Thyme to show you a Holly Snow Lady

When I was shopping at

 NET 

this fall

 I was immediately fascinated by some new ornament patterns 

that my good friend 

Jane Allen 

had in her booth.

Jane explained to me 

that she and her good friend Shara Reiner got together to play

and 

before you knew it they were sculpting Shara's whimsical characters using QuickWood. 

With some playing and brainstorming "SharaJane" was born.

SharaJane is a line of designs that is a little bit Shara and a little bit Jane.

I just KNEW I had to try making some of these ornaments!

The problem was deciding which ones I wanted to try!

I wanted them ALL!

Lets step inside my STUDIO and see what I chose!

Let's get started!

My Palette

Country Red, Deep Burgundy, Foliage Green, Hauser Medium Green, Lamp Black Plantation Pine, Tangelo Orange, Warm White, Zinc, Blue harbor, Bright Salmon, Evergreen, Indian Turquoise, Raw Sienna, Snow White, Soft Black Spiced Pumpkin.

I decided on the Holly Snow Lady as my first project.

I did it Shara's Way & Jane's Way!
You will need some 100mm plastic disk ornaments.
These measure about 4" wide.

I began by first removing the top of the ornaments.
I then poured Snow White paint into the ornament.
I swirled the paint around until the inside of the ornament was covered.
I then tipped the ornaments over to let the excess paint flow out.
I used cups to hold each ornament.

I let my ornaments dry this way overnight.

It's now time to play with some QuickWood!

Some basics to remember when working with QuickWood

1. QuickWood is a 2 part resin. When mixed together you have about 20 minutes of open time before it begins to cure. It will full cure in 24 hours.
2. Only cut off as much as you need at a time.
3. Make sure it is thoroughly mixed together ( no swirls of color) or it will not cure.
4. Do not wear jewelry , especially rings when working with QW.
5. Apply Silicone Glove before starting and as needed when working with QW. It helps keep it from sticking to your hands!
6. Use DecoArt Extender to blend QW being careful not to use too much or it will make your QW gummy.

To help with the sculpting process the pattern includes a link to 7 brief videos.

You can watch a video , do the step and then move on to the next step.

This was very useful if you are new to sculpting with QW!

I began with sculpting my Holly Snow Lady Shara's Way first.

There is a little learning curve with playing with QW.....but it is fun and relaxing!

I followed Jane Allen's quick tutorials for each step which makes this project easy peasy!

Adorable!

I then made some Holly Snow Ladies Jane'sWay!

It was fun seeing my Holly Snow Ladies come to life with paint!

Aren't they adorable? I know you want to try some!

The feeling you're being watched!

After I had all my ornaments painted I added some BLING.

You can do this by brushing some

Decou-Page

on the leaves

Then sprinkle on some

DIAMOND DUST

for 

sPaRkLe

If you do not want to cover the entire background of your ornament 

with GLITTER you can give your ornament a light spray of  

DecoArt Matte Sealer

Holly Snow Lady

Janes Way

Holly Snow Lady

Shara's Way

Rosemary Reynolds and DecoArt 
provided me with the products to complete this project as part of their
Helping Artist and Blogger Outreach programs.

Thank you DecoArt!

My Elves

 Hinkley and Elfin 

are busy in the STUDIO now 

wrapping all my Snow Ladies!

The MAGIC of Christmas is happening!

Remember ......there is room for everyone on the NICE list!

I hope you have enjoyed watching me make my
Holly Snow Ladies!

Happy Painting!

Lynn

It's thyme to show you a Star Light Santa

There are only 6 days until Christmas!!

Are you ready?

I'm still wrapping......with the "help" of my STUDIO assistants......HINKLEY and Oreo!

I'm still baking!

AND I'm still painting some ornaments!

Today I wanted to show you some Santa ornaments that Im working on.

This project is called

Stat Light Santa

Design by

Roxanne Puchalski MDA

I converted the colors

 for this project 

to 

DecoArt American Acrylics

Uniform Blue, Shading Flesh, Fleshtone, Country Red, Warm White, Lamp Black, Charcoal Gray , Neutral Gray, Black Plum, Traditional Burnt Umber, Honey Brown

Let's Paint

I mixed 

Multi Purpose Sealer

with my initial base coat color which

 was 

Uniform Blue

When dry I painted a second coat of just Uniform Blue.

When my surfaces were dry I transferred the design with graphite paper.

I painted Santa's hat with 2 coats of Country Red.

When base coating with RED I usually first paint a base of Gray. 

I used Neutral Gray.

I painted the face with Fleshtone.

I shaded the cheeks and defined the nose and eye area next.

I then painted the eyes.

I defined the curls in the beard using a mix of Lamp Black, Neutral Gray and Charcoal Gray.

I left some of the blue background showing through the beard.

I used my Texture-It brush to stipple on the fur with Warm White.

I added some shading to the fur first with Honey Brown, 

I deepened it with a little Traditional Burnt Umber.

I then used my Silver Micron Mini detail brush to pull additional fur on the hat and pompom with Warm White.

I used my detail brush to also do the beard with Warm White.

I also pulled some hairs up onto the hat with Neutral Gray

I brushed some Glamour Dust Ice Crystal on the hat fur.

I added some tiny stars to the background with Warm White.

I shaded along the fur line on the hat with Black Plum.

I highlighted the hat with a wash of Hot Shots Fiery Red.

I found some large wood ornament shapes.

I painted the FRONT of the ornament shapes 

with 

Dazzling Metallics Shimmering Silver

I painted the BACKS of the ornaments first with Uniform Blue.

I used a stencil for the backs of the ornaments.

I used a very dry stencil brush loaded

 with

 Dazzling Metallics Shimmering Silver

to do the lettering and design.

I "dusted" the Shimmering Silver on using the stencil.

I then added 

some

Silver DecoArt Twinkles 

to the stencil design and all around the outside edges of the ornament.

I used Wood Glue to put the ornaments together

After everything was dry I sprayed the ornaments with several coats 

of 

GLOSS Sealer/Finisher

Rosemary Reynolds and DecoArt

provided me with the paints and products 

to complete this project as part of their 

Helping Artist Program

and

Blogger Outreach Program

Thank you DecoArt!

I hope you have enjoyed watching me paint

Star Light Santa

Happy Painting !

Lynn