MILTON LEFT A MESS

Power outages and no internet gave us a few days without being connected to the rest of the world! 

 The yard is a mess everywhere but there was no damage 

to our house for which we are grateful!  

The banana trees didn't fare as well, unfortunately!  

I did a bit of knitting on the smaller Sentro knitting machine 

using DK weight yarn.  I would think It will fit 6-12 month olds.

I also finished another pre-illness project, the crow wall plaque! 

I just needed to put the polyacrylic on to seal the painted wood 

so I could put the Cricut cut vinyl on as the finishing touch!

 

And a noble view of my companion, Lena.

SHARK ATTACK

It was time to finish the shark plaque!  I covered my work space, gatheredd all my supplies and began to pour resin!

Most of the pieces went down well--I did get a bit sticky but a package of wipes sure helps keep that from getting out of hand!  I then finished adding the resin around the design and let it self-level and flow down the sides, too.

You can't tell, but the wood is sitting up on spacers so that the resin won't harden onto the work surface. 

You can see the depth the resin gives to the paint and the riser underneath the wood in this photo. 

 I set a large plastic bin over the top and let it dry for 24 hours.

After drying I added a picture hanger on the back and will let it dry  for another 5 days before I ship it out to my oldest grandson! Some crafts that I try I think, "There, I've done that!" but this one is not the last of the shark teeth art work!

WRAP IT UP!

I love to clear my slate in January-you know, get a project you started weeks ago off of your sewing table so you can do some sewing!  I had hit the creative block of how to get the shark's teeth to stay put on the mandala design and make the painted wooden background look 'finished'!  It finally came to me to use resin to take care of both of these criteria.  Unfortunately, I ran out of a good chunk of time in December but I got to it finally!

I ended up mixing up 3-4 oz of resin working in just a small area at a time.  This resin gave me plenty of time to work each area, one right next to other to build it seamlessly.  This resin is self-leveling so I did have to work to keep the board level.  I tried to use a pair of tweezers since my pointer/thumb combo on each hand is impaired  but it was impossible since the tooth shot right out of its grip over and over again!  I became resigned that I was going to drop them, that I was going to get sticky and that if I kept my hand over the board, there was no harm done!

I tried to get the sheen in the photo for you to see how the resin brings depth to this piece!  I am so happy with the results!   

What will I find to work on next....?