How Great Britain is!

Finally I've managed to finish middle sons Freddie's canvas!  It's taken me that long that I can't actually remember when I started it! Anywhere he we go hope you like...

Ever since the Olympics, Fred has been obsessed with Great Britain and especially the Union Jack, so after buying everything and anything with a Union Jack on for his bedroom, he asked if I'd do him his canvas the same...

Once marked out, it was time to start painting...

 

Fred chose the paints, so we had pillar box red, antique white and a metallic blue...

Couple of coats of each, the wooden letters also painted in the blue.  Then time to distress with sandpaper, I used several grades to give a more natural worn feel, using higher grade on corners and edges and a finer grade on the front and sides of the canvas

Finally attached all the letters to the canvas (after much discussion as to whether they should be straight, squint, skewhiff LOL) and voila!

Hope you like?! I think it'd also work really well with a decoupage Cath Kidston floral type theme, or some pastel patterns, vintage style.  Anyway on to the next one now, Samuel. He's coming up for two and has blue/white room in Peter Rabbit Fabric so will try to include the fabric in the canvas somehow... 

Mod Podge!

So I know I'm way behind everyone else, but I have finally discovered Mod Podge!  And in the words of Craig Revel Horwood it's A-ma-zing!!!!!!!

Here is the canvas as I was applying the Mod Podge.  I'd already used to stick down the poster image and then used it to seal everything.  I must admit the first time I put a coat on I panicked a little till I saw it drying!

Once it had dried I then stuck all the letters down.  I do by eye rather than measuring exactly as I prefer that way, and once I'd stuck down all the letters then I gave them all a coat of the Mod Podge aswell to give them a nice matte gloss finish, almost like the poster itself.

Using the wooden letters in the TinTin font gives it that real 3D effect which I love.

I hope and think you'll agree it looks fab! Can't wait for Henry to see...

Next Projects: Memory Boxes and a Union Jack Canvas for middle boy Freddie!

Fay x

P.S A huge thanks to Granny Bling who had the boys this afternoon, meaning I didn't need to lose my Saturday night in order to finish this!

a few extra hours in the day...

Okay so quite an exciting couple of weeks, although it's taken till now to get updating as there just aren't enough hours in the day.  I'm sure you know how it goes, the 'day' job is manic, the 'parent' job is manic and trying to fit in a little bit of crafting just seems so hard!  Made all that harder last weekend by 3 birthdays and a wedding anniversary, so it's all been a bit... manic! LOL :-) 

Anyway I've finally managed to get enough done to warrant updating the blog for you all to see what's going on.  As you know while I've been waiting on the letters to arrive for the TinTin canvas for my eldest, I've been keeping myself busy with some possible new additions to the Nursery Collection for 2013.

So the personalised building blocks are now finished! #woohoo.  I started off by painting the cubes themselves with three shades; grey, antique white and frosted mint as below:

Then I hit a little stumbling block (pardon the pun!) and couldn't decide whether to paint the letters all the same colour or different, I put it to my fab followers on Facebook and Twitter and out of many suggestions I liked the suggestion of different shades of the same (Thank you Jos, Helena and Angie!) so the next step was to paint the letters and place them on the cubes, think you'll agree the result is rather nice!

Will post a picture of the blocks in natural daylight on Friday so the colours can be fully appreciated.  They'll be available in grey, white and your choice of Mint, Lilac, Pink or Blue.  They can come with a simple a,b,c or could be completely personalised with a child's name.  I really think they'd look stunning in a Nursery, hope you agree?  Got to work on the boring bit now, costings...

Anyway will leave you with a few teasers of the TinTin canvas which I started today...

Hope to update you soon,

Fay x

New inspiration!

So it's 2013 and I promised that I'd start blogging about what I do and how I come up with ideas etc.  For those who don't already know Felicity is me! It's the name my parents couldn't agree on calling me, so Fay I became (fits perfectly!), but Felicity worked perfectly with my eldest two Henry & Freddie! So Henry, Fred and Felicity was born...

Last year was great and a real eye opener to what works and what doesn't for online sales, craft fairs etc.  I'm not saying I've got it right yet, but I certainly know a heck of a lot more than I did 12 months ago!

Anyway, this year I'm looking to expand in a couple of areas:

Canvases

I'll be looking at smaller versions of the name and phrase canvases as they are quite large (approx 40"wide) and also where customers want 2 or more (I have one at the moment who requires 5 in the spring!) I'm conscious that we're talking a lot of money at original size.  I'll also finally be making my boys their canvases I've been promising since we moved! 

Nursery Collection

I'm looking to add to the hand-knitted and sewn nursery collection with a range of hand-painted gifts.  I will be experimenting with toys, memory boxes and peg people over the next few weeks and will be keeping you posted with how I get along, so would love to hear your thoughts along the way!

Anyway time to go make tea, then looking for more inspiration tonight! 1st Job on the list is a Tin Tin name canvas for my eldest Henry (7).

Health and best wishes for 2013,

Fay x