Decorated boxes

My husband's niece asked for earrings for her birthday. We found some delightful little butterfly earrings, but the card they were attached to wasn't very special. So I decorated a box, added some tissue paper and now she has an earring keeper box.
These are small papier mache boxes covered with texture paste. I have then added some petals from a silk flower, and topped the decoration off with a plaster fairy. Once everything had dried, I painted the whole box and decoration in a base coat, and then lightly brushed on two further colours to give a bright and shiny appearance.
Another hit!

My Toolbox

Every aspiring folk artist rapidly collects a set of useful tools, such as pencils, liner pens, scissors, rubbers, cotton buds, cocktail sticks, sponges, masking tape and much more.

I've gathered my bits and pieces into a box that was orginally given away free with those part work magazines. This one once held art materials - one pen or paint collected every week if you continued to buy the magazine (which I didn't - I just wanted the box!)

On the basis that no self-respecting folk artist leaves a surface unpainted, I've painted "Lizzy finds a treasure" by Lydia Steeves on the lid of the box. I'm not a fan of twee, but I do like whimsy, and Lydia's collection of animal patterns definitely falls into this category.

The box is painted with Americana Decoart acrylic paints, using a wet on wet technique to create a "blotchy" background, and then following instructions, including remembering to shade and highlight to bring life to the painting.

Christmas recipe folder

I collect recipes from the web and magazines, as well as having a shelf full of cookbooks. Christmas cooking is special, and I have so many different recipes for stuffings, cakes, pies and great ways to make sprouts edible, that I decided I needed a separate folder.

This is a standard file, painted black, with a simple holly and Christmas rose design, passed to me by my teacher, Maggie Curtis.

The lettering is again the cane candy design published in PaintWorks December 2009 magazine by Margot A Clark.

Christmas 2009 has come at the end of a year of falling income, as for many of us. I was looking for something for my nephews, aged 6 and 4, that wouldn't cost a fortune, but would be used. (They have a wealth of toys from adoring relatives.)

These moneyboxes were just the thing I was looking for. I found the blank money boxes at a craft fair, offered by the MDFMan, and the patterns in a book by Plum Purdy, called "Warm 'n Wooly Friends". To finish the boxes I painted the boys' names in candy cane writing following instructions in the Christmas 2009 edition of PaintWorks Decorative Painting magazine. Final touch was a £2 coin in each box.

I'm told most sincerely that the boys loved them!

Painting on canvas bags

This is a mixture of napkin art and painting, and is a wonderful way to use your creativity to make really useful art. I first learned how to decorate canvas bags in a workshop with Sharon Townsend, and I haven't been able to stop since! You can really let your creative juices fly with this one - there's no set pattern. I've got seaside bags, chocolate and wine bags, baby bags, cute and cuddly animal bags ...You'll recognise my friends out and about, as they all got a bag for their birthday last year.

A fabric and paint angel

This angel is cut out of MDF and stands about 30ins (50cms) tall. She's a mixture of acrylic paint and paint on fabric. An angel after the style of Nancy Lenski

After William Morris

Painted during a workshop led by the Australian folk artist Vicki Nicholson, this is a hardback photo album painted in the style of William Morris