Wednesday, September 29, 2010

It's a man thing...

 ....BUT WHY?!?!?!




This is what I have been working on the last two weeks. Yes, that's right... I, as in me; female, loves shopping, shoes and my favourite movies are Dirty Dancing and Bridget Jones!

But as soon as I tell people that I'm currently converting our new car into a camper-van I get strange looks.
I think working on a car is still man stuff, but I do really enjoy it too! (That doesn't make me a bloke though....lol) 

Luckily my boyfriend trusts me on delivering a good job with the transformation. Of course he would love to do it himself but beside his work there isn't much spare time left. 

It has to be ready for use by the end of next week, because we will be driving from Melbourne to Brisbane that weekend (21 hrs drive!). Boyfriend will be working there till the end of the year and I will be joining him for a couple of weeks (yay!) We absolutely looooove camping and will use the weekends to discover Queensland! 
(Obviously I'll bring some craft stuff and a laptop to continue my Mon Cherry crafts during the week)

Allright, back to work now.... I have a deadline!
(I will show the pictures when I'm finished)

Thanks for visiting : )

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Love at first sight!




Sometimes you can find a true treasure in an antique shops.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

ABC!


Allright,I'm not a big fan of copying other people's work. But also I don't have the money to buy all the art I like. So sometimes it comes in handy that I'm creative and good at painting.

I'm a big fan of ISAK. (http://www.isak.co.uk). Their happy designs really make me happy!
This painting is an idea copied from a print I saw on their website.


My sister just gave her living room a big make over ( have a look on her blog Uttemetut) and I wanted to make her something nice that suites the new room. So I decided to make my own version of one of the ISAK prints. It's their idea. I just used my own colours and images.

My sister just received the painting by mail and she loved it!

So do I!
I most definitely going to make one for my own living room as well!
 

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bumble Bee!



Two weeks ago I was asked to make a Bee mobile.
The Bee mobile was spotted in a little shop in Melbourne, but unfortunately wasn't for sale. Therefor I was asked to make something similar (if I could).
Always up for a challenge I went on an undercover mission to investigate the Bumble Bee.
Acting like I was an ordinary customer I discovered the bee in a corner of the little toy shop and I was able to take a snapshot whit out being catched by the lovely shop assistant.

I figured out it was do-able to make a mobile like this. I just wasn't to impressed with the bee used in the example. Being a bit picky I decided to draw my own Bee.
And as a little extra I added a little flower, which can be removed from the Bee's hands as well.


Bee Happy!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Do it yourself, Part 2



As promised here is how you can make yesterdays paintings yourself.

Start up the Computer!

1. Open Microsoft Word on your computer.
(don't worry... I'm really not into computers but even I can do this!)

2. Click 'insert' and choose 'picture'.

3. Choose a picture from your file.

4. The picture will pop up in your Word screen.

5. Click on the picture to select it.

6. Click on 'format' (on top of the screen) and choose 'picture'.

7. Click on 'recolor' and choose 'black and white'.

!!! Very important: Not every picture comes up well in black and white. Lets say just one or two out of ten pictures will work. You can work a bit with brightness and contrast but mostly you'll see soon enough if the picture works or not. A picture that's to dark or bright won't work. Pictures of young children are very hard as their face doesn't show enough contrast yet. But don't give up. Try different photo's. At some point a good one will appear!!!

(I think for Ties I tried 20 or more pictures before one worked!)

8. If you are happy with the picture expand it over the whole page. So enlarge it to fit on an A4 paper.

9. Print it.

This is where the drawing and painting begins!

10. Paint a canvas in the background colour of your choice (not to dark!)


11. Lay a transfer paper on the canvas and on top of that the black and white print.

12. Use a bit of painters tape to prevent moving of the papers.

13. Draw around all the black shapes (take a blue pen so you can see what you have done already). 
You don't have to be to precise. Just be extra careful around the face. That's the most important part.
If there is a white part in an black part, draw around that as well (see his lips for example).
And don't forget the tiniest spots.

Make sure you push your pen hard enough for it to transfers on the canvas. Take a pen with a pointy tip!


14. If you finished drawing remove the papers from the canvas.

15. Choose a fine pencil with a pointy tip and start painting inbetween the lines you drew.
Sometimes it all looks a bit confusing (mostly the hairs and clothes) but you can look at your A4print for references on what to paint black or not.

Again it's not a big problem if you mis a bit (especially not the hair, etc). Just make sure you get the face right!


15. Paint the name. I did it by printing it on paper (choose a nice font and the right size) and transferring it on the canvas again with the transfer paper. Choose a bright colour to paint.

That's it...your ready!

And believe me, it's not as hard as it looks. I've seen people do it without any painting skills and it worked out fine! I guess you need a little bit of patience and that's it!

If you want to give it a go, feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need some help!
moncherry@live.com.au

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Do it yourself project!



A couple of years ago I painted these canvasses as a Christmas present for my sister and her family 
(well not Ties yet, as he wasn't born back then...lol)

I'll show you tomorrow how you can do it yourself!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Spring!


Spring makes me spring*!
* spring=jump in Dutch

Today was such a lovely day here in Melbourne.
Everything looks so much nicer when the sun is shining, 
don't you think?!
I worked in the garden all day and loved it!

Wish you all a sunny day as well!

Monday, September 13, 2010

A little birdie told me...


A little birdie told me 'Lucinda Claire' was born,


and I was asked to make a coat rack for the little girl, and a matching toy box.


I normally use an IKEA toy box to re-decorate, but for some reason they took this item out of their collection. I found another (affordable) one but still wasn't happy with it. That left me just one more option...


 ...make the box myself! It worked out very well!


Welcome to the world Lucinda Claire! 

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Flashback!


This is why I love Melbourne so much!
You'll visit a random suburb and you'll find the most amazing shops.
Like the one we found in Northcote last Saturday. 
It's called 'Flashback' and here you can buy 
original vintage fabrics and wall papers! 

(Whoaaaaa..... want to buy them all!)

www.flashbackfabric.com.au/

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Tees!




I made these tees for my nieces.
(yes I know can't stop blogging about them...lol)

The funny thing is that at some point we visited a shop (both girls wearing the tees)
 and the lady of the shop asked
'would you like a candy Janne?' 
In response Janne looked very surprised and immediately asked
'how do you know my name?!' 

Very funny.

I wanted to thank you all for your nice comments.
Just to let you know, I feel fine again. It took me a week to get over my jetlag. Although I still mis my family, I do enjoy being back in Melbourne a lot as well. 
I'm working on all kinds of nice crafty projects (to be continued), I have heaps of ideas for our 'new' home and spring is in the air. So I can't complain at all!

On top of that I received an award again. This time from Marjan from hebikgemaakt
Her blog is very inspiring and there are lots of different things she makes. If you are on the hunt for some ideas and inspiration, make sure you'll have a look on her blog!
Thank you so much Marjan!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Spring has sprung....

....and all we had so far is just one day of sun!

But I took the opportunity to run outside with my camera that day. 
Because I had to show you what I found in our garden after we came back from our vacation....

(hmmm.... actually we found grass and weed growing till our bellybuttons! But hidden in between we found these...)

... 'aronskelken' or 'arums' as they are called in english!
Can't believe such a beautiful flower (well actually heaps of them) are growing in our garden.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

3 little bunnies (trying to look cool)





I painted these for my niece's room a few years ago.
Still adorable I think, but I guess aunty Monique will be asked to make something more 'cool' and 'grown up' soon.
(no doubt it has to be pink with lots of bling bling)!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Baby Bouquet




What a great gift idea this is for a baby shower!
A bouquet of flowers made from tissue paper and in it you'll find little hidden treasures like baby socks, lotion, a softie a cute rattle, etc.

It was made by a very creative friend of mine for another friend of us who you just got a little baby girl.
Congratulations!!!

Meanwhile I received an award from Hiske from
I had the pleasure of meeting her while I was on my holiday in The Netherlands.
She bakes the most yummy things and it all looks gorgeous!
Dankjewel Hiske!