Tag Archives: birthday gifts

Birthday Notion

Let Us Pray. 8 x 8 Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. © Sheila Delgado 2015

Let Us Pray. 8 x 8 Acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas. Sheila Delgado 2015

Apologies for the bad photo quality. There is a glare off the upper right corner, altering the colors. This is my gift to a friend for her birthday.  She loved it so much, that she asked me to do nine more. Those will be her gifts to the church council.

I was really intimidated by doing the lettering for this. I kept putting it off, actually. I started by using Photoshop to choose a font and layout, sizing it for the canvas. I printed it out, and then transferred it to the canvas.

I painted the letters, then outlined them with a waterproof pen. I had to go back and touch up a few spots with more white paint. I was sort of alternating between pen and paint to smooth out a few mistakes. But overall, the lettering was easier than I thought it would be, and I did not goof half as much as I expected. Nice surprise.

I also worked on a quick card.

Watercolor Birthday card, sheiladelgado.com

Watercolor Birthday card.

Time to start those nine prayer pieces!

Happy weekend ya’ll!

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Pastel Practice and Fast Fabrics

Desert Bush. 4 x 5 pastel.   © Sheila Delgado 2014.

Desert Bush. 4 x 5 pastel. © Sheila Delgado 2014.

I recently completed these two small pastels. They were gifts for my parents. I am going to call them successful, because I learned from them and because the receivers liked them. Honestly though, they did not turn out like the image in my head.

I am happy with them. And I know what I can do better next time.  For this first one, I did not have a pre-cut mat, so I mounted it on a textured paper with threads and wrinkles. I know there is a name for it, just is not coming to mind.

Seascape. 5 x 7 pastel. © Sheila Delgado 2014

Seascape. 5 x 7 pastel. © Sheila Delgado 2014

The seascape was a lot of fun too. For each of these, I realized I do not have the right yellows or oranges. (My clearance set of pastels is missing sticks.) I am really happy with my water. My dark clouds look like Tootsie rolls instead of cotton candy, so yeah, more practice needed.

Close up, Seascape. 5 x 7 pastel. © Sheila Delgado 2014

Close up, Seascape. 5 x 7 pastel. © Sheila Delgado 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also completed a fabric collection for Spoonflower’s Sewing Notions contest. The challenge was to create four coordinating designs. I don’t consider these particularly strong designs, but I completed all four in a two day span. That is a first for me, and I was really happy reaching that goal. I had to keep the designs simple due to the time frame.

Chevron Pattern, needles.  © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

Chevron Pattern, needles. © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

Oh and… a computer glitch lost three of the designs, and I had to do them a second time from scratch.  I started with the needles, I knew I was going to do a chevron from the beginning. It was one of those ideas that came to me before I was even fully awake. The palette was there too.

Pin cushions. © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

Pin cushions. © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

That led to the pin cushions. I tried to make them abstract flowers. This element actually took the longest, lots of little parts in there, but due to the scale, the detail is really lost (another lesson). Still it is a useful design.

Cushion close up.

Cushion close up.

The contest was guest judged by Denyse Schmidt of Love Patchwork & Quilting Magazine. With quilting in mind, I added a bright check to the mix. (see the sampler below) I pulled colors from the pin cushions, knowing that I needed to wake up these two very subdued patterns.

Buttons.  © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

Buttons. © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

The last design pulls in the same  bright colors, and adds new shapes in a basic toss pattern.  That red packs a punch right?  The buttons were really fun to work on.

You can click on the pattern images to see a larger view, or get a glimpse of how they would look in the yard view. Each design is available individually, or as a one yard sampler. I’d love to hear what you think. You can see the fabulous winning designs here.

Sewing notions collection. © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com

Sewing notions collection. © Sheila Delgado 2014. Available on Spoonflower.com