Let's Paint a Snowman Door Greeter

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My door is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of hot chocolate while I share with you the inspirations behind my art. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. We are having beautiful cold weather in Southern California with snow in our local mountains and the perfect weather to paint snowmen.

Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is waiting for you to come inside to show you what has been going on in my art studio. My son is hosting a charity fundraiser this week to raise money for Share Ourselves, a local charity that provides food , clothing, medical care and after school tutoring, and Olive Crest Home for Abused Children. I volunteered to put together gift baskets for raffle prizes and paint snowmen "door greeter" to hang on bottles of wine and champagne for the raffle.

I thought it would be fun to show you how to paint the snowmen door greeters as they are very easy and make adorable Christmas and Holiday gifts.

My dining room looks like Santa's workshop.

Let's paint the following two snowmen. This one has a stocking cap.

This one has a stovepipe hat.

Finding inspiration . . . . .

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I wanted to paint the door greeters small enough to hang on a wine bottle or champagne bottle and used 4X4 and 4X6 canvas. You can also paint them on wood or slate. First I base painted the canvas red and green. Then I sketched the snowmen. You are welcome to use my drawings.

A snowman is a basic circle for the head with a circle for the body. You can paint a carrot for the nose or use black circles that look like pieces of coal for the nose . I mix some violet with the white to give the real look of snow.

After you have painted the snowman - add your nose, eyes, hat, scarf or any other decoration you want to. After you complete your painting, load your brush with water and white paint - flick the paint and water onto your painting to give the look of snow. This can be very messy - I put the painting in the bottom of the kitchen sink to do this. Attach two eye hooks to the back of your canvas or board and thread ribbon through. I attached holiday greens to the ribbon with a hot glue gun and coat my paintings with 2 coats of mat varnish so they can be hung outside. Simply wipe with a damp cloth to clean. Enjoy.

The "door greeters" can be hung on a front door handle, kitchen cabinet, picket fence, etc.

"Happy are those who trust in the Lord" Proverbs 16:20

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you want to see me paint something special or have any questions.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

A Painted Rooster Floor Cloth

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My kitchen is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of tea while I share inspirations for my art with you. A few months ago I attempted to paint a canvas floor cloth for my kitchen and found that it was not as easy as it seemed. It required precise measuring and more attention to detail than that my abilities. A former high school classmate told me about a fabulous artist, Lucia Blum, in our hometown - Wilmington, North Carolina, who painted floor cloths. I looked at her website and loved her whimsical work and contacted her about painting a custom floor cloth for my kitchen. I wanted to start off with a half round floor cloth to go in front of my sink with a black background , Rooster and blues and yellows to match my colors. I would love to show you the completed work of art.

Please come into my kitchen - I just made some pumpkin raisin nut bread and Bentley is patiently waiting for it to come out of the oven. You are welcome to join me for a piece.

My kitchen is all white with bead board cabinets and I wanted a floor cloth with a black background to anchor all of the white. Lucia painted me a special Bible verse - it is across the top in very small letters - " And Jesus looking upon them said. With man it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible". Mark 10:27.

The floor cloth is just perfect and I love the whimsical Rooster. I plan to have a larger one made to go in the center of the kitchen.

I also ordered a special floor cloth for Bentley's dog bowls. Lucia painted a very special Bible verse on his floor cloth: "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst:but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". John 4:14

Bentley has a new yellow bowl with a Rooster.

At first he was not sure what to think of his new bowl and it took a little exploring and sniffing before he would use his new bowl.

After a few sniffs Bentley was eager to try out his new bowl

As you can see from my kitchen, I love Roosters and the new floor cloths are right at home in my home. I can't wait to order another larger cloth from Lucia. You can see her fabulous work on her website at http://www.topdrawerart.com/ or contact her at 910 508-2186. She does custom designs and will be happy to work with you to design the perfect floor cloth for you home. She also paints beautiful furniture.

"Let us come into his presence with Thanksgiving: let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise". Psalm 95.2

Wishing you and your family a joyful and happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who follow my blog. I will be on a little Thanksgiving blog break and when I return we will paint together a Christmas snowman "door greeter".

Joy, Peace and Blessings, Erin

This Season of Thanksgiving

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax with a cup of hot tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art. As we enter this season of Thanksgiving and we rejoice in the splendor of the season there are many who face difficulties and hardships this season. I am thankful for the creativity and talents I have been given and most of all that I can share them in ways to help others. Recently I was asked to donate a painting to help raise money for Share Ourselves, a local nonprofit organization that provides many wonderful services to our local communities, including a Thanksgiving Food Drive, Adopt a Family Christmas program, free medical clinic, after school programs and many other services.

I wanted to paint a garden painting and since my roses are no longer blooming I purchased lovely red roses and sunflowers from the market for the painting. Let's join Bentley, my Studio Assistant to see the inspirations.

Finding Inspiration . . . . .

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The beginning of the Garden Day Painting

I decided to add more Sunflowers and change the color of the flowers in the pots to purple to create harmony with the yellow. I was having a hard time getting the book on the chair to look like a book and decided to paint it out.

The completed painting.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." Psalm 136.1

Thank you for stopping by. I sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. I will be taking a little blog break next week and when I return will be painting holiday snowmen "door greeters" for a fundraiser for SOS. I would love for you to paint along with me.

Have a lovely week and enjoy the wonders of the season and the beauty that abounds. Blessings, Erin

Let's Paint a Rooster

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My front door is always open to invite you in to sit and relax with a cup of hot tea while I share with you the inspirations for my art. I am painting a whimsical Rooster painting today and would like to invite you to paint a Rooster with me. I have always wanted to have enough land to have a charming little chicken coop, however, I live near the ocean where the lots are small and we do not have room for chickens. Since I do not have any real Roosters to show you, I will show you the Roosters in my kitchen.Bentley, my Studio Assistant, is waiting to bring you inside to look for rooster inspirations in our kitchen.

This mosaic tray with the whimsical rooster is one of my inspirations.

Finding inspiration . . . . .

I have lots of blue and white in my kitchen and am thinking about painting a blue and white Rooster.

Fall flowers on patio off my kitchen. The blue Rooster pillow is one of my inspirations for a whimsical painting.

My apron has whimsical rooters frockling about.

More blue and white roosters

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Roosters on my kitchen chandelier.

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More blue and white Rooster inspirations.

With all of the blue and white inspirations I am ready to start painting. If you would like to paint along with me you are welcome to copy my sketch. I sketched a very simple Rooster that should be easy for beginners. I paint on canvas, however, you can paint on wood, slate, or anything you want to. I like to base coat the white canvas before I start painting as it is easier to see the sketch. I paint with Liquitex acrylic paints as they are non-toxic.

After the sketch, I decide on the background and decide what to paint. .. then lightly paint in the background to get the feel of how it will look . .. by painting with watered down paints it is easy to change the background . Next I paint in the darks - notice I painted in the blues on the body of the Rooster and lightly painted in the feathers to get the feeling of how the Rooster will look with a blue body.

Next, I painted in the feathers and darkened up the background. Since the painting is so whimsical with blue feathers, I decided to add some geraniums for the Rooster to stand in - I felt it added another touch of whimsy. Add a tiny white dot to the Rooster's eye. You can paint your Rooster any color - if you want a more traditional Rooster, you can paint the body and tail feathers brown, black or any traditional color.

The completed whimsical Rooster.

"For the Lord is good and his love endures forever." Psalm 100:5

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who are following my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin