I am a snow baby – always have been!

I was born in the snow.  Not this may not seem so exciting until I explain that I was born in South Africa where it only snows every 20 years or so.  For years I longed for snow. I was fascinated by it – the intricacies of snow flakes and the beauty of white all around.

The winter of 2008 changed that for me – I had a car accident in the ice and landed up sitting in an upturned car for a few hours while I waited to be rescued.  I also learnt that although snow and ice is beautiful it is deadly and has all sorts of knock-on effects.  So my love of snow had to retreat to my arty crafty life, where it isn’t cold, wet and slippy.

This photo is of a recent canvas I created for one of my crafty swaps.  I have cropped the bottom where I had the family names painted in.  I did a few of these this year – Snow people family portraits.  I nice keepsake.

Over Christmas I take down all the pictures in my house and replace them with Christmas art – beautiful needlework hangings made by my Mum, creative wreaths from my sister and crafty gifts from friends.  It give the house a festive feel along with scented candles and of course a few seasonal songs.

Here is wishing you and your family a happy Christmas and a peaceful few days – filled with family, friendship and fun.

Kerry

Yellow Turquoise and Textures

My creative name is Kerry Buí  (BuÍ is Yellow in the Irish language), but my favourite colour is turqoise.  This textured mixed media piece reflects both of these colours with a whole lot of texutre.  Scroll down to see how I did it (and hopefully you will give it a go).

When I opened my craft shop I was asked what colour it should be painted.  Without missing a beat I said Yellow.  It is such a happy colour, but soothing at the same time.  It is the colour that makes me smile.  Before I knew it it was being called the Siopa Buí – I liked it and the name stuck.  My little Yellow Shop!  One day Mr Postman brought a letter addressed to Kerry Buí and the name of the town.  It found me!  A lucky name.

Right more about this mixed media piece which is currently hanging in my kitchen.  There were two points of inspiration.  The first was a wonderful workshop with the talented Finnabair and the second was a visit to a talented friend Angie from Fracture Worx who had an amazing textured canvas hanging in her house.  I had to try it !

I used various gel mediums plus a fabulous medium that has little glass type balls in it.  After giving the previously loved canvas a coat of white gesso I set about painting a landscape with a pallet knife, a brush and my mediums.  Once the canvas was fully dry I laid it on an old towel on my kitchen floor and started to have fun.  I used ready made sprays, home made sprays, mica powders and a water spray.  A bit of tilting and turning to get the colours to behave and I was done.

I love the way it has turned out.  It is really tranquil to look at, but the texture draws me in.

Thanks for looking.

Kerry

p.s. next post is all about making cards to sell.