Cute Animal Christmas Cards

 Cute Christmas Cards with the cutest animals, all of these can be Personalised or even downloaded from my store on Christmas Collection on Zazzle or check out the Zazzle Store tab above.

Deer Unicorn Llama Christmas cards

Penguin and Hedgehogs Christmas cards

Giant Panda and Red Panda Christmas Cards

Lots more to see in My Zazzle Store

Merry Christmas

Jan X

12 Days of Folksy Day 3 - Sparkle

Day 3 of the Folksy Challenge is Sparkle

My pic for today is......

Ok so it's pretty hard to see the Sparkle in this picture but I promise you the is plenty of sparkle, especially on the stars, you can see more things like this in my stores, you can get to them by the links in the side or top bar.

Jan x

Moonlight Silhoulette of a Unicorn and Other Animals

Following on from my Sunrise Silhouette painting I thought I'd do a Moonlight selection, once again using the sketches and artwork I already have as inspiration,

I've already done a few star and moon gazey paintings, here is a selection that I used as a starting point, there are a couple of  Aceo's of a hare and a fox, a framed picture of a moon gazing hare and a unicorn on canvas.

For this Moon Light series I wanted the colours to be a bit more dramatic so like my previous Sun series I painted the center the palest colour, in this case, white.






 I then gradually went darker as I went outwards with the edges a very dark blue, almost black but not quite as I needed the black lines of the trees to show up. I love painting the Unicorn, you can see the process of choosing the silhouette in my previous post

I painted the hearts in the same way and chose the Wolf, the Fox and the Hare for the center, the back of these hearts are painted blue with silver hearts.

The Unicorn plaque has a 'D' fixing on the back for hanging up or why not prop it on a shelf or desk using a little easel or plate display stand.

You can find all these items in my Handcrafted by Picto Folksy Shop

Thank you for checking out my blog

Jan x 
I'm going to link this post over on the Folksy Forum and Twitter for #FolksyFriday

Woodland Silhouettes and Forest Creatures

I've been having a play and experiment with silhouettes and as I have already got lots of photographs and sketches I decided to work with what I had.

I trawled through my photo's for background colour inspiration.I liked the orange and yellow sunrise.

Sunrise or Sunset, you decide

 

Unicorn on Canvas

I chose a prancing unicorn painting as my first subject matter, I've used this image in a few of my paintings and everyone loves Unicorns don't they?





I played around with PhotoScape.org to get different looks, I liked the black unicorn and thought it would stand out nicely against the orange background.
(PhotoScape is photo editing software and you can get it as a free download), I can't get my head around PhotoShop and PhotoScape is easy as well as free, so that's a bonus.

A selection of silhouettes

I went through my stash of wood and decided on a rectangle and some wooden hearts. I started with the background using orange and yellow. These colours work well for either a sunset or a sunrise.

Work in Progress

On the rectangle I painted trees up the sides following the arch shape of the sky, they help to frame the unicorn and add some interest.

Unicorn Work in Progress

For the hearts I thought other woodland creatures would carry on the theme.

Woodland Hearts

 

Woodland Hanging Hearts

I added a 'D' hook to the back of the wood so it can easily be hung up from a hook or nail or it could be put on a little desk easel or propped on a shelf.

Unicorn Silhouette

I have loved working with these colours, they are so bright and cheerful.

Prancing Unicorn

I think I'll pop these into my Jan Ryan Art Etsy Shop if for any reason you can't see them you can always message me via my shops or my Handcrafted by Picto Facebook page.  

That's all from me for now

Jan x

White Unicorns

Firstly I'd like to say a big Congratulations to Victoria on her wedding announcement over at Lucy Blossom Crafts,   I wish her lots of fun and no pre-wedding stress while organising such a wonderful event.

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Meanwhile, I managed to pick up a couple of small canvases that came with their very own easels, they're so cute and perfect for a shelf or table top and perfect for a couple of Unicorns.......

A White Unicorn with a Silver Mane on a lovely sky blue background.

 Painted around the side of the canvas and finished off with a shimmer of sparkle.

 A Prancing White Unicorn on a peach background.

The mane is painted with silver and gold coloured paint and finished off with a shimmer of sparkle.


That's it from me at the moment, I'm sharing this post over at the linky party at Lucy Blossoms Blog

Jan x

Pink Unicorns on Name Plaques

For this week's Handmade Monday I'd like to show you Pink Unicorns 

Stories and legends have been told of the Unicorn since time began, this wonderful creature has always been woven into tales of myth, magic and folklore.

The Unicorn is a popular request for personalised plaques, here are the latest two that I have painted....

All pink for Sophie

Pink & Brown for Libby

They have both been finished off with a coat of sparkle, it's a pity it doesn't show up well in the photographs.
These can be done in any colour or wording so if you want something similar just let me know.

Wishing you all a magical week

Jan x


This post is linked to Lucy Blossom Crafts Blog Link

A Unicorn & Fairy Doors

This week I've been painting some of my favorite things, Fairy Doors, what's not to love about bringing smiles and joy to those who receive my doors as gifts. These three were for one customer who wanted three Fairy Doors, two of them needed to be Tooth Fairy Doors, they are a great way to keep Fairy Tales and Magic alive.

A Trio of Fairy Doors

These are my Small Doors, they are approximately 2x3 inches, or if you prefer metric it about 5x8cm

A Fairy Door with Daisies

They have a Blue Dragonfly painted on them and can you see the little worm or caterpillar in the grass?

Purple Tooth Fairy Door

The Tooth Fairy Doors have a painted tooth hanging from the door handle.  There is also a snail and a ladybird on each door.

A Door for the Tooth Fairy

Keeping with the Whimsical and Magical Theme I painted a new canvas to put into my Folksy Shop
It's painted in acrylics and the mane is painted silver with a shimmer of sparkle, I've also painted a bit of sparkle on the butterflies and daisies. What little girl doesn't like a bit of sparkle. 

The White Unicorn

It's been a happy week and Friday was also the International Day of Happiness so with that in mind don't forget to pop over to the Happy Friday Link up over at the Planet Penny Blog 
and
Lucy Blossom Crafts



Jan x

A trio of Plaques

What a busy week we are all having, I've hardly had time to think straight, although my thinking is usually a twisty winding road. I do try to get around all the blogs I follow but with the run up to 'the big day' time is of a premium, I usually manage to take a bit of time out and read most of them but unfortunately I don't get a chance to comment on all of them, so if I've missed you out don't take it personally :) I'm sure we are all suffering from the lack of hours in the day.

I'd like to show you a little of what I've been doing.....the following trio of Plaques are winging their way across the miles and will grace 3 doors in Hawaii  along with a selection of my Fairy Doors, hopefully lots of smiley faces on Christmas morning.

I've linked this post to Wendy's blog, I hope you can pop over and take a peek.

Wishing you a productive week

Jan x

More Toadstools (and Plaques)

I've been a busy bod the last few days, I finished painting 3 more plaques for collection and posting tomorrow, I really like the turquoise of the car.

The colours for Chloe's plaque match
the colours in her bedroom.
It's not noticeable in this pic but the plaque is sprinkled with fairy dust and what girl doesn't like a bit of magical fairy glitter?

And what can I say about Harry...... He's a big Spurs fan and wanted something to hang on his bedroom door.
The Rooster standing on a ball is Tottenham Hotspurs emblem.  

As well as painting my plaques I have been uploading some of my old paintings onto the computer, these are two that were part of a nature exhibition I took part in a few years ago. I love the effect of the paint, it looks good  for this type of  subject.

 Both of these photo's were taken when the picture's were in their frames so didn't turn out so good but they are some of the only copies I have of these.



 I lost a lot of my good copies of paintings when my computer decided to crash and die a couple of years ago, since then I've always backed up my pics on an external hard drive.

I have some of my paintings, plaques and other bits and bobs in a lovely local shop and as all my toadstools paintings and fairy doors sold well I need a few more to replace them and I do enjoy making them.

The shop is Oshuns Emporium ,please find a link to their facebook page Here


Thats all from 'ickle old me for tonight, it's getting a bit late and I need a bit of shut eye, another busy day tomorrow so it's off to beddy byes ............. nighty night all

Jan x      zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz