A Fine Art Mystery Series

 

 A Fine Art Mystery Series

from Award-Winning Author Paula Darnell

 

Artistic License to Kill - Book 1 in A Fine Art Mystery Series

Artist Amanda Trent, accompanied by her beloved golden retriever Laddie and her persnickety calico cat Mona Lisa, is determined to start a new life after her husband divorces her to marry a younger woman, but it isn't easy.

After a disastrous interview at the prestigious Roadrunner Gallery in Lonesome Valley, Arizona, far away from her previous home in Kansas City, Amanda's afraid that she'll fail at her new career. But her prospects begin to improve when she's accepted as the newest member of the cooperative gallery.

Then, on her very first day, she discovers Janice, the stern director, has been murdered right in the art gallery, and the Roadrunner's members, including Amanda herself, become suspects. Which gallery member murdered the unpopular director? Or was the killer an outsider with an ax to grind?

 

Click to Buy Artistic License to Kill at Your Favorite Retailer 

 

Vanished into Plein Air - Book 2 in A Fine Art Mystery Series

Who wouldn't want to make a living from her favorite pastime?

Although sometimes self-doubt creeps in along the way, artist Amanda Trent has been striving to do just that, ever since her ex-husband dumped her for a younger woman and she moved to Lonesome Valley, Arizona, to start a new life. So when her friends from the Roadrunner Gallery urge her to join them and world-renown artist Ulysses Durand in a plein air paint-out, she hesitates, fearing that she might not be able to complete a painting in the four-hour time limit.

But everything goes smoothly at the public open-air event—until Ulysses's wife goes missing and he asks Amanda for her help. Has his past come back to haunt the famous artist? With a little help from her nemesis, cranky Lieutenant Belmont, the support of her friends, and the companionship of her furry feline Mona Lisa and her lovable golden retriever Laddie, Amanda tracks a killer who's determined to strike again unless Amanda can save the day

Click to Buy Vanished into Plein Air at Your Favorite Retailer

 

 

Hemlock for the Holidays - Book 3 in A Fine Arts Mystery Series

As Lonesome Valley kicks off the holiday season with its annual parade, artist Amanda Trent embraces the Christmas spirit, happy that her family will be coming to town to celebrate the season with her and her loyal pets, Laddie, a friendly golden retriever, and Mona Lisa, an independent calico cat.

Amanda has just one nagging concern: her art sales have stalled, so her checking account is starting to look a bit puny. Her financial woes pale, though, in comparison to her concern when several people eat carrot bars laced with hemlock at the high school's arts and crafts fair, resulting in one unlucky man's death. Was the poisoning an accident, or did someone with evil intent deliberately spike the sweet baked goods?

Leads the police follow don't pan out until Amanda puts the puzzle together. But, sometimes, knowledge can be a dangerous thing. . . 

 Click to buy Hemlock for the Holidays at your favorite retailer 

 


Killer Art in the Park - Book 4 in A Fine Art Mystery Series

 

 A sunny summer’s day. . .

An art show in the park. . .

How could something so delightful turn so deadly?

When she hears a bone-chilling scream, artist Amanda Trent leaves her booth and rushes through the park to find a horrifying scene. Her friend Pamela is kneeling beside her husband’s body, her hands covered in blood. Amanda’s fear that the police will immediately peg Pamela as their chief suspect comes true when Pamela is arrested for murdering her own husband. But Amanda knows that Pamela is no killer, and she’s determined to prove it.

Encouraged by the support of her friends and bolstered by the companionship of her adorable golden retriever Laddie and her moody calico cat Mona Lisa, Amanda pursues clue after clue, to no avail. She’s running out of leads, and Pamela’s running out of time. Can Amanda discover who the real killer is before Pamela has to call a prison cell her new home? 

Click to buy Killer Art in the Park at your favorite retailer. 

 

 Halloween Hue-Dunit - Book 5 in A Fine Art Mystery Series

When a flirtatious former member bursts into the Roadrunner during a members’ meeting, Amanda and her friends are startled to learn that the beautiful blonde plans to return to their cooperative art gallery. But Monique’s going to bring more than her artwork with her; she’s also about to bring trouble. On her first night back, she makes eyes at a recently married man who ignores his bride to schmooze the newcomer, and that’s just for starters. With a fight over her billionaire husband’s will, a private eye who’s tracking her, a relative who’s had all just about all she can take of Monique’s outrageous behavior, and an ex-boyfriend waiting in the wings, it’s no wonder that Monique decides to take a break to attend a Halloween costume party.

Although her costume wows the guests, the party comes to an abrupt end when Monique takes a dive from a third floor balcony. Amanda’s sure that the unlucky artist was pushed to her death, and, with a houseful of masked party-goers, it’s no easy task to sort out the suspects. But even though she’s busy painting new artwork for an upcoming show while taking care of her lovable golden retriever Laddie and her finicky calico cat Mona Lisa, Amanda can’t resist doing a little sleuthing on the side. She’ll have to hurry, though, if she’s going to catch the killer before someone else suffers the same fate as Monique.

Click to buy Halloween Hue-Dunit at your favorite retailer.

 


 

 

 

DIY Felt Christmas Tree Card

Here's a DIY Christmas card with lots of twinkle.

You'll need the following supplies to make the Christmas tree card:

One 8.5" x 11" sheet of ivory card stock

One blue chalk pastel

White acrylic paint

Craft felt, 5.5" x 8.5" piece

Small scrap of brown craft felt

Spray fixitive (I used Krylon Kamar Varnish, but hairspray will work, too.)

One gold star 15mm sequin

Multi-color 8mm sequins

Gold #11 seed beads

Red Sharpie

Craft glue

Double-sided tape or glue stick

Christmas tree template (download HERE)

You'll also need the following tools:

Paint brush

Scissors

Straight edge and mat*

Pointed envelope opener*

Beading needle or small needle and thread**

*These items are used to score the card stock along the center where it will be folded. You can just fold the card stock instead, but scoring it first usually makes for a neater folded edge.

**Seed beads are tiny, so, if you don't use a beading needle, check to make sure you can pass your needle through a size 11 seed bead before you begin.

First, score the card stock. Using a straight edge on a hard surface, such as a quilter's mat, run the point of a letter opener all the way down the center.

 
Turn the card stock sheet so that it is horizontally oriented. Starting at the top and using the side of the chalk pastel, color the top 6.25" area with sweeping strokes all the way across the card stock to make the sky. It's not necessary to try to make the horizon line absolutely straight. Chalk pastel rubs off quite a bit. Since it's messy, you might want to wear vinyl gloves for this step.

Paint the bottom of the card stock with white acrylic paint. Do not add water to the paint.

Allow the paint to dry thoroughtly before spraying the card with fixitive. Caution: if you're using the Kamar Varnish or a similar artist's fixitive, follow instructions on the can. Spray outside when there is no wind. Wear a mask and protect your eyes.

Download and print the Christmas tree template. Tape the template to the green felt.

Cut out the tree of green felt and also cut out the small trunk piece of brown felt. If you don't have any brown felt on hand, you can improvise by using a brown Sharpie to color on a scrap of green felt to make the trunk.

Decide where to place the sequins you'd like to use to decorate your tree. If you're concerned about exact placement, make a tiny dot with the tip of a pin for each sequin. Thread your needle with a double thread and knot the end.

To sew a sequin, bring the needle up through the back of the felt, into the center of the sequin; pick up a gold bead with the tip of the needle; and slide gold bead down, into place in the center of the sequin. Take the tip of the needle over the bead to its side and stitch back down through the center hole of the sequin. Secure the thread with a knot on the back.

Add a tiny dot of craft glue on top of the knot for added security. Stitch all of the sequins to the tree in the same manner, and place the gold star sequin at the top of the tree.

Fold the card along the scored line.

Position the tree and trunk in the center of the front of the card. Use double-sided tape or glue stick to adhere the tree and trunk to the the card.

On the inside, write your Christmas greeting with a red Sharpie.

When you're ready to send the card, add your personal notes and signature with the red Sharpie. Use a padded bubble envelope for mailing to protect the sequins and beads. 

Merry Christmas!


 

How to Make a Needle-Felted Snowman Brooch for the Holidays

 

To needle felt this cute snowman brooch for the holidays, you'll need the following supplies:

  • 4" x 4" square of white 100% wool felt
  • small amounts of wool roving in white, light brown, black, orange, burgundy, and green
  • metal pinback jewelry component
  • snowman template (click here to download)

You'll also need the following tools:

  1. small, sharp scissors
  2. felting needle
  3. felting pad
  4. clear tape or straight pins
  5. needle and thread
  6. craft glue 

Begin by downloading and printing the template; place the snowman template on the white felt and secure it with either clear tape or straight pins before cutting it out along the outside lines. The lines for the face on the template are there to indicate position, so there's no cutting involved with the face lines.

Start at the top and work down with the needle felting. First, lay a horizontal wisp of light brown roving across the top of the hat and needle felt the top of the hat in place just enough to secure the roving. Wrap the ends around the sides and tack in place on the back with your needle; otherwise, the white sides of the felt will show. As you are making the snowman, you'll be covering the entire front and back of the hat and scarf with roving, so, at this point, felt the roving on top of the hat securely in place, making sure it wraps around to the back. Turn it over and needle felt the roving on the back. Go back and forth between the front and the back until all the roving is securely in place.

Now, add a burgundy strip of roving for the hatband and light brown roving for the brim of the hat in the same manner as you did for the crown, wrapping the roving around the sides of the felt and felting from both front and back alternately. Then cover the white face of the snowman with white roving, but just on the front. There's no need to wrap the roving on the face around the sides of the felt since both the felt and the roving are white. Also, you'll be attaching your brooch pinback to the back top part of the face section, and we want to attach it to felt, rather than a layer of roving.

After you've needle felted the white roving on the face, create the facial features with black roving for the eyes (you can substitute round black eyes for the eye lines and eyelashes, if you prefer), orange roving for the nose, and black roving for the mouth.

Finish the front by needle felting the green stripe first and then burgundy scarf, wrapping the sides and finishing the back as you did with the hat.

When you're finished the back should look something like the photo below. Note that we wrapped the roving all the way around the back for the hat and the scarf but not for the snowman's white face.

Now that you've completed the face, trim any stray strands from the back, front, and sides, and you'll be ready to make your snowman into a brooch. Of course, you could just pin it onto your garment with a safety pin or straight pin, but to make it into a true piece of fiber jewelry, use a pinback. The same technique that I use for putting a pinback on the back of a fabric flower will work with the snowman to turn it into a brooch. See my article "How to Make a Fabric Flower into a Brooch." When you glue your pinback to the back of the snowman, make sure it's centered at the very top part of the white face; do not glue your felt back onto the roving of the hat. Pictured below is the snowman brooch on a vintage green sweater coat.


 

 





 

Tweedy Bird Christmas Decoration

 Make a Christmas Tweedy Bird Tree

Want to make a cute Tweed Bird Christmas Decoration? You'll need the items on the list below to put this crafty DIY project together for the holidays.

Materials

  • terra cotta pot
  • iridescent bronze acrylic paint
  • 1 yard wired Christmas ribbon, 1.5 - 2 inches wide
  • 2 yards double-faced satin ribbon, 1/4 inch wide
  • floral foam
  • small piece of gold tissue paper
  • branch 
  • 9" x 12" red felt
  • 9" x 12" scrap of tweed fabric (with some red in the tweed)
  • black Sharpie
  • brown Sharpie
  • Tweedy Bird template (click here to download)

Instructions

You'll also need some sharp scissors, a paint brush, craft glue, clear tape, and a tapestry needle or needle and thread to match your ribbon.

The first step is to paint the outside of your terra cotta pot with the iridescent bronze paint. This will give it a nice, subtle holiday glow.

Next, paint the upper part of the inside of the pot. It's not necessary to paint it all the way to the bottom because the bottom inside will not show when the project is complete.

Here's the painted pot, which now has a slight glow, thanks to the iridescent paint.

Find a branch that has some smaller branches going out to the side so that you'll have several places to hang your birds. Remove any leaves, and dust it off with a paint brush.

Paint the branch with the iridescent bronze paint, making sure to paint all sides.

Cut a piece of floral foam to fit into the pot, apply some glue to the bottom of the pot, and glue the floral foam in place.

If the floral foam doesn't cover the entire space, put some packing material around it.

 
 
Cut a square of gold tissue paper, and place it over the foam. It does not need to be glued.

 Place your branch in the center and push it down into the foam all the way to the bottom of the pot.

Wrap the wired Christmas ribbon around the pot and tie a bow. Trim the ends so that the wires are not sticking out.

Apply a light coat of glue all over the felt and press it onto the tweed fabric. Tweed ravels quite a bit, so the felt helps to stabilize it when you're cutting the birds out.

Download and print the template for the bird and wing. Tape the template to the felt side with clear tape; then cut right through both the tape and the glued felt and tweed. Cut six birds, one at a time, and twelve wings, one at a time, as shown on the template. After you cut out each bird, cut around the outside with sharp scissors to clip any frayed edges on the tweed. Make four or five cuts (the template shows five, but either four or five is OK) as indicated to make the tail feathers.

Draw an eye with the black Sharpie, and color the beak with the brown Sharpie.

 
Glue the wing to the bird, using felt side up for the tweed side of the bird.
Turn the bird over and make the eye with a black Sharpie and color the beak with the brown Sharpie.

 
Glue a tweed wing to the felt side of the bird.

Cut the satin ribbon into twelve-inch pieces, one to hang each bird. Cut the ends of the ribbon diagonally. Thread a tapestry needle with the ribbon, and pull it through both layers of fabric. This is the method I used, but it can be a bit difficult (I really had to tug to work the tapestry needle through the bird), so, if you prefer, thread a needle with thread to match your satin ribbon and simply sew the center of the ribbon to the top of each bird.

If you used the tapestry needle method, slide the needle off the ribbon. Tie a square knot or two overhand knots in the top of the ribbon. You may need to trim the ends, depending on how far down you want your bird to hand on the branch.

Arrange the birds on the branches, and your Christmas Tweedy Bird Tree is all ready for the holidays!















Halloween Felt Table Runner - Easy DIY Project

 

Here's a quick and easy project for Halloween decorating. We're going to use craft felt to make an orange and black table runner and decorate it with black felt bats. Click HERE to download the bat template so that you can print it.

In addition to the bat template, you'll need one piece of 8" by 36" orange craft felt, one piece of 8" by 36" black craft felt, a few straight pins, scissors, a rotary cutter and a mat (optional), and craft glue. I machine-stitched the runner together, but if you don't have a sewing machine, you could overlap the seams and glue it. The first step is to cut the orange felt in half so that you have two pieces, each 8" by 18".

Next, cut an 8" by 12" section from the black felt.

Pin each orange section to the longer black felt piece, which will be in the center of the table runner.

Use a half-inch seam to sew the orange felt pieces to the black felt center piece. Backstitch to begin if you're machine sewing. (If you're gluing, overlap the seam half an inch with the black felt on the top.)

Sew the seam and backstitch at the end. Clip threads.

Here's the stitched seam. You could use either black or orange thread. I used black so that it would show up in the picture. Sew the other orange felt piece to the black felt center piece in the same manner.


Pin or tape the bat template to the 8" by 12" black felt. If you fold the felt, you can cut two bats at a time. Hold the felt and template firmly as you cut out the bats. Small, sharp scissors work best.

Cut out eight bats.

Arrange the bats on the orange felt any way you like. I put four on each side and made it symmetrical, but you could have more on one side than the other. Below is the left side of the runner I made.

Here's the right side.

This is the completed runner on my dining room table. The light was so bright in the room (you can see its reflection on the table) that it washed out the color in the photo, but it's orange on the sides as shown above.

Here it is on my coffee table. It's longer than the table so the ends droop down, but it looks cute with the vintage ceramic Halloween decorations set in the middle.

More Halloween Ideas