soft mouse pad and used an embossing tool. For the leaves, I dragged the embossing tool along the center of each 'leaf'.

The art pieces are vintage clip-art I found on the Internet. The "He is Risen" sentiment is by Digi Sparkle. All other sentiments are mine - Tickell Expressions.

  

I wasn't happy with this inside verse so I changed it. I think it is an improvement. I hope you will too. Here is the new sentiment for you in JPEG format. I am offering a color as well as a B&W version. It's probably too late for you to use it this year, but you can always file it away for next year.

My final card uses BoBunny papers, vintage clip art and another lovely sentiment from Digi Sparkle.

inside

Here is my spring sentment:

jpeg

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And here is a verse you might be able to use for those upcoming summer weddings or anniversaries:

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the sentiments. You don't have to link to my site when you use them, but it would be nice if you mentioned Tickell Expressions when you post.

A blessed Easter weekend to you all,