New Year Umbria Jazz Festival
Share Happy New Year from Italy!!! We were partying here on the first day of the New Year. Umbria Jazz Festival is held every year around this time in the gorgeous Italian city of Orvieto. As this year, New Year’s day fell on a Sunday we enjoyed the happy opportunity to actually go see [...]
Stamps :: 10 Useful Ways
Share Transforming old artwork with a fresh new layer is easily fixed with some artistic use of stamps. However, this is not the only way to make stamps useful. There are many around-the-house & craft uses of stamps where they proof to be oh so handy. 10 Ways to Apply Stamps Usefully 1. Instant [...]
Stamping :: Simple Painting Technique
Share Once you start stamping, there is no stopping, is there? That’s what I found at least. Last night I was preparing for this weekend’s art demonstration. I was using some watercolor paintings in the category ‘misfits & unfinished works’ as the base for some fresh Spring artwork to bring along. What did I do, [...]
Build Your Own Birdhouse
Share This adorable birdhouse is the culmination of a few different craft techniques: creating floral wall art from toilet paper rolls, making a beaded accent charm, and painting, stenciling and decorating a birdhouse. What makes this wall decoration work is repetition of color, shape and pattern. The How-to How to Make [...]
How-to: Painted Leather Purse
Share In love with Anuschka hand-painted leather bags??! Then you’ll be interested in the leather painting tutorial that I’m featuring today. Learn how to Paint Leather Bags, Belts & Other Accessories Painting leather goods is one of the traditional art forms that Italy is famous for. Here you can find the most exquisite [...]
Kitchen Island :: Paint Makeover
Share This before/after story is a little inspiration for us all. The story goes: dream, and just begin, and the results will be lovely… I mean: Love the smokey teal color of this unique one-of-a-kind kitchen island. It’s funky, it’s stylish, and with the new teal makeover, it’s now also classy chic. The BEFORE [...]
Free Paint for Your Home Decor Projects
Share If you want to do a test run of a paint color scheme, or just do a simple stencil painting project, then this paint freebie is exactly what you’ve been looking for. Free Paint Sample Kit, with $5 Lowe Discount Coupon You can choose from ‘ooos of rich, beautiful colors to receive a [...]
Create Cool Child Bedroom Furniture w Stencils (DIY Tutorial)
Share ** How to Stencil Furniture. ** Lovely. Fun. Doable. Those are the three worlds … I mean words… that come to mind when I saw this dresser make-over. You love it also? Image source: Lena Corwin, via Etsy. Free Tutorial On Hand-Printing Your Cabinet This design & tutorial for this [...]
Face Painting Designs, Ideas & Examples
Share Make-Up That Makes A Masterpiece The key to making a master face painting and a perfect disguise is in the preparation. Besides designing the face painting to suit the Halloween costume, the theme character, plus the shape of the face, there are other considerations ~ not in the least is deciding which face painting [...]
Art in Paris
Share It’s not what you think. No art deco here, ma’am. Manhole mandalas, that’s art, instead. Yesterday, I spotted this post by Laurie of Scene of the Grime (fun name) popping a manhole cover (roadside find) into her car. It was going to survive the junkyard and live as decoration in her backyard. A cool [...]
Vintage Shell Prints for Beach Cottage Decorating
Share Last year, we started building this series of fun summer beach cottage crafts tutorials. After you’ve made our previously posted summer crafts for your beach cottage (see list of links below), perhaps you’d like to create wonderful additions to your beach home decor. 5 Free Vintage Beach Themed Prints I found these 5 [...]
DIY Tutorial Linky Party 3
3rd DIY Tutorial linky party. Your beautiful and successful ‘Do It Yourself’ or craft project tutorial is welcome. My contribution: How to Make Your own 3d BUTTERFLY ARTWORK – Free Tutorial. You’ll love making this, by yourself or with the kids.
Home Decor Tuesday: Kid Painting Wall Designs
Share Pin It I haven’t written much lately about wall stenciling, wall stickers, painting on the wall, or any wall art for that matter. So it’s time for bringing some wonderful ideas to you on how you can manifest your darling personality on your wall. How about this?? Wallpaper: Wall Painting Designs An easy idea [...]
Recycled Wine Bottle becomes a Peony Perfect, Milky-White Vase
Share Recycling is easy. Once you’ve switched your mindset, everything becomes recyclable. I noted the lovely shape of this empty glass juice/wine bottle and with some simple, water-based gouache white paint (IKEA kid paint) I created this milky look within 5 minutes. The result was a real vase, rather than an empty glass bottle [...]
How to Make An Art Journal
Share Today I want to feature a lovely series of videos on how to make an art journal. Millande from Millande.com creates page after page layout in her journal,, using all kinds of art making techniques that range from painting to collage. But best of all, she shows us how to just do it, hum-ti-dum, [...]
Great-Looking , Last-Minute Pumpkin Design
Share THIS has to be the most Fashionable Pumpkin Design I ever saw: a genuine LOUIS VUITTON pumpkin, complete with vintage luggage tag. Sweet Paul has a winner! At sweetpaul.typepad.com he inspired all fashion lovers to pay homage to their favorite fashion brand, be that LV, Chanel or Gucci. Or, perhaps you’d prefer a Coach [...]
Craft Book of the Month Embellishings a la Anthropologie
Share Favorite Craft Book Complete Embellishing: Techniques and Projects This book includes an collection of 25 projects, illustrated with more than 170 photographs and clear step-by-step directions. All are original designs inspired by the author’s years as a crafter and visual manager for the hip New York store, Anthropologie. The ‘thing’ that makes Anthropologie [...]
How to Make a Shells-Adorned Picture Frame
Share This shell-adorned picture frame craft project is a summer-time classic beach craft, suitable for little kids, teenagers and adults alike. It is equally good for a rainy summer day as it is in the eve of a lovely day at the beach. Photo: mosaic-tile-design.com What you’ll need for a Shell Frame * a [...]
How to Make a Sophisticated Stencil
Share When I came across this video of ‘How to Make a Sophisticated Stencil‘ to create a glamorous door decoration, easily by using a stencil, I thought to feature it here at FineCraftGuild.com. While I have already written on the topic of ‘how to create your own stencil’ and other stenciling tips, there are [...]
How to Paint Child Furniture
Share Decorate Your Child’s Room in Style and learn how to decorate plain wooden chairs into works of art, fit for a princess or a prince. In this example, I’ve converted a plain wooden IKEA chair into a ‘princess’ dream come true’ seat. Child Furniture Painting Success Formula Here is the magic formula for success, [...]
Real Heart Art for Valentine
Share If you, like me, at times get enough from the paper doilies, and want to create some ‘real art’ instead, I trust you will find this article inspirational. Confession: like Jim Dine, I have actually never painted a heart painting for Valentine’s Day. However, I have made maybe 30 heart paintings depicting the going-ons [...]
Craft & Art Instruction :: Books I’m Currently Reading
Share Today I thought to share with you the books that I like reading / am getting inspiration from / am currently plowing through. Most are related to projects I am either doing right now, articles I am planning to write, projects that are coming down the pipeline, and then of course, good old food [...]
A Picture Tells A Story – In A Portrait Painting’s Truth Is In The Eyes
Share When you paint a portrait the key to success is to capture everything that the eyes show and tell. The best portrait painters will excel at skin and hair. They will be masters of drawing skull structure and muscle tone. And, as with Leonardo Da’ Vinci’s Mona Lisa there will be the enigmatic smile [...]
5 Reasons To Start Wet On Wet Oil Painting
Share I have been doing wet on wet oil painting for several years now and I’ve known about for about 15 years. Although I enjoy it a lot and try to take part in it whenever I can, I’m usually stunned at the number of people that aren’t even aware of it. So let me [...]
Creating Realistic Flesh Tones In Your Oil Painting
Share Creating realistic flesh tones in your oil paintings can often run the gamut from a little difficult to downright maddening. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to rendering human flesh. However, there are a few tricks you can learn to make the job a little easier. For starters, keep in mind that [...]
Colour Tips and Painting Techniques – Paler Shades and Highlights – What About Red?
Adding highlights to your picture can really make a big difference to the final look. Pale tints when using red can often be a problem. Here are a few painting tips that will help.
Art Tool #1: How to Pick Paint Brushes
Share Last year, Isabel Rodrigues wrote a gem of an article on What you need to know about a paint brush?. Simple but informative article for the beginner fine art painter. “Most of us like to paint different things. Some of us are professional painters while some of us just paint for fun. If you [...]
