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Sunday, 15 May 2016

Miekie's Designs for Art & Craft Projects Published In a Book

I have shared a number of blogs in the past where I have made use of designs that I have made available for purchase so that my readers could use them in their own projects as well. Today I am thrilled to announce that these designs have now been compiled into one convenient book that can be purchased online through Amazon at a fraction of the cost of buying the designs individually. In today's blog I refer you back to previous blogs where I have used these designs and introduce a couple of new ones that you have not seen yet.  You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.


The Bird Trio
The book introduces a trio of new bird designs, each contending to be cuter than the other. I will be using these designs in upcoming blogs, so look out for them.




Butterfly Quartet
Another newly introduced set is the one consisting of four butterflies, which will also be used in upcoming blogs.





Chicken Duo
I have blogged about the two chicken designs and shared some tips for painting them in watercolours. Here is an excerpt from that blog:
"Do you love chickens as much as I do? Everything about them is cute. I love how a hen will gather her chicks under her, or the cute fluffiness of the chicks themselves. But I especially love the grandeur of a strutting cock with those colorful feathers shining in the sun. In today's blog I show you how easy it is to draw and paint chickens step by step, using water-soluble pencils."



Christmas Set
The Christmas Set consists of five designs with Christmas as central theme and I have done a number of blogs, using these designs:
"I am still thinking up innovative ideas for Christmas cards as I get bored by repeating the same idea too many times. I decided it would be a great idea to draw one of the Christmas designs on a small piece of fabric. I will then paint it and incorporate the painted image in my Christmas cards. The scale on which this is done makes it slightly challenging and I recommend working with good paint brushes that can handle the detail."




"When I first drew the designs for the Christmas Collection, I thought I would be using them on a tablecloth I wanted to paint for the Christmas table. I may still do that, but in the meantime I simply had to put some color to those pictures that were simply begging for Christmas cheer. I made up my mind to print them slightly smaller than the original designs and use them on Christmas cards. I use the same basic idea for all four cards and will walk you through the steps for only one of them. In the meantime, here is a preview of what you can expect from the blog."






"Since rediscovering the Glue Gun, I have been thinking of more ways to put it to good use. That gave me the idea of testing it on glass. It worked beautifully! Being hard at work on Christmas preparation, I decided to try my hand at window decorations. As windows do not make good backdrops for a blog, I had to do an angel on a piece of broken glass I had on hand, but you can feel free to work directly on a window. I discuss cleaning up at the end of the blog."


Cute Cows Duo
Then there also were the two cute cows I used in a fabric painting sewing project:
"Not too long ago I posted a blog where I showed you how to paint some cute cows.The designs for the Cute Cows are available for download in digital format from APrettyTalent.com. In today's blog I take this painting and turn it into a practical, but pretty, item for the home when I sew a table protector. A table protector is almost like a pot stand as it is padded and can withstand heat. It is however, not intended to withstand extreme heat, and it is much larger. This makes it the ideal item to place on the table when you have lukewarm dishes. Scalding hot ones can rather go on the buffet."


Decorative Flowers
The decorative flower set is a new addition and one that I still need to blog on:




Fishy Four
The collection of stylish and cute fish has been used more than once in blogs, though I have not used all of these designs yet.


"My mom has had this chest in the bathroom for ages. It is very handy for storing extra toilet rolls and other bathroom knickknacks in. Aside from its obvious uses, all of the grandchildren also used it as a handy stepladder to reach the basin as they grew. The result is that it has become quite worn and tatty. In a casual conversation, I told my mom that I wanted to do a blog on giving your furniture a makeover and she immediately suggested the kist. And so it came that I did a makeover on my mom's bathroom kist."


"I love the swanky fish that are available in the Fishy Four collection onAPrettyTalent.com. Ever since drawing the designs I have known that I would like to enlarge them and paint them on a table cloth that I would like to use at a beach house, or on holiday somewhere on the coast, or possibly simply at the pool for a pool party. Let me show you how I used two of the designs in the collection to paint a vibrant and happy scene for a table setting."

Flower Pots Trio
This set of quirky flower pots were turned into a table runner over two blogs: Part 1 and Part 2
"Who does not like a pretty table to wine and dine friends and family at? Today we will be making a pretty runner from the Lopsided Flower Pot Trio Designs that we have painted on fabric, to decorate your table with. In the previous blog we have used a projector to enlarge the images so we could trace them onto fabric. We then painted the first two designs and it is now time to paint the last of the three. Afterwards, we will turn the set of three into a table runner and I will show you step by step how to do this effortlessly."


Geometric Foursome
These four geometric designs are wonderful adult coloring pages, but I turned these into craft projects as well.

"I love those nifty and ever useful envelope boxes, but they cost an arm and a leg to buy. So why not make your own. They are real easy to fold. I use one of the patterns from theGeometric Foursome collection to fold this box. The design is available fromAPrettyTalent.com as a Digital Download. I show you how to color the design, but you can skip over this part and do your own thing. Once the design is colored, we fold the box. Fun, fun, fun all the way!"


"Today I am going to show you how to fold a milk carton. I would strongly advise against storing liquids in it, but I do think it could be fun packaging for a quirky gift. I use one of the patterns from the Geometric Foursome collection to fold this box. The design is available from APrettyTalent.com as a Digital Download. I show you how to color the design, but you can skip over this part and do your own thing. Once the design is colored, we'll fold the box. "


"In today's blog we will be folding a wedge-shaped box. Fold a couple of these and you will have a full circle of boxes. That should make for some very interesting storage. Or how about arranging the gifts for your guests like in this shape at a wedding? There are a range of clever uses for this one. I use one of the patterns from the Geometric Foursome collection to fold this box. The design is available from APrettyTalent.com as a Digital Download. I show you how to color the design, but you can skip over this part and do your own thing. Once the design is colored, we'll fold the box. "


"In the movie You've Got Mail, Tom Hanks' character sends an email to the character played by Meg Ryan in which he expresses the wish to send her a 'bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils'. This line has stuck with me since the first time I saw the movie all those years ago. Today I will show you how to turn your adult coloring page into a 'pencil pot' to make present just such a fabulous bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils to someone as passionate about coloring as yourself. I use one of the patterns from the Geometric Foursome collection to fold this box. The design is available from APrettyTalent.com as a Digital Download. I show you how to color the design, but you can skip over this part and do your own thing. Once the design is colored, we'll fold the container. "



Lawnmowers
I designed this set of five cartoon-like lawnmowers specifically around the theme for a little boy's room. You can read that blog here:
"Some of the most colourful and fun elements to add to a child's room, when decorating, are polystyrene wall decor items. These lightweight pictures can easily fill large empty wall spaces at very little cost, especially if you paint them yourself. That also means that you can change them much faster than most other items with whatever is new and popular in your child's life. There are a few things to pay attention to, though. Some paints and glues will actually dissolve/melt the polystyrene. In today's blog I give you a couple of tips for getting it right and show you a nifty trick for sticking those pesky things to the wall in a way that will not damage the wall."






Mama Africa Trio
These ladies are a pure delight and I used gouache to paint them in the blog.
"In today's blog I will be using Gouache paint to paint some African ladies. The designs used in this project are available from APrettyTalent.com. Go to Digital Downloads and select Mama Africa Trio. Add it your cart and proceed to checkout. The link to your downloads will appear in your inbox as soon as the transaction has cleared. Gouache is a water-soluble medium and is very similar to watercolors with the difference being that watercolors are transparent while gouache is opaque. This is why the two mediums work so well together. I walk you step by step through the painting process in today's blog so that you can try it yourself if you like it. This is fun and simple way to create decorative art for your home in no time."


Tea Set
This is a single design that has always been a favorite of mine. I made this one into a place mat:
"There are so many adults who have rediscovered the joy and therapeutic value of coloring that it has become a booming business! I am no exception to this rule. Only thing is that I like to turn my colored pages into crafts when I am done with them. Today I use one of the designs that are available for download in the store, APrettyTalent.com, for my project. You can head to Digital Downloads to see what is available or click here if you like the Tea Set. I designed this drawing when I wondered what a tea set would look like when invited to the Mad Hatter's tea party. I set out a Royal Dalton tea set and drew my inspiration from there. You would not believe it, would you?! Let me show you how I colored this design before I turn it into a very practical place mat."


The Ladies
The ladies is a collection of five designs of which I have not use all yet.





"For today's art project, we do something a little different with the background. We cover it with sheet music before starting our actual art. We then use a very limited palette to do the drawings with, allowing the background to speak where normally colour would have been the voice we used."


Steampunk Divas
This set of three larger than life ladies gave me a lot of fun and I blogged about them in a series of 3 blogs: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
"In this third installment of the series we continue using the techniques we learned in part 2 to create two more paintings for our triptych. We also use the embellishments we've prepared in the first part of the series. In the end we have some fun ladies that are larger than life, dwarfing their surroundings unapologetic-ally and unashamedly, living life to the full. In other words, a set of painting that makes a social statement about womanhood!"


Three-Not-So-Little-Pigs
These cute pigs gave me much pleasure to paint and then I sewed them into covers for my mom's kitchen appliances.
"I am not sure that everyone is familiar with Dala's range of fabric painting mediums. I know I had a lot to learn about this until recently. In the meantime, I have had an absolute ball of a time learning about ways in which to use it and it has opened a world of new possibilities to me. In today's blog I paint three (not so little) pigs on fabric, using these different mediums to introduce all of you to this wonderful new world that has opened up to me."


You will love the versatility of this book:


YMarietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy her books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
Jy kan Kom Ons Teken en Verf Tuinstories hier koop.
Jy kan Kom Ons Kleur Tuinstories In hier koop.
Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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