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Monday 10 September 2018

A Summary with References of Blogs 851-900

A number of people have mentioned that they find it difficult to find specific blogs among the growing list of published blogs. This gave me the idea of publishing a summary of previously published blogs, with links and photo references. This way you only need to save a handful of blogs which can easily be accessed to navigate to the blogs you are looking for. This is the eighteenth of these Index Blogs.


Blog 851 - Growing Your Own Garlic
"When I was in Hondeklipbaai towards the end of last year, I found it a struggle to find the things I'm used to have handy in the city. This location is so remote, that one has to adjust and learn to make do without. One day, one of the local women came to visit and, spotting some garlic in the kitchen, told me she could teach me to grow my own. I was intrigued, and even though it was not my garden, I decided to nurse some garlic into life, with the help of my new friend. I share what I have learned in today's blog."


Blog 852 - Painting An Abstract Nude in Acrylics
"I never thought I would paint nudes, but someone recently intrigued me in a discussion, and I decided to give it a go with two different takes on this theme. The first of these is a rather more abstract rendition where lines were allowed to merge and flow into each other. The painting was also stripped of its detail, so that it gives the impression of a figure rather than pertinently bringing it to your attention. I show you how to do this painting in a couple of quick steps in today's blog."


Blog 853 - Painting A Nude In Acrylics
"While I was working on yesterday's abstract nude, I was also painting a more realistic version, at the same time. I decided to keep the backgrounds similar, but to change my tactics and style completely when it came to the figures themselves. For this painting, I paid much more attention to the detail of the lines, and to getting the light and shadows just right."


"There are a couple of techniques to use when painting rain. I show you one of these techniques when doing today's paintings, which is a set of two. I use heart-shaped canvasses as my backgrounds to illustrate my love of rain. As I do not mind getting wet, I go so far as to discard the umbrella in one of the paintings. I use acrylic paint as a medium."


"I love ostriches. They are such whimsical birds, and I associate them with good times, as they seemed to be around on most of my fun holidays and tours. In today's project I show you how to paint a rather frazzled looking ostrich. We use lots of fun colours in this painting to make sure it does not take a moody undertone. The process is one of pure joy and relaxation. I used acrylics as medium in this painting."


"When you search the internet, you will find lots of pictures of youngsters strolling or meeting in the rain, under an umbrella. I love the joy and thrill of young love, yet there is something very comfortable and inspiring about the love shared by an older couple. In today's painting, I show you how to paint an older couple taking a romantic moonlit stroll on a rainy evening. I use acrylics as medium."


"In a world that is grey and begging for conformity, it takes a strong person to stick to their principles of being true to themselves. It is only when we truly love ourselves that we can dare to live true to our own selves in this uniform world. In today's painting I reflect these sentiments by using trees in my illustration. I use acrylics as medium."


"A number of people have mentioned that they find it difficult to find specific blogs among the growing list of published blogs. This gave me the idea of publishing a summary of previously published blogs, with links and photo references. This way you only need to save a handful of blogs which can easily be accessed to navigate to the blogs you are looking for. This is the seventeenth of these Index Blogs."


Blog 859 - Heart Of Worship - A Figure in Acrylics
"It is a good thing to give thanks onto the Lord. Every so often in life, I am reminded of how good my life has turned out, and I ascribe all of this to the wonderful and miracle working role that our Father plays in my life. As I was getting ready to paint, the song "Heart of worship" was playing on the iPod and I joyfully sang along. As I was singing, the urge to paint the joy rising up in my spirit, came over me and today's painting is the result of this. I walk you through the steps of painting this yourself, using acrylics as painting medium."


Blog 860 - Chicken Duo: Rooster 1 In Acrylics
"I bought two rustic looking paint surfaces made of rough wooden planks. I wanted to paint something that reminded me of the simple things in life that gives me so much joy and pleasure. My choices fell on two roosters. I show you how to paint the first in this series of two roosters in today's blog. I use acrylics as painting medium."


Blog 861 - Chicken Duo: Rooster 2 In Acrylics
"In the previous blog, I showed you how to paint the first of a set of two roosters. I continue with the step by step instructions for painting the second rooster in today's blog. I once again use the rustic surface of rough planks that I used to paint the first rooster on. This makes the painting a little more tricky, as the rough surface keeps pushing the bristles of the brush in awkward directions, but stick to it. The end result is well worth the struggle."


Blog 862 - Colouring In: The Masterpiece
"Last month the PNA had a colouring-in competition to promote Francine Rivers' book The Masterpiece (Die Meesterstuk). I loved the picture and grabbed an entry form, not knowing if I would have time to colour it by the due date. The picture went into a drawer and I discovered it in the nick of time. I decided to blog the process of colouring the picture before sending the entry off to the adjudicators by email. I have no idea if it reached them on time, as I only sent it very late at night on the evening that the competition had closed. Regardless, enjoy the steps of colouring this bird with me."


Blog 863 - Cardmaking: Using Your Colouring Pages
"If you have been destressing with adult colouring, like I have, then you probably also have a rather large collection of colouring pages or books cluttering up your life. I like to turn my pages into practical objects that can bring joy to others, as they have already served this purpose in my own life. In today's blog, I share a couple of ideas for turning your colouring pages into cards in just a few short steps."


Blog 864 - Cardmaking: EGGcelent Easter!
"This year I found myself in a home that celebrated Easter with very much the same gusto that we celebrate Christmas. I realized that a card would be in the order of the day, even though this is not a tradition we hold in my family. I had an eggcellent idea for just such a card and sat down to paint one in next to no time."


Blog 865 - School Holiday Project - Cardmaking: Froggie Love
"Today's card is a bit of fun for someone special. This can be used as a Valentine's card, or simply as a birthday card. Whoever you give it to, it is sure to illicit a smile from the recipient. I chose to show step by step how to draw this simple figure, as I think this would also be a very fun card to do with the little ones. This card was inspired by a photo I discovered on Pinterest."


Blog 866 - School Holiday Project - Cardmaking: Happy Fishing!
"Today we make yet another card that has an element of fun attached to it. I can once again not lay claim to the originality of the idea, as it is yet again something I discovered on Pinterest. I do show you step by step how to make this very simple card, as I do believe it is one that the youngsters will enjoy doing as well. They may opt to do it simply as an art project. Mine is going to my dad for a birthday card, as he is an avid fisherman. The fun aspect of this card, lies in the fact that when it open up, so does the mouth of the fish, revealing a set of serious slashers for teeth, turning this very benign-looking fish, into a raving monster!"



Blog 867 - Paint A Fantasy Tree In Acrylics
"I recently came across a very similar fantastical tree on Pinterest and decided that I would like to borrow the idea and paint it myself. I show you how to go about it step by step in today's blog. I use acrylics as medium for this project."


Blog 868 - School Holiday Project - Hand Print Worms
"Today's project is a super fun one to do with the little ones. We use their hand prints to create worms. They absolutely loved the idea! What I especially love about this project is that the 'mess' is contained. Wash the hands promptly after painting and there is no fuss in the clean-up.


Blog 869 - School Holiday Project: Draw & Paint Tippie & His Cat
"My little niece and nephew are in grades 1 & 2 respectively. They use a set of readers in class where the main character is an elephant called Tippie. When I visited them during the school holidays, they took great pride in reading to me from their books. I wanted to incorporate this into their fun activities and realized that it would be possible for them to draw and paint the character themselves, if I gave them some guidance. We did just that, and afterwards even drew and painted Tippie's cat as well. I show you how easy it is to involve yourself in your child's school career in today's blog and to get them even more excited about learning than they already are."


Blog 870 - School Holiday Project: Draw & Paint Tippie's Cat
"In the previous blog I showed you how I helped the kids to draw and paint Tippie, the character from their school readers. When we were done with Tippie, the kids wanted to know if we could draw and paint his cat as well. I agreed that we should. At this stage they had gained enough confidence though to work ahead of me. As could be expected, their spatial orientation was not as good as in the first attempt, but I loved to see how they were able to interpret and dissect the lines all by themselves so that they effectively worked ahead of me who lugged behind with the camera."


Blog 871 - Sewing A Flower Bag: The Pattern (Part 1 of 3)
"I am temporarily sharing a house with someone who enjoys sewing bags as much as I do. It is an absolute thrill to finally meet up with someone who shares at least one of my passions with me, after sewing in isolation for so long. When I realized that we had this hobby in common, I promptly fetched my sewing machine and partial fabric stash from home so that we could sew together. I decided to design a brand new pattern to kick start our sewing together. I show you how to copy this pattern yourself in today's blog. In the following two blog I will show you how to construct the bag and how to sew the flowers."


Blog 872 - Sewing A Flower Bag: The Flowers (Part 2 of 3)
"I am celebrating the opportunity to sew a bag with someone who shares my passion for doing so with me. I decided to draw up a brand new pattern to do so and showed you how to copy the pattern for yourself in the previous blog. In this blog I show you how to make the flowers. In the next blog, which is the last of this series, I will show you how to construct the bag."


Blog 873 - Sewing A Flower Bag: The Construction Of The Bag (Part 3 of 3)
"Over the past two blogs, I have shown you how to draw up a pattern for this bag, as well as how to make the flowers which give the bags its flair. In this blog we finally get to put the bag together. We start by sewing the pockets, followed by the flap. We then construct the body of the bag and bring everything together by hand."


Blog 874 - Sewing A Sleepover Pillowcase
"My nieces and nephew are regularly coming over for sleepovers. They always insist on bringing their own pillows, along with pj's, a book or two, and the older one carts the cellphone and charger along as well. This makes for a very uncomfortable parcel to bring to my place. With this in mind, I decided to make them each a sleepover pillowcase. On the one side, it is simply a plain pillowcase, but on the other side, it has pockets for all of those trivia which is always carried over by an irate adult. I then added a handy handle to the top of the pillowcase, making it a very neat parcel that can be carried in one hand. I show you how to make this handy pillowcase in today's blog."


Blog 875 - Sew A Tissue Box
"I tend to stay away from home for long periods on end. I have lovely tissue boxes at home that I have made with decoupage or mosaics, but when I travel I am forced to live with ugly tissue boxes. Today, I finally decided to put this to an end. I have sewn myself a tissue box from fabric. This way it is lightweight and can be as compact as I need it to be. This turned out so nice, I may actually use it at home as well! I show you how to do it yourself in today's blog."


Blog 876 - Yams!
"I am teaching once again. The school where I started out as a young teacher was in desperate need of an English teacher and I agreed to go help out. It turned out that the Grade 11's were doing Chinua Achebe's book Things Fall Apart as their prescribed reader. In this book, the main character, Okonkwo, grows yams, a staple food in Nigeria, the setting of the book. I had never seen or tasted a yam and had a hard time explaining to the kids what this was. The other day I walked into my local greengrocer, and they had yams on the shelf! I immediately bought one, at much to high a price, to show to my pupils. Then I returned home with it and experimented with cooking it. Join me today on a taste exploration of yams!"


Blog 877 - Making A Hearty Vegetable Soup In The Slow Cooker
"I am in the process of moving into a new house in Alberton, as I have taken up a teaching job here. This does not leave me with a lot of time to prepare food. With this in mind, and as it is winter, I decided to chop up a huge amount fresh veggies. I used half of this to make myself a huge pot of soup, which I can freeze and defrost for convenient healthy meals. The other half of the veggies were frozen as is to be used in a soup or stew on another day. I show you how to make yourself such a hearty vegetable soup in today's blog with which to chase away the winter blues."


Blog 878 - Making Self-lined Taped Curtains
"Moving into a new house inevitably presents one with a whole new array of hick-ups. One of these was the height of the windows in my new abode. No ready-made curtains would fit these tall windows. I was forced to pack away all of my perfectly good curtains and set off to the fabric store to buy fabric to make curtains of the required length. In today's blog I show you how simple it is to sew taped curtains for yourself."


Blog 879 - Square Bag With A Sling: Drawing Up A Pattern & Cutting Out Part 1 of 4
"I love making handbags and every so often I bring out a new exclusive range. It became time again for a new range, and even though I was doing some relief teaching at the time, I decided to devote some of my time to this project. In this blog I show you how I went to draw up the pattern for the bag and then I show you how to cut out the fabric. In the following blogs I'll show you how to sew the bags, but also how to paint the funky designs that went onto the bags."


Blog 880 - Square Bag With A Sling: Constructing The Bag Part 2
"In the previous blog I showed you how to draw up the pattern for these cute bags, as well as how to go about cutting the patterns out on fabric. In today's blog I will show you how to construct the bag by sewing the different pieces together. In the last two blogs I will show you how to paint the cute patterns used in two of the bags."


Blog 881 - Square Bag With A Sling: Painting The Shopping Ladies Part 3 of 4
"For the past two blogs we have been looking at how to go about making the Square Art Bags with their slings. In this blog we look at how to paint the designs for those shopping ladies on one of the bags. I show you how to draw both of the pictures before we paint them."



Blog 882 - Square Bag With A Sling: Painting The Dancers Part 4 of 4
"For the past three blogs we have been looking at how to go about making the Square Art Bags with their slings. In the last blog we looked at how to paint the designs for those shopping ladies on one of the bags. In this blog I will show you how to draw and paint the dancers on the last of these bags."



Blog 883 - Cardmaking - Making An Underwater Scene Card
"In today's blog, I will share some steps for making a birthday card for a little boy. I chose the underwater scene theme because of his fascination with sea creatures. This card is very simple to make as I used a page from my colouring book to make it and then simply added a couple of surprise elements to make it a little more interesting. Be sure to scroll down to see the surprises inside the card as well."


Blog 884 - Bag With A Sling: Drawing Up A Pattern & Cutting It Out Part 1 of 6
"Two of my great loves in life are painting and sewing. I can hardly be happier than when these two hobbies cross paths and join together to make for an even happier project. This is exactly what happens in today's project when we make a handbag with a sling. What makes this project great fun is the fact that we paint the centre panels of the bag with cute figures and pictures. In this first blog in the series I show you how I went about to draw up the pattern for the bag. I also show you how to cut the pattern pieces from fabric when we are done. In the following blog I will show you how to construct the bag."


Blog 885 - Bag With A Sling: Constructing The Bag Part 2 of 6
"This is the second blog in a series of blogs on how to construct a bag with an arty centre panel. In the previous blog I showed you how to draw up the pattern to make this bag and we then proceeded to cut the pattern from fabric. In this blog I will show you step by step how to construct the bag by sewing the panels together. In the following blogs I will walk you through the steps for drawing and painting the various art panels."


Blog 886 - Bag With A Sling: Painting Blue Fashion Models For The Bag Part 3 of 6
"In the past two blogs I have shared tips with you for creating an Art Bag with a sling. What makes these bags fascinating is the art panels that are the focal points on the bags. In today's blog I will show you how to paint the two fashion models in blue, as they appear on one of the bags."



Blog 887 - Bag With A Sling: Painting Blue & Maroon Fashion Models Part 4 of 6
"I am busy with a range of bags where the focal point is the art pieces in the centre panels of the bag. In the first two blogs I shared tips on how to construct the pattern and how to sew the bag. In the third blog I showed you how to paint some fashion models in blue. I continue with this idea in today's blog, but this time we add some maroon to our fashion range."



Blog 888 - Bag With A Sling: Painting Dancing African Ladies Part 5 of 6
"We are still busy with a range of bags in which the centre pieces are paintings. In the first two blogs of the series, I have shared tips for the pattern and construction of the bag. This was followed by blogs on how to paint some fashion models for the centre panels. Today we are moving slightly off the fashion pages and focusing on some dancing African ladies, sticking to the elongated silhouettes we've been working with."



Blog 889 - Bag With A Sling: Painting Fashionable African Ladies Part 6 of 6
"We have finally reached the last blog in a series on how to construct 'Art Bags.' These are bags where the focal point are the centre panels, which are hand painted with elongated figures. The first two blogs in the series dealt with the pattern and construction of the bag. This was followed by three blogs in which I shared step by step tips on painting the figures on the bags. Today I share the last of these painting blogs, when I show you how to paint some fashionable African ladies."



Blog 890 - Cardmaking - Making The Masterpiece Card
"In today's blog, I show you how to make a special card for that creative person in your life, to encourage them to give it their best shot when embarking on a course. I used a page I coloured for a recent competition as the main theme of the card, taking great care to mount it properly. I show you how to make this simple card in today's blog."


Blog 891 - Decoupage A Utility Box
"While I stayed in a rented room for four months earlier this year, my art supplies had all been packed up and put in storage. However, I found it impossible to go four months without doing any art and soon purchased new supplies to help pass the time till I could be reunited with my stash. One of the items I purchased, was a huge wooden utility box. I used this to keep my paints and brushes in, but I also used it as a surface to paint smaller canvasses, as well as to use the lid as a palette on which to mix my colours. I knew I would be able to recover the box again when I no longer needed it for these purposes. I figured that I would then use it to keep some of my 12" x 12" craft papers in. In today's blog I show you how to paint and decoupage a utility box so that it is good as new."


Blog 892 - How to draw: A Bottlenose Whale
"I have decided to do a series on how to draw. However, aside from giving you some tips on how to draw certain animals, people, places, vehicles, and more, I also want to use the series to introduce you to a range of mediums and art materials. In this first blog in the series, we are going to draw a very simple shape, when we draw the bottlenose whale. I opted to use pens to draw and colour the whale in. Let me show you how in a few steps."


Blog 893 - How to draw: A Pig
"In this second blog on learning to draw, I will show you how to draw a pig in a couple of easy steps. We will then use tinted charcoal to colour the pig. If you unfamiliar with tinted charcoal, you are in for a treat!"


Blog 894 - How to draw: A Stegosaurus
"I have a little boy in my life who adores his aunt, and the feeling is absolutely mutual. If it were not for him, I probably never would have drawn a dinosaur. However, as he is an integral part of my life, I find myself drawing dinosaurs more often than I would have imagined possible. In today's blog, I show you step by step how to draw a dinosaur. Then I use normal colouring pencils to colour it - the kind you will find inside any child's school bag. You will not believe how easy it is to draw and colour this Stegosaurus."


Blog 895 - Decoupage A Carry Case
"My mom's birthday is coming up and she has had her eye on a set of pencils for a while now, always putting off buying it, because something else enjoyed preference. I figured her birthday was the ideal time to surprise her with the longed-for pencils. However, I wanted to give her something nice to keep them in. I had this old wooden carry case lying around the house, which would be ideal for this purpose. The problem was that it had become very ugly through long years of use. A fresh coat of paint and some decoupage would do just the trick. I show you I went about it in today's blog."


Blog 896 - How to draw: An Excavator
"Today we continue the series on how to draw things with a drawing of an excavator. I am not a technical artist by any means, and I am sure there will be some of you out there who will be able to spot some obvious errors in my drawing. However, I hide myself behind artistic freedom, and show you how I went about it anyway. The really fun part of today's blog, is that I use acrylic ink to paint the drawing with, when we are done. Ink is one of my all time favourite mediums and I can barely wait to introduce you to it!"


Blog 897 - How to draw: A Grizzly Bear
"We have a lot of fun in today's blog when I show you how to draw this furry grizzly bear. After following the steps to draw the bear, I will use a very special type of pencil, manufactured by Derwent, called the Drawing pencils, to colour the bear with. These pencils have been specially developed to draw animals with and are an absolute treat to work with. However, if you can't lay your hands on these, feel free to use your own colouring pencils instead."


Blog 898 - How to draw: A Mustang Aeroplane
"I am really pushing my luck this week by attempting yet a second technical drawing! This time we are going to draw and paint a Second World War favourite bomber plane, named the Mustang. You guessed it - it was developed in America. We paint this drawing with water-soluble wax crayons. Sounds incredible, doesn't it? Well, it exists! Prepare to have fun!"


Blog 899 - How to draw: A Boxer
"In today's drawing lesson, we are going to be drawing a boxer, step by step. When the drawing is in place, I will introduce you to tinted graphite pencils. This is the same stuff that is used to make normal grey pencils. They simply add a tint to it. The result is something widely different from normal colouring pencils. It gets even more interesting when we discover that these pencils are also water-soluble - and that the painted colour is different from the dry one! I will show you more in this blog."


Blog 900 - How to draw: A Centipede
"It is time we learned to draw the creepy crawlies. These have always fascinated me, but even more so after I wrote and illustrated my first children's novel. In today's blog I am going to show you how to draw a centipede, paying close attention to getting the detail right that makes this creature so creepy. We then use a combination of media to colour our picture, namely pens and colouring pencils. This is more fun than it would appear at first glance."


Follow these links to previous Index Blogs:
Blogs 1-50
Blogs 51-100
Blogs 101-150
Blogs 151-200
Blogs 201-250
Blogs 251-300
Blogs 301-350
Blogs 351-400
Blogs 451-500
Blogs 501-550
Blogs 551-600
Blogs 601-650
Blogs 651-700
Blogs 701-750
Blogs 751-800
Blogs 801-850
Blogs 851-900

Melette Els (Clinical Social Work) can be contacted via the webpage www.m-e.co.za, or by email at melette.els@gmail.com, or by phone at 082 776 1536.
Melette Els B.A. (SocSc) M. (Th) 
BHF Pr Nr.: 089 000 00 28754 SACSSP Reg.Nr.: 10-17310



Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
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