Fruit Watercolor Paintings

Lemons and figs are two of my favorite fruits - they look beautiful and taste good with many of my favorite dishes. I decided to sit and paint one day, and made a watercolor painting of each of these fruits.

Enjoy some delicious fruits this summer.
<3 Mandy

Woodsy Themed Decorations

For a retirement party at work, I was requested to help out with the decorations because of my love for crafting and "artist eyes". There was a woodsy theme for the retiree who loved the outdoors, so I helped to put some plants together, make "Reserved" signs, and make a corsage and boutonnière for the honoree and his wife.

After having a log cut in half lengthwise, someone helped to drill a little hole for a stick to make a standing table sign. I painted "Reserved" with little decorative leaves on the face of each log to make a sign to place on each of the two center tables.

back side, with stick stand

blank faces of the log halves

backs of the log halves

design drafted in pencil

completed signs

Using an assortment of white flowers, leaves, miniature duck figurines, small pinecones, feathers, and some floral tape and ribbon, I made a matching corsage and boutonnière for the honorees. I made a bouquet of flowers, leaves, and feathers and wrapped the stems in floral tape. I wove in some pinecones attached to thin wire, and filled in more flowers and leaves where the bundles looked empty. I wrapped the stems with thin hemp string, and tied a bow with some shimmery light brown ribbon.

completed bouquet with floral tape

completed bouquet with hemp string

wrapped in ribbon

comparison to inspiration I found online

attaching the flowers to the corsage bracelet

boutonniere and corsage, side by side

I had a lot of fun putting together the decorations, and celebrating at the party. Everyone else seemed to be having a great time too. I always love making things, especially when other people can enjoy them too.

welcome/check-in table

continuing the duck theme

<3 Mandy

Banner DIY

Today, while noticing the blank walls in my room, I decided to put up some decorations. So I made my own banner!

 To make this banner, I cut triangles out of colored construction paper. For the letters of my name, I cut letters out of white paper and then painted them with watercolor and outlined parts of the paintings with sharpie and micron pens. Finally, I glued all the papers together, added some gold glitter glue, waited for everything to dry, and hung the banner triangles up with binder clips on a piece of hemp string. For an added touch of color, I also hung up a knitted jellyfish (sea jelly) that I made back in eighth grade.

<3 Mandy

Shirt Design

Today, I went to my friend's house to design and paint shirts for our school's animal club/ green team. She cut out animal-shaped stencils, and we also used store-bought animal print and letter stencils. I made a recycling symbol and star. We used spray paint to paint our shirts, but each bottle only lasted for two shirts at most. I really liked using the sparkly paint, though, and it lasted a lot longer!

The shirts took about an hour to do for each side, plus drying time, so in five hours the seven of us completed 3 double-sided shirts and one side of 9 others. We are planning on setting aside time on another day to finish the rest of the 30 shirts!

Here are some of our shirts drying (with the front-side shown) - I made the one on the top left corner (zebra print) and the one on the center right (ECO in red-white gradient on zebra print)

our work station

our painted hands (clockwise from top: KT, B, A, D)
I washed my hands 4 times (even with sugar scrub) and the paint did not budge! Nail polish remover did the trick.

Since we didn't finish all the shirts last time (February 20), we continued our project on March 3. This shirt has a quote from Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. We laid out these stencils after seeing the movie on opening day, March 2.

Have you ever designed or painted a shirt? I also love doing tie-dye!

<3 Mandy