Christmas treasure map

For the school Christmas Fair, I have made two games for the children to play. The first is a treasure map, which took a bit of thinking about. I decided to make the islands on the map look like a reindeer outline, to make it a bit Christmassy, but making the map took a bit of trial and error.
I ended up using thick off-white card and drawing the details on with coloured Sharpies. I then made up washes of colour using transparent inks so the details showed through. I wasn't completely happy with the way the water had overlays of the ink which caused darker patches, but it was difficult to keep the colour flowing around my wobbly coastlines.

To make the grid, I bought a cheap acetate fronted picture frame in Hobbycraft and drew the grid on the acetate. I drew the letters and numbers on backwards so that the grid and writing would be on the side of the acetate that the map was on, so if people touched the acetate they didn't rub any of the ink off - I used a Sharpie again to draw on the acetate. If we decide to do another treasure hunt the map can be taken out and a new one placed under the grid.

The second game is not quite finished, but I will post a picture when it's done.

Painted table

Like a lot of parents with young children, I bought the £17 Ikea table and chairs for my children. It's wooden and cheap, so I was happy for the children to draw on it to their hearts' content and leave all the other furniture and walls alone. It got to a point where I was a a bit embarrassed by the state of it, and it was relegated to under the stairs until I could clean it up.

Today was the day that the poor little table was given a new lease of life. I finally managed to paint it and it looks so much better! I took it apart and used an ivory spray enamel paint to cover the scratched and chipped top. I used 3 coats of red acrylic paint on the legs and sides, then put it all back together again. Now to start on the chairs.

Painted tea light holders

Charlotte is entering the decorated tea light holder competition as part of the village fair this year. She is also entering a few other competitions, as is Emma. The girls both decorated glass tea light holders with glass/ceramic pens, and the results were both very pretty. The glasses were IKEA ones from ebay, £5 for 4. I think the rest (we bought 8) will be decorated closer to Christmas as presents.

Emma's 

Charlotte's

Scooby Doo villain posters

The beast from the bottomless lake

It will be Charlotte's birthday next month and she has decided on a Scooby Doo themed birthday party. We started making the posters for it, to be used as part of a mystery solving game and I was very good and allowed the children to help. I am usually very possessive of anything arty for a party as I want it to be "just right", but I learned from this experience that I need to let go more often and trust the children to create with me.

Ghost astronaut

I drew up the villains on A2 card, then we all block painted them with acrylic paint, not worrying about details too much. Finally, when they were dry I used a black marker pen to fill in all the details. I have to say, the ghost astronaut and the beast from the bottomless lake look better than I could have achieved, and the girls painted these all by themselves.

Charlotte has decided that she now wants the whole Scooby Doo gang as posters too, so we need to get some more card now.

Mug decorating

I have been feeling a bit unmotivated with all this grey weather. I have been busy making and baking, but not anything that seemed exciting enough to post about.

I was sitting staring into my cup of tea just now and I realised that I was staring straight at a make that I had forgotten all about. For Fathers day, the girls wanted to make decorated mugs for daddy. We went to Hobbycraft and bought some ceramic paint pens and painted on some cheap white mugs I had bought a while back.

Charlotte did one for daddy and one for herself (she's into dalmatians at the moment), Emma did one for daddy and I did the one at the end which contains my current cup of tea.

The finished play house

I was about to write about the dairy-free tandoori chicken masala I made for the first time tonight (part of my new year's resolution to cook something new every week), but thought it would be much more visual to show the finished play house that I have painted for the local nursery. Don't get me wrong, the curry was delicious, if a bit "fizzy" for the children, but the play house is much more fun, look:

Painted chair

We had some new wardrobes fitted in our bedroom a few weeks ago, and they are dark red gloss - I am in love with both the look of them and the storage they provide. I wanted to make the rest of the room really minimal, and so all we have in the room is a bed, bedside tables and a big leaner mirror. As there is nothing else in the room that is red, I thought I'd better rectify the situation.

We have a hardwood chair that has been in my husband's family for a few generations, and it has never had a proper home in our house. It bravely put itself forward as my first ever piece of painted furniture. I had been talking to our decorator (yes, I have given up on thinking I can decorate - I can't, I'm too messy and my arms ache too quickly) and he recommended this undercoat for furniture painting. So I bought a tin and 2 coats later, here is the first stage of the chair painting.


I had some paint mixed to match the colour of the wardrobes and painted 4 coats onto the chair to give it a whole new lease of life:

The beach hut

I mentioned that I was re-painting the playhouse at the local nursery, and the front is finally finished! I can't finish the murals on the back and sides until the weather improves, so for now, here is the front:

The life belt is made from 2 cut pieces of marine ply painted up with the same paints I used for the main hut painting. The name is on 2 pieces of driftwood which my friend Anna kindly painted using enamel* paint.

*I think - I should really check to be sure.

I did not make this today, but...

My sister reminded me of something I made a while back for my daughter's birthday. She was into Maisy Mouse at the time (Charlotte, not my sister) and I made this for them to play with at her birthday party. I think the box was left over from when we had a new kitchen delivered, and not one to throw anything out unless I have to, it went up in the loft for a while. Anyway, here is the Maisy thing:

Now I shall find out if certain people are reading the blog, as they are bound to comment on this picture - the things you do when your 3-year-old niece asks you to!
The picture is acrylic paint on cardboard. I cut the face holes out then lined each hole with brown gummed paper so the kids didn't get paper cuts on their faces.

Some friends were talking the other day about how much kids love a good cardboard box, I don't think I ever grew out of it, and have to admit I have boxes full of boxes in the loft - they always come in useful.

Another mural

I have just got back from fixing up another mural. It is unfinished, as the children from the nursery are going to add foliage to the tree with all their named hand-prints. I can't wait to go in and do that with around thirty 2 - 4 year olds! I'll put up a finished picture, eventually.

The day job, sort of.

I am officially a self-employed artist. I haven't done much in the way of painting while the children have been small, and before that I mainly did picture framing and not painting. Last year, I painted a mural for the local nursery as a thank-you gift when Charlotte left for school.

Here it is, painted in acrylic on marine ply and varnished. It's pretty simple, incorporating colours, counting and a bit of imagination (who lives behind the purple door?).





As a result of doing this, I was tasked with a proper job. The play house in the garden was looking a bit sorry for itself and needed a proper make-over.

Here are the pictures of the play house prior to my make-over. All sound woodwork, but just needed a good tidy up.

I had some soffit boards painted on our house a couple of years ago, and the decorator who did it used a special coating instead of ordinary paint. He was raving about the stuff, so I looked into it for painting the shed.

My local trade paint shop sells it, tinted to 45 different colours, so I bought a carefully chosen selection and was able to mix these to make all the colours I needed for the job. I am part way through it right now, and when it is finished I shall post pictures. As long as the rain holds off for a bit I'll be able to get it done!