Rio de Janeiro Masks

The masks are decorated with tissue paper which is glued on with medium glue lacquer and painted with glitter paint on top of the tissue paper or directly on the mask.

A beautiful combination of techniques

The masks are inspired by the colourful parade costumes of the carnival city of Rio de Janeiro, where no expense is spared on colours or glitter. The velvet surface of the masks catches the pigments of the glitter paint really well and dries beautifully.

1. Paint one half of the mask with glitter paint.

2. Cut out small pieces of tissue paper and glue it onto the mask.

3. Gently apply paint with a brush and make dots with a foam stencil brush.

Knitted bag

Knit your own bag with Merino wool.

Quantity:

4 x 100g Merino wool

No. 15 knitting needles

1. The wool comes as a thick sheet of unspun wool. Divide the wool lengthwise into two equally thick threads. Divide each of these again into two equally thick threads and further divide each of these into two equally thick threads. Making a total of eight equally thick threads. When it is time to change the thread, pull out the two wool ends (approx. 5cm), place the ends over each other, work them – if necessary – a bit with your fingers so they are the same thickness as the rest of the thread. The join is now invisible.

2. The bag: Cast on 16 stitches loosely on the knitting needle and knit 25cm in stocking stitch. Cast off loosely and knit another piece. Change colour when desired.

3. The strap: Cast on 4 stitches on the No. 15 knitting needle. Knit back and forth, so one side is plain stitch, i.e. first row right, second row purl, third row right, forth row purl. Continue until the strap is the desired length.

4. Finally sew all the pieces together to make a lovely bag.

Pixel Art

This exciting painting is made using a photo which has been transferred onto canvas by using a projector. First the photo is processed in the “Google Picasa” computer program. We have then used marker pens and craft paint.

1. Download Google Picasa. Edit the photo in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

Standard photos may be scanned and saved on the computer as a jpg file).

1. Start by change the photo into black/white

2. Adapt the size depending on the quality of the photo – reduce by 20 to 50%.

3. Adjust the brightness and the contrast.

2. Open Picasa copy in the photo:

1. You may make the photo sharper in “Sharpens”

2. Open "Edit in Picnik"

3. Crop in “Effect”

4. Open “Sandbox effects”

5. Select “Adjustable threshold” and adjust the photo.

6. You may finish using the adjustment “Hardlight”

Save the finished photo in Picasa and print it out.

3. Paint the entire canvas white and let it dry.

Using a projector, transfer the photo to the canvas using a pencil or a marker pen.

First draw the edge or the outline with a marker pen.

4. Then paint the rest using a brush and craft paint. Be especially thorough with the eyes, the mouth and the nose.

You may paint part of the image using a different colour for contrast.

Finish with minimum two coats of mat acrylic lacquer. The first coat of lacquer must be completely dry before applying the second coat.