Painting a Garden Bridhouse

Welcome. I am so glad that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit down and relax with a cup of tea while I share with you the inspirations for a birdhouse painting that we can paint together.

Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, is already in the garden looking for inspirations.

One of my birdhouses and Welcome signs was shown in this month's Romantic country magazine in a delightful article on "Divine Birdhouses" The photo was taken by Mark Lohman and styled by the Divine Sunday Hendrickson. The article states "The notion of a cozy house is as appealing to finches, robins and wrens as it is to you and your family. And birdhouses, whether designed to blend into their natural surroundings or provide a lively spot of color, double as decorative accents even indoors- with faux birds." The article rang so true with me as you can see from the photo above that I incorporated birdhouses and a faux bird as part of my potting bench.

Earler this year I painted my blue church birdhouse, shown in the article, red and have now decided to repaint it back blue.

I did not realize how many birdhouses I have in my garden until I read the article and realized that I use them to add spots of interest and color.

This is actually a bird feeder that I added two little faux birds for a touch of whimsy.

Let's take a look around my garden and look for a birdhouse to paint together.

I bought this flower shaped birdhouse at Joanne's at the end of the season clearance for $7.95 and love it.

Finding inspiration . . . . . .

This birdhouse is in my Art Studio and would be a fun one to paint.

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This was another find at Joanne's clearance for $7.95.

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This is one of my favorite birdhouses as I like the different levels. I painted the roof red for more interest, and of course, you can paint your roof any color you like.
Here is a rough sketch of the birdhouse I painted. You are welcome to use it to paint.

I am painting my birdhouse beside and Adirondack chair. The chair may be a little hard for beginners so I will not show it and will focus on the birdhouse. Note I am painting a vine around the birdhouse to add interest.

After you pant the vine - add some darks first and then add some greens as leaves.

When you finish the leaves, add some color for flowers on the vine. I used white for my flowers. Add some shadows under the roof and along the sides of the birdhouse.

After you paint the vine, add some flowers around the base and a little garden path. I added a little chimney to give more interest.

Recently someone asked me for some of my favorite garden quotes about birds and flowers and it brought to mind:

"The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches" Psalm 104:12

"God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and when the voice of God is heard it is in the twittering of the birds."

"Where flowers bloom - so does hope." Lady Bird Johnson

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. With fall just around the corner I thought it would be fun for us to paint a Fall Welcome sign together as well as a Rooster in future posts.

Even though we are not having fall weather yet in Southern California, I will be taking a little blog break to do some fall decorating and looking for Fall inspirations for us to paint together.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Give Away Winner and Pink Inspirations

Welcome. My garden gate is always open for you to come in, sit and relax with a cup of tea. Dr. Normal Vincent Peale wrote the Power of Positive Thinking and founded Guidepost Magazine. He once said "if you can change your thinking, you can change your world." Together last week with all of the positive and uplifting comments left by so many of you regarding the Design Gives Back "Miracle Makeover Blog party" for Colette . . . . we changed our world and raised $2,190.00 to go towards a future makeover project to change the world of another person. You can read more about the results on:

www.katillacshack.com.

The WINNER of my Vintage Rose painting is: SHIRLEY C. of

http://www.prayersformymom.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your cup of tea and I will share with you the inspiration behind my vintage rose painting.

Finding Inspiration . . . . . .

Old fashion white and pink roses

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I wanted the painting to have a vintage look and instead of painting the roses in the white vase I decided to use an old silver vase instead.

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I loved the look of the roses in the old silver dish and this was the final inspiration.

The winner of my "Vintage Rose" painting is Shirley C. Her blog, http://www.prayersformymom.blogspot.com/ was started by her daughter when she was diagnosed with tongue cancer to bring an awareness to bloggers of the seriousness of tongue cancer. I am happy to report that Shirley is doing great and is a very thankful cancer survivor. Please drop by to say hello and read her inspiration story.

Thank you for stopping by and for participating in the Miracle Makeover Blog party and for leaving comments to help raise $2,190.00. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who follow my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. Next week we will paint a garden birdhouse due to the many requests I have received to paint a birdhouse.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Blessings, Erin

"Miracle Blog Party" and Giveaway

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax - have a cup of tea and attend Design Gives Back's " MIRACLE BOG PARTY " AND FABULOUS GIVEAWAYS on Friday August 27th - Saturday August 28th and Sunday August 29th celebrating Colette's Miracle Makeover and inspirational story and reveal video.



If you are just finding out about the Miracle Makeover project - the makeover project all started when Kelee of Design Gives Back, http://www.katillacshack.com/, decided to take a crew up to Michigan in the middle of last winter to create a healing room in which Colette Gauthier could recover. Colette was living in a tiny and dismal rental home. And, she was almost out of hope as she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was given a 5-15% chance of survival.

God has given her different odds though!

You can see her journey and the miracle that happened on the reveal video. There are plenty of great design ideas and the heart warming video is truly inspirational. Please go to http://www.katillacshack.com/ to attend the party, view the video and leave a comment to win one of the fabulous prises. You can also read about the miracle that happened in the September issue of Guideposts Magazine - www.guideposts.org.

MIRACLE PARTY GIVEAWAYS

A NEW JANOME SEWING MACHINE

AN ERIN HOUGHTON ORIGINAL ROSE PAINTING

A PENNY CARLSON MOSAIC CROSS

GUIDEPOSTS MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Karen Harvey Cox Original Watercolor Painting

In celebration of Colette's journey and healing , my 100th post and Pink Saturday, I am also having a GIVEAWAY of this original rose painting shown below.

Give Away Painting from The Painted Garden. Details on how to enter to win are shown below.


My journey as a thankful nine year breast cancer survivor has been to share my creative gift from God to paint with others who have cancer. I felt a connection to Colette when I first read about her story on http://www.katillacshack.com/. She loves roses and her favorite colors are Amethyst, for peace, Spring Green for health, and Rose Pink for love and family. After seeing the beautiful fabrics that she and Kelee picked out for her makeover room I was moved to create a painting for Colette and contacted Kelee to ask if there was a need for a piece of art. She said yes that there was room for a small painting to sit on a table in her room.

Finding Inspiration . . . . . for Colette's painting.


Fabric for Colette's room





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The sweet pea photograph has all of Colette's favorite colors and was the final inspiration for Colette's painting.




Colette's Miracle Makeover painting.

This post is a celebration of Colette's journey and Miracle healing that started with the prayers good wishes and actions of so many in the blog community.

There is power in united prayer. Jesus said "Where two or three are gathered in my name. I am there among them." (Mt,18:20). The power of prayer was strengthened as so many united together in prayer for Colette.

Colette Gauthier
Thank you for your courage and inspiration to all of us.

Give Away For The Painted Garden Rose Painting

Original Rose painting on my blog. To enter please leave a comment for Colette on my blog in order to enter the drawing to win my rose painting. You do not need to have a blog to win- simply leave a comment under Anonymous. Winner will be announced on September 4, 2010.

GIVE AWAYS ON WWW.KATILLACSHACK .COM

SEWING MACHINE, LARGE ORIGINAL ROSE PAINTING, MOSAIC CROSS, GUIDEPOST MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please leave a comment on http://www.katillacshack.com/ to enter to win the giveaway prizes and earn a $1.00 donation toward a similar makeover project. You will also be entered to win her fabulous giveaways.

HOW TO EARN UP TO $5.00 TO GO TOWARD SIMILAR MAKEOVER PROJECTS

Leave a comment regarding the Miracle Makeover on the following blogs:

Sherry's : www.countrywingsinphoenix.blogspot.com

Charlotte and Ginger's: www.bloggerspirit.blogspot.com

Beverly's www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com - at Pink Saturday

www.facebook.com/guideposts - please thank Guidepost for sponsoring the Miracle Makeover

www.katillacshack.com

Blessings and a big thank you goes to Kelee, Guideposts magazine ,the Design Angel Volunteers and Beverly, Charlotte and Ginger and Sherry and to everyone in Blog Land for their prayers and support of Colette.

Thank you for stopping by. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your vists, comments and those who are following my blog. Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Let's Paint Together The Last Hydrangeas

Welcome. I am so happy that you stopped by. My garden gate is always open for you to come in and sit and relax (have a cup of tea if you are not too hot) while I share inspirations for my art with you. I just cut the last of my hydrangeas and thought it would be fun and a good time for us to paint them together.

Bentley, my helpful Studio Assistant, is ready to show you around.

Finding inspiration . . . .

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Close up of previously painted hydrangeas.

We are going to paint a hydrangea Welcome sign. It is my best selling Welcome sign and very easy to paint. I have painted a sample leaf and flower for you to follow. If you still have hydrangeas you can actually trace a leaf to get the feel of the shape. First, paint a dark shape, unless painting with watercolors, paint dark to light. Paint a dark shape first. Next add some white to your dark shape and start developing you flower petals with different shades of blue. The lightest colors will be painted on top of your flower. Note, in the painting above, I painted lavender petals in with the blue petals. If you paint lavender or pink hydrangeas - follow the same technique - paint your dark first and then highlight with light.

I paint on an 8x10 canvas. You can use a canvas, wooden board, or piece of slate. All materials can be purchased at Michael's or Joanne Craft or any craft store.


Here is my rough drawing.

Paint the basket in various shades of brown - use your darkest brown to highlight the vertical weaves in the basket. Fill in the horizontal weave with different shades of brown. Add some white to highlight the weave - I also use some oranges and yellows to give variation to the basket weave. Add a little dark on the bottom of your basket - this will anchor it and will keep it from "floating". Next add a little lavender shadow. I attach a ribbon with screw eye hooks and add a ribbon to hang it with. I then add three coats of satin varnish to protect the finish.

Enjoy your painting.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. 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 comments or would like to see me paint something special. I regret that I had to turn on my comment moderation because a fraudulent company tried to advertise on my blog by leaving me 73 anonynous comments advertising Ed Hardy Clothing.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin

Painting Pink Roses

Welcome. My garden gate is always open for you to come in, sit and relax (please have a cup of tea if it is not too hot where you live) while I share with you the inspirations for my art.

My studio assistant, Bentley, is ready to show you around. My pink Lady of Gudalupe and Ice Berg roses are in their third bloom this summer. Our cool and cloudy weather along the Southern California coast has been ideal for the roses.

Finding Inspiration . . . . . . .

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This year my pink Our Lady of Guadalupe and Ice Berg roses are more of a crimson than pink and have been fabulous for painting.

I am so happy that you stopped by to visit me. I love hearing from you and sincerely appreciate your visits, comments and those who follow my blog. Please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see me paint something special. We will paint a Rooster painting together in a later post.

Have a lovely week. Blessings, Erin