Decorate Your Walls with Stenciling Stenciling is designed for you home decorators who want to Decorate Your Walls with Stenciling and create original schemes without taking the risks that accompany mural painting. With stencils, you can have some idea of how the design will look and can even experiment with different colorways before you […]
Get Confidence With Using Color Words by Penny Swift & Pictures by Janek Szymanowski © We show you how to get confidence with using color. Color is an enormously powerful medium and a major consideration in modern home decorating. It is also an emotive and intensely personal subject – especially when it comes to
Studies of Nature and Landscapes by Mariota Percival “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” Walt Whitman Mariota’s heart lies in life studies of nature and landscapes in their changing light. From the intricate detail of the tiniest forms of life to the expanse of the Universe. Mariota’s Life
Art Born Out of a Long-lasting Fascination of World Architecture Mariota Percival’s interest in world architecture, ancient sites and different styles of houses was sparked during her history of art studies, and has grown during her travels. The media she uses for architectural studies includes pencil crayon, ink pen, watercolors, pencil crayons, oils and
Unique Cards and Book Illustrations by Mariota Percival Talented artist Mariota Percival specializes in unique beautiful cards and book illustrations. She has illustrated three children’s story books and provided a number of illustrations for Shuter & Shooter Publishers school books. They include a range of styles and paint media (ink pen, pencil crayons, acrylic and watercolour
Mariota Percival Art – Artist of Many Talents Available for Commissions The Mariota Percival art paintings and designs are inspired by the environment in which she has lived and traveled. She grew up in a creative family, in the gentle countryside of Lions River, in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Midlands of South Africa. Her childhood
How to Make Fabric Covered Plates Fabric covered plates, grouped together on a wall, make a magnificent display. They are also a perfect way of giving odd or slightly damaged plates a new lease of life while showing off your favorite scraps of fabric. If you do not have any scraps around the house,
How to Make a Rose Stenciled Tray Painting a stenciled tray can give it a new lease of life, it also makes an attractive and very useful accessory to display in your kitchen. This stenciled tray is made from wood, but metal trays can be painted and stenciled in the same way, using a
All About Treasure Trove Display Boxes Treasure Trove Display Boxes Display treasure trove boxes are useful and appealing. If you have a prize collection of trinkets or memorabilia hidden away in the back of a drawer or cupboard, now is just the time to sort it out and set it into a pleasing and
Decorate With Painted Tin Cans Don’t throw those old tin cans away, recycle them and make painted tin cans and use them to decorate with. Handy containers in which you can store items such as kitchen utensils, make-up brushes, or pencils can be decorated to match your kitchen china, soft furnishings or wallpaper. Instead
Traditional Barge Painting OK, so to do some Barge Painting you do not have to own a barge. For over a century, the inland waterways of Britain and Europe have literally sparkled with the brilliant colors and distinctive designs, which are painted on all the narrowboats and long boats moored along the water’s edge.
How To Do Wood Staining We show you here how to do wood staining the easy way. Stained timber is a way of changing the wood’s color without sacrificing the character of the grain and knots. This can be done discreetly using wood tones to improve the natural shade or imitate a more expensive
Hand Painting Things Hand painting things is a wonderful way of adding individual and coordinating touches to your home decorations without spending a great deal of time or money. You don’t have to be very artistic – a playful, naive image casually applied is frequently the most attractive and successful at creating a rustic
Decorate Your Own Headboard 1. Here Are A Few Headboard Ideas If your bed does not have an integrated headboard you can decorate your own headboard, it can be a distinct advantage. It offers you endless options to invent your own style, personalizing the headboard to suit your own taste, rather than living with
How to Do Leaf Printing We show you how to do leaf printing so you can avoid spending a fortune on all those expensive hand-printed papers. Why not have a go at making your own? Turn to nature to find an attractive motif and cover sheets of plain brown paper in a riot of
Making a Découpage Box Découpage has transformed this light plywood box into an attractive jewelry box. The pansies have been cut from a sheet of good-quality gift wrap. When choosing a box to decorate with découpage, make sure it has a loose-fitting lid as several layers of varnish brushed over the motifs will
How To Make Sponged Flower Pots Applying the paint with a natural sponge to achieve the sponged patterned background that adds to the overall effect and is ideal for hiding any small blemishes if the pot is slightly imperfect in any way. The Sponged effect can look equally dramatic on its own, highlighting the
Stencil Flowerpots – How To Make One Plain terracotta pots have a charm of their own but stenciled, each pot becomes an original item. Choose a new terracotta pot with smooth sides that has been water treated giving an unblemished, clean and even surface. There is a wide range of paint sample pots and
How To Make Your Own Painted Tulip Napkins Painting motifs on to fabric, then working simple embroidery stitches over them is a pretty way of making your table napkins totally original. Use this tulip motif or choose a favorite flower and paint it on a plain napkin, adding embroidery stitches to highlight or define
Floors, Furniture and Fabric Stencil Magic Stencil decoration on surfaces other than walls has a long history, and painted furniture, floors and even ceiling beams have brought color to traditional homes for centuries. Stencil Furniture Although you might never decorate a valuable or antique piece of furniture, you can use stenciling on everyday
How To Stencil – Get Started This is how to stencil the easy way. For your first attempt at stenciling, choose a project that is small and unlikely to cause grief if it doesn’t turn out well, but will be attractive enough to show off if it does; a little tray would be an
How To Decorate With BOLD Color Unless you are naturally daring with colors and willing to try decorating with bold color, it’s tempting to play safe by using white and pale tints as the basis of your home decorations. Such pastel and neutral shades are certainly comfortable to live with but, without some bright
Decorating With Paint Effects Most colorful paint effects, like sponging, dragging, ragging, stippling and color washing, have that marvelous hand-made quality which is ideal for the traditional country look. Their broken color gives a painted surface a unique richness and texture, which you can use to make a place or an object your
Mural Art – Bringing Art Home Story by Penny Swift & Pictures by Janek Szymanowski © Mural art and the living use of color have been decorative features of architecture for many centuries, projecting both cultural traditions and man’s yearning for fantasy. The History of Wall Paintings Wall paintings and various types of mural
How to Paint With Watercolor The step-by-steps on this page show the typical stages in the development of a watercolor landscape. For the landscape shown here the artist used a17- by 22-inch sheet of French hand-made, cold-pressed, 300-pound watercolor paper which, because of its thickness, required no stretching. To introduce a variety of brushstrokes, he
Color and Design Understanding color White light is made up of light of different colors. Anyone who has seen a rainbow has seen white light divided into its component colors, the colors of the spectrum. See the color wheel below. The red petals of a rose look red to us because they absorb all wavelengths
Collage – A contemporary art form Collage, from the French verb coller (“to glue”) is the general term for an artistic arrangement of various materials glued to a surface. See the collage “Cosmos” left by artist Diane Cadrain. Just about any material-fabric, wood, metal can be used in making collages. When more than one type
A Selection of the Best Fabric Painting Books Available Fabric Painting with Donna Dewberry: 40 Stylish Projects for Your Home & Wardrobe Readers will love discovering dozens of exciting and colourful new ideas for painting on anything in their wardrobe or home that is made out of fabric. Donna’s designs add elegance and boldness
A Selection of the Best Oil Painting Books Available The Complete Oil Painter: The Essential Reference for Beginners to Professionals Oils are perhaps the most versatile of all paint mediums. Yet for many artists oil painting is either shrouded in mystique or considered very difficult. Filled with clear, step-by-step instructions and surefire strategies, The
