Painting A Blackboard Turtle

I have a birthday for a little boy coming up and this is always an ideal time to get into the mind of a young child. This boy loves drawing and has recently become enchanted by turtles. Well, I knew just the trick for combining these two loves into one project. I would use the turtle wooden cut-out I had in the studio, gather my Dala Blackboard Paint and turn this turtle into a lovely and fun blackboard for him to draw his own art on.

This is the wooden cut-out that I started my project on.

Dala Blackboard Paint will take directly on the wood without a problem, but I wanted to start on a whiter surface as this would make the colours appear brighter. That is why I started the project off by painting the turtle with Dala Acrylic Gesso, which is a surface treatment. You can read more about this fantastic product in an earlier blog. Simply click on this link to read that blog.

I painted one side of the turtle with the gesso.

The edges of the turtle was also covered with the gesso.

I waited before flipping the turtle over and covering the other side with the gesso as well.

I wanted to paint the turtle in Dala Blackboard Paint as this would make it a useful toy for the boy to play with. You can read more about Dala Blackboard Paint in a previous blog where I discuss this wonderful product in great detail. Read this previous blog at this link.

I wanted to paint both sides of the turtle to make it more versatile. One side would be painted in plain black, while the other would be painted more decoratively. I therefore started with a first coat of black.

I gave the first coat a chance to dry and then painted a second coat.

I waited for the second coat to become touch dry as well. I then swapped to a softer brush that would not be likely to leave paint lines and painted a third and final coat.

I also painted the edges of the turtle black.

When the last coat was dry, I flipped the turtle over and noticed that I had smeared some paint on this side. I quickly covered these areas with more gesso.

When the gesso was dry, I used a pencil to draw detail onto the turtle.

I started with blue on the shell.

I then moved to Navy Blue detail on the shell.

I painted teal on the feet and head.

The edges of the shell was painted grey.

I used pink on the mouth and more grey on the eyebrow.

The lashes and dimples was painted with black.

By this time my  first colours had dried and I could move directly on to the second coat. I repeated the same steps a second time. I only applied a third coat where I thought the turtle needed it, working selectively on this coat.

I then decided to paint a black trim all around the design, allowing it to resemble a cartoon drawing.

I then touched up the edges where necessary.

Finally the turtle was ready to go into a gift bag along with some chalks to make a little boy happy.

The front was pretty and he could easily draw on that side as it was painted completely with only Blackboard Paints, but I kept the back purposefully simple to keep it clear of distractions for his own art work.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the 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.
For more crafty ideas and great products, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.

Baked Spinach & Feta Pie

I had bought a huge bag of Spinach at the market and we all loved it, but after eating about half of what was prepared it was time to do something new with the leftovers. This was the perfect time to bake a Spinach & Feta Pie. I show you how easy this is to do in today's blog. Best is that this is extremely healthy as well!

This spinach was boiled in water with salt and pepper added, a little butter and an onions and a potato, but you can use virtually any leftover spinach, or start with freshly cooked spinach which is chopped fine. The spinach is added to a large mixing bowl.

I fry 250 g bacon in some oil before adding it to the mixing bowl.

I then chop an onion finely and fry this in the oil as well before adding it to the mixing bowl.

Lightly beat 6 eggs and add these to the mixing bowl.

Instead of adding cream, I opt to add a cup (250 ml) of plain yogurt to the mixing bowl.

1 teaspoon (5 ml) each of salt and pepper is added for seasoning.

I'll show you a quick progress photo. As you can see everything is literally simply added to the bowl and will be mixed in at the end.

I now chop about 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) feta cheese and crumble this into the bowl as well.

3 teaspoons (15 ml) crushed garlic is added before everything is mixed together.

After mixing I add 1 cup (250 ml) cake flour and 1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking powder. I then mix everything together again.

Prepare a large baking dish with non-stick spray.

Pour the mixture into the dish. Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C.

Grate 2 cups (500 ml) Cheddar Cheese.

Remove the half-baked pie from the oven and cover with the grated cheese. Increase the oven temperature to 200 °C and bake for another 15-20 minutes

Remove from the oven when a test pin comes out clean.

Serve hot and fresh from the oven.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the 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.
For more crafty ideas and great products, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.

Cardmaking: Making Effective Use Of Layers In A Card

To make today's card, I am going to be using off-cuts from previous projects to try and reduce costs. I make a point of always keeping off-cut pieces and today I will show you how to build a beautiful card using only your discarded items laying around the craft room. This is so much fun, you may never make another kind of card ever again!

I start this card from a patterned A4 cardboard that is printed on one side only.

The carboard is trimmed to fit inside the envelope I will slip the card into.

The cardboard is then scored down the center where the fold will be.

The card is folded over a ruler to ensure a neat fold line.

Make sure to test the fit of the card in the envelope before continuing. Changes can easily be made at this stage, but may require more effort at the end of the project!

Not liking the idea of a plain white card on the inside, I trim an A4 paper to measure 0,5 cm smaller than the card in width as well as length.

This paper will be placed inside the card, breaking the monotony of the white paper.

Fold the paper in half and put some double-sided tape along one side of the fold.

Stick the paper inside the card. You now have a much more interesting surface to write your message on.

I found this off-cut piece of paper in my paper stash and promptly trimmed it to fit on top of my card. It was attached with double-sided tape.

I then laid a plain paper rectangle in place, sticking to the colour theme selected.

Another shade of paper was added, going ever smaller to the top to ensure the bottom layers remain partially visible.

This was followed by a piece of vellum paper.

Now came three random lengths of Washi Tape.

I then used the off-cuts from the inside paper to punch out a birthday message.

These letters were mounted on 3D double-sided squares.

This close-up shows how the squares are actually cut in half to mount the letters on.

The message is placed in the empty spaces of the card.

I had these three objects left over from an earlier art project. These are the frame supports that go in the back of stretched canvasses. Many people don't put these in an I often get these donated to me. I mixed some Dala Fine Art Sand with Dala Acrylic Paint and used a palette knife to paint these with. I would now use these to simulate candles on my card, as well as to add interesting texture to the card.

Wood glue is perfect for fixing these embellishments to the card.

Leave these to dry.

I then found some Dala Foam Rubber that I had punched flowers out of. I kept these, thinking I could use the negative flowers in another project. I now had another use for the foam rubber. The leftover pieces were just large enough to cut three flames from for my candles.

The flames were mounted on 3D squares.

With the candles all lit up, the card was finished, and I only used left-over discards to make it!

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the 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.
For more crafty ideas and great products, visit A Pretty Talent on Facebook.
Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
You can subscribe to this blog and receive regular updates by email by simply registering your email address at the top of the current blog.