Christmas-ing up my place a little

I've resisted the urge to do this for three years, I think, but this year, I thought I'd do a little bit to festive up the place a bit ;)

So, here are some pictures of some 'corners' of my home. I've yet to take shots of the candles, and votives and candle-holders of snowmen and Father Christmas, and loads of others... well, maybe later. And maybe not 'loads'! Hahahahah!!!

Isn't this the cutest snowman ever? Hahahah. My daughter gave him to me, for Christmas years ago.
I painted that poinsettia, and the paint isn't quite dry, as can be seen. I just free-handed the outline in gold,
and when it was dry, I filled in the red, and then the green.

Another side of the same fabric box (from Ikea), with holly, this time. 

This is the one-stop-centre at my home: everything gets chucked here: handbags, car keys, money, sunglasses, everything!!! It has
a life of its own, and will be weighed down with stuff, and beg to be cleared. Let's see how long it stays this way . . . .

I love these big, red balls! I've also got a couple of green ones, here, but they hiding ;)

This wooden soldier is my mum's, and he stood sentry at her place,
until she moved in with me a few years ago. He says he's happy
 to stand guard near my radio, cd player, and never-used-tv! 

SO: the 'real' reason I was so enthusiastic about painting Christmas-y stuff, was to finish up my gold-glitter paint. Even after all
the projects I'd thought of, I still had some left in the bottle. I found this box (Ikea again, how ever did you guess?!!!), and decided
to free-hand this design until I was down to the last drop :)

It now will sit pretty on the table int my reading corner -  just inside the door, next to me rocking chair!

This was the first project I did, actually: the placemats, for Chuan and me. I free-handed the outlines, and then decided that
I would only fill in the green and the red. Otherwise, it would be overkill, I think. See those wispy bits? I was going for
those christmas-tree-type spiky leaves. I think I failed miserably here :(

The two placemats I did: and we'll be eating off them - on plates, of course! - tonight, and all through the Christmas season. They are really very easy to
look after: just pop them in the washer, and then the dryer, and they're clean again, and good to go!

My doodly pig!!! Chuan gave me this pig, with paints, a lonnnnnnng, lonnnnng time ago, for Christmas. I never got round to painting
it, poor thing. Yesterday, when I wanted to - the paints were all hard as stone. Surprise! Surprise! 

A view of its other side ;)

And there it is, sitting pretty on a dresser :)

Thank you for dropping by!

Two Christmas candles

I am plodding on with my gift-paintings, and so far, I have a good cache - so I'm feeling happy :)

Here're two more - of candles, which I love - and they will fit nicely in my Santa-helper's bag!

There are many pix here - some with the flash, to show off the gilding, and some without, because the flash destroys the colour and the depth! Sadness!

Yennyways, these two pieces are painted on stretched canvas, which I first gesso-ed, and then painted with a white background (with household wall-paint ;). Then, I painted my candles, the poinsettia, the holly and lovely holly-berries, and pine-leaves with metallic acrylic paint - for a real glitzy Christmas-y feel :)

Taken with flash - so it's flashy ;)

So you know you're not seeing double!

Again - being flashy!

Poinsettia and holly

This is planned as a gift - for someone who doesn't visit this blog ;)

My poinsettia and holly

I love poinsettia, and nowadays they can be found in a myriad of colours: from the traditional red, to gold, and silver, and even pinks and blues!

Here I've tried my hand at the traditional red. But, something's happened to my green, so I'll need to see how to fix that :(

In the practice round, it was ok. And that is where I tried my hand at shading for the first time. That's why you can see the outer outlines of my shading strokes. A big no-no - but first timers will do nonsense, won't they?

When I'd finished the poinsettia and holly, I felt that the arrangement looked a bit bare - so I added in some conifer fronds. Yes, needs more work, that, eh?! ;) Hahahahah!!!

See what I mean about the 'shadows' on the practice-sheet?
Aiyo, and what's with the green lah?!

I'm quite happy with this one, actually :)

Messing about

... and still trying to get things right.

The flowers are incomplete and missing centres - but I'm going for the blending and getting the shading right. 

And below, I try my hand at poinsettias. Oh so cacat-looking, but sigh, this was my first time! Though, it's still the same petal I've worked on for so long. It's the putting them together to make the whole - and have the whole resemble the poinsettia... ahhh, that's the difficalification of it all!!!

Below, is a stylised version of a rose. I found this on a nail-art site, and the girl taught it so well - carefully doing each stoke and guiding me through it. I feel I need to work the petals together more tightly and try for a more rounded bulb. But, I'm not entirely displeased with these. Plus, they're anytime better than the 'real' roses I can so not paint!

Still trying to perfect my hydrangeas - this time I used a filbert brush, double-loaded and worked the flowers on it's side. Couldn't do this with the letter holder, because I don't have a small filbert :(

This one is nothing like the lady does it on You Tube, but it's my version, I guess!

Again, something from You Tube - and my version of it, for sure. It would have looked better on a dark background - but this is just part of my practice, practice, practice - so I'm working on getting the strokes right.

Why so much pink? I'm not a pink lady, although I must say I do like pink. But not only pink!

Pink was one of the first colours I bought - and I don't remember why :(  That and a vile, dull green make up my worse buys. But all's not lost: they are my 'working' paints, always pounced on when I want to practise something. From comma strokes, to scroll work; to leaves and petals - all are done in violent pink and dull green!