Mixed media – Varla's Blue Sheep Art

We noticed on Pinterest that pinecones can be turned into flowers! We thought this was a cool idea and we decided to try it. So off we went walking and gathering our supplies. We did need to make a pit stop at Michaels for some craft paint and now we have what we need.

Sometimes all you need is a spark of an idea. That described my granddaughter and I, we had a brilliant idea. We decided to make art from pieces that we found in the neighborhood. In her neighborhood there are a lot of pinecones, acorns, leaves and sticks. Surely we could make something creative with that. I know my granddaughter has a glue gun so anything is possible. We went hunting and gathering.

Painting and glueing was the fun and easy part. The challenge came when we started to cut the pinecones. We wanted to turn pinecones into flowers using only the bottom portion of the cone Has anyone ever tried to cut a pinecone? It isn’t too easy; in fact it’s almost impossible.

Here’s what we did and here’s what we learned: *craft scissors don’t work * mom’s scissors from the kitchen drawer doesn’t work and we knew we would be in BIG trouble if we used the sewing scissors* dad’s saw didn’t work but it did get the feeling you might actually be making progress-not *tried a saw with deep teeth which only scared us at the thought of losing a finger….*we then tried wire clippers which only cut the pinecone petals like toe nails which now were flying everywhere in the garage * finally we learned that clipping the petals and twisting the core with pliers finally got us a pinecone that looked like a flower!!!

We painted and glued and glued some more. In the end we liked what we created. Each backyard is full of possibilities so go and be creative. Make something that has never existed before and have fun.❤️

I belong to this art group of wonderful and talented ladies. We challenge ourselves and laugh while we do it. We have done acrylic pours, painted on yupo and painted our own self portraits.

Just before the pandemic hit we had challenged ourselves to create an artistic piece without using normal paper and canvas. It immediately got my wheels turning. Who knew we would have nearly two years to ponder this. Covid kept us all quarantined.

Earlier this week we finally came together at one of the artist’s home to show off our creative works. Of course we had wine, food and prizes. I won the most scariest. There was a discussion on whether my piece of art reflected who my inner self was. Hmm, no it reflected Goodwill and a glue gun! Turned out we all got prizes. This is my kind if competition.

We are now challenging ourselves with what we can do with leaves and Mod Podge. I sense another competition in the air. ❤️

So here is my scary piece of art. There is a bird nest on top of her head with eggs in it. The face is covered in bird tattoos and inside the body is a bird with purple glass leaves.

So what does this say about the artist?🧐