About Me

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Sublimity, OR, United States
****WELCOME FRIENDS****
I am artist of texture and color. I enjoy working with textiles, mixed media and the graphic arts. I am an avid cottage gardener with a love for pass along plants and big fluffy pink peonies and pink roses. Many of my tangible creations reflect my love of the garden and all its wonderful colors. I have been selling my creations online since 2002 beginning as a hobby. After 10 years I quit the day job to pursue my art as a full time passion.

31 March 2015

Chairs for Charity 2015

I finally finished my chair restoration for Chairs for Charity auction 2015.

Each year I donate an up-cycled theme decorated chair to a great cause. Chairs for Charity to bring awareness to L.A.M. My friend Carrie suffers from this lung disease and is a champion for getting the word out and raising funds and awareness of this little know affliction. You can read more about it here.


Below is the primed chair--it was a walnut wood color with this rose pink seat


 After priming, I used a couple of different stencils to get my flourishes on the back panel. I then used a chalk finish paint called Americana Decor in the "Yesteryear" color.  I will put my 2 cents in about chalk paint. I know there are many die hard Annie Sloan paint fans out there. I have used her paint, I even took a sponsored ASP class, and I love her paint. But at $40 a quart, the alternatives on the market are just as good. And there are a lot of recipes on the internet to make your own and several are not the right proportions and you can get some bad results. I have found the best "make your own" recipe is on the Lowe's website. You can buy their little sample pots (they will mix you any color you want). But for this project I was able to get this paint on sale at Craft Warehouse for $6.99 and I really liked the color.

Next was the waxing. I started with an antique color wax. I hated it! With the brown cast on the grey it looked dirty. So I mixed a clear wax with some black acrylic paint and waxed again and got the results I was looking for.


 finding the perfect seat fabric was not easy!
Sometimes it pays to walk back to the clearance area of the fabric store! I found this amazing remnant for $9 a yard. The bird was the perfect shade of grey.
 

So now the hunt begins again for next years chair!


Feature Fridays
No Minimalist Here



15 March 2015

Vintage Alphabet party

This month the letters are
G and H for the Embracing Cottage Style Blog party!


For the letter "G", I am using the GIFT TAGS I have digitally created from vintage images, and are available for purchase on my website
MarionberryCottage.com



For H, I chose Hankies and Handbags


These are a couple of my most popular styles--
fashioned from vintage hankies, crochet and lace.
 

Wanta play too?
Join us over at
EmbracingCottageStyle blog
the party runs all week!

Every Saturday

Where we reside

Where we reside

The Oregon Coastline

The Oregon Coastline