Concrete Polishing is Everywhere Around Us

By Mercie Hallow

The popularity that concrete polishing is receiving from thousands of its users worldwide is all because of the great benefits one can derive from it. Information from the television and in the internet is widely available where testimonies from users and actual applications can be seen. It is indeed remarkable that concrete polishing is the best flooring solution.

Concrete Polishing are not only used in indoor applications but it also penetrated the outdoor scene as well. Polished concrete floor in driveways are becoming the trends nowadays. Gone are the days when a driveway is only made of exposed aggregates and rough bricks and flagstones. Though equally beautiful, a polished concrete driveway seems to have a more sophisticated edge over bricks. Be prepared to receive commendations from people who see your beautifully polished concrete driveway.

The beauty of a garden patio can also be highlighted using concrete polishing. A polished concrete floor may be an excellent choice to be able to achieve a glossy and shiny finish for your patios. The popularity of polished concrete equals that of flagstones and bricks as the usual floor finish on garden patios.

Homes are not an exception when it comes to designing the floor with concrete polishing. The effects of a polished concrete floor in a home are remarkable and the benefits are numerous that one is very much tempted to use it so. The light from the ceiling reflects back from the shine of the polished concrete floor and thus the home is saved from electricity bills.

The same effects on the benefits on saving electricity are also seen from commercial and retail store outlets. We often see a polished floor surface in malls and boutiques and it is becoming the standard floor finish of these establishments. The high-gloss and shine makes every retail outlet attractive that sales had been boosting up since then.

About the Author:

Concrete Polishing wonders are everywhere around us. We often see concrete polishing in both indoor and outdoor applications. Mercie Hallow suggets to try researching more on how to spruce up your outdoor setting with concrete polishing today.

Lifebooks for the Child with Little Written History

By Lisa Copen

Designing a life book for your adoptive child or foster child may seem overwhelming, especially when you don't have a lot of information about your child's life before he or she became a part of your family. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is getting past the feeling over being overwhelmed.

Each family that adopts has a different kind of relationship with their birth mother. It can very from one end of the spectrum to the other. For example, I've met families who actually have the birth mother baby sit the child on occasion. Other families meet the birth mom once or twice a year for a visit at a park. Sadly, some families know nothing about their child's birth mom than perhaps her name and city in which she gave birth.

Adoptive families that have more than one adopted child may have one birthmom that is very involved and another that has no contact. Hence, sometimes a birthmom of one child will even send notes or small gifts to the sibling of the child.

When you have a relationship with a birthmom you may have any information you want for your child's adoption book. She may be eager to help out to make sure the child has a wonderful book.

If you don't have very much information about your child's birth or birth family-if any at all-don't worry. You can still design an incredible book that helps your child understand his or her history.

For example, one of the most essential pages of the life book is about the biological mother, but you may not even have a photograph of her. Be sure to include a quotation or poem about how birth moms may feel when making the adoption choice for their child. Then write something for the book like, "Did you know that birth moms and dads give their special DNA to their children. I'll be your beautiful smile and dark eye lashes came from your mom!"

It's hard for most people to imagine, but many adoptive parents don't even know the birthdate of their child or where he or she was born. Rather than writing, "We don't know the date of your birth" in your child' adoption album, journal something along the lines of, "We believe you were born during the winter of 2005 some time because when you came to the orphanage you weighed about the same as the other children born about that time."

Remember, it's the amount of love and effort that you put into the album that your child will most appreciate. As he grows older and asks questions, you can do research together to help answer questions. Until then, don't let a lack of information prevent you from creating a loving adoption scrapbook album for your child. Kids love reading about themselves and even like to make up their own stories to fill in any blanks in the story.

About the Author:

Make a amazing adoption lifebook quickly with tools from Scrapbook My Adoption. Complete books using transparency overlays, digital files and embellishments, make it simple to have a beautiful lifebook your child will treasure.

Concrete Polishing and Hardwood- An Overview

By Mercie Hallow

Concrete Polishing as a floor finish gives us a lot of alternatives when it comes to strength capabilities, design and usefulness. A polished concrete floor speaks for itself because of its efficiency. There are a lot of industries which uses polished concrete nowadays evident of its popularity.

Hardwood floors are a choice among homeowners and builders alike because of its uniqueness, flexibility and aesthetic appeal. Hardwood floor treatment can be finished using a store bought wax and polisher. The beauty of hardwood can grace any floor, ceiling and wall treatment as well. This type of finish is very popular in an area where an Asian theme needs to be achieved and is often used in commercial and residential areas.

Concrete Polishing is often seen as a floor finish on industrial and manufacturing spaces which requires a lot of human and machine floor interaction. it is much more advisable to use polished concrete when it comes to finishing of wide areas for it is deemed to be more inexpensive compared to hardwood floors. It is in this comparison that polished concrete is advantageous over hardwood when it comes to floor finishing of an industrial and manufacturing floor space.

Hardwood and Concrete Polishing both have their own unique artistic appeal that is lasting. Hardwood will always be a favorite because of its dark and rich color that never fails to bring about the life of a room and its furnishings. Over the years, homes of great people were never without a beautiful hardwood that would support their fine showcase of furniture.

Concrete Polishing is a floor finish that also made its way to famous buildings and edifice worldwide. The unique appeal of a polished concrete in terms of its strength, versatility and beauty has made it possible to be present in famous homes, hotels, world class restaurants worldwide.

About the Author:

Hardwood and Polished Concrete are both floor finishes that received wide acclaims over time. The art of concrete polishing had been proven and accepted as a standard floor finish of today. Concrete polishing will always find its place in buildings that will last over time.

What Do They Mean - Artists Technical Terms!...

By Anna Meenaghan

What is Paper Mache? Basically, with this you get some newspaper and rip it up. Pummel it with water which leaves you with a soggy lump. At this stage it is ready for you to mould it into any shape that you like.

The pulp you have now acquired is at the wet stage and this is when you need to apply glue or paste to it. Once you have completed this task, you always need to let it dry naturally. Now, just as if you were using wood, you can apply a primer before you go on to paint your article.

This is beneficial, as if you use this medium, it is light, so useful for creating so many things and is very strong.

Have you heard of Sugar Cane. Yes, this is a paper which is actually derived from the sugar cane plant. This too, is good for making Paper Mache, as it is very absorbent. You can also draw on this paper, it is fibrous, thick and comes in a variety of colours.

Gesso is used on canvasses and other types of surfaces as a primer before you go on to paint. Really it is a bit like a glue. A mixture of white pigment, whiting, chalk or plaster.

This will seal your canvas and the white gesso gives a reflective surface to paint on and hopefully keeps the canvas from rolling.

Impasto - This is canvas which has thick layers of paint. Usually formed by using your brush or palette knife, loading it with paint to form layers on the canvas. Making a heavy textured surface, which will have your bristle marks impressed on the canvas when you paint.

Pigment is the actual substance used to colour the paint or dye. Very finely ground down particles make up the paint medium. Many are made synthetically. Years ago they came from plants, animals and minerals.

Embossed - Pattern marks achieved on the surface. You can do it on metal with a hammer or the surface can actually be marked or stamped with the pattern.

Fixatives are a way of trying to preserve your painting. These can be sprayed or brushed on.

Positive and Negative - Consideration needs to be given to the painting and what is contained in it, to decide upon the positive and negative sections. The positive shape has to be your main object or section.

The negative shape will be what else surrounds it. Bear in mind for your drawing to work, both parts need equal attention.

Grid - A grid is something very useful to the artist for doing still life drawing. Usually a thick sheet of white card which you then draw squares on. By placing your objects in front of this, it will be helpful to decide where to draw your shadows and objects on the paper.

Acrylic Retarder - 10% of this can be used with acrylic paints. It will increase the amount of the paints open drying time. Good for wet in wet styles, blending and shading. It will also lessen skin forming on your palette.

Acrylic Gloss Varnish - This fluid acrylic medium has the same resin as Acrylic Artist Colour. When it is mixed with the colours, it stretches them and increases their flow, transparency and luminosity. Thus making it easier for blending. It increases the flexibility of your brushstrokes and is perfect for quick drying glazes.

About the Author:

Looking for more great "How To" articles on art? The author, contemporary artist Anna Meenaghan, has a lot more on her online art community website. As a contemporary painter myself, I have realised that they are of great help and not only to myself. So simply visit her site and see for yourself. Thought by Michael Bruckner.

How To Get Shadows In Still Life Drawings!...

By Anna Meenaghan

Still life drawing is a bit of a puzzle to novices who usually mainly spend their time, say focusing, on the main objects. Really, I would say the shadows in the picture, are just as important.

Shadows can make your drawing, so they are vital to your work. To readily achieve these results you will require the following items. An eraser, your pencils, of course, a sheet of cartridge paper and some mounting board.

The board is needed to create a backdrop for your work. It needs to be large enough to take in the shadows for your work. So now you need to set up your backdrop.

So now you have your backdrop, you can put your chosen objects in front of it. Maybe something like bread and cheese with a plate with a knife on it or even a bunch of bananas. You then need a lamp of some sort to cast shadows, for instance from the right side.

So you are ready to go and you have your backdrop! Take a 2B pencil and draw very lightly squares on to your cartridge paper, one and a half inches. When this is complete, do the same on your backdrop, only in three inch squares and heavier pencil pressure.

Check how the shadows actually fall on the screen. This is easy to see, as they will be dark. However, you need to do this before you start drawing.

The shadows for me are the positive, important element, with the objects being the negative, less important element. Therefore I would always concentrate on the shadows first.

Shadows will make your picture and bring it to life. You need to draw in your shadow outlines with a 2B pencil. Take a look at how the outline will cross your boxes and then draw this on your paper.

You may not get it quite the same, so don't get disappointed. Carry on filling in your shadow outline. It is surprising, the forms your picture takes.

Once you have completed your shadows, you can very lightly rub out some of your boxes that are within the shapes of your shadows. Only rub lightly though, or you will ruin the paper surface.

The dark shadows now have to be filled in, often you will have white spaces in between, but this is nothing to worry about. You have to exercise caution here, as it is all too easy to smudge your work doing this. Use a piece of white paper under your hand to remedy this.

Get out your 6B pencil, you are now going to put it to work cross hatching. That is, you are going to do your filling in, with rows of straight lines across, then straight lines on an angle or upright down over it, quite close together. This is to fill in your shadows.

Use a 2B pencil to outline the objects at the back. Take your time filling in the object outlines, then erase the boxes in which they were contained, giving you both positive and negative shaping. Remember to sharpen your pencil before you start.

Continue now by light hatching the dark areas of your objects with your 2B pencil. Do the edges for instance. Do not do too much.

Bear in mind you need some light tones too in your work. To finish it, use the 2B pencil to light hatch, just don't do too much so that it intermingles with the shadows. Good Luck!

About the Author:

The author of this "How To" guide is contemporary artist Anna Meenaghan. Anna creates amazing contemporary abstract art and operates an online art gallery where you can discover more easy to follow articles about painting techniques. It is also where I display my own art. Comment by Michael Bruckner.

Why You Require Different Papers For Painting?

By Anna Meenaghan

Anyone who is new to art would probably wonder about this. Naturally it is an important consideration, according to the type of paint you use. Watercolour paper can be bought in three varieties. "Not" (Cold Pressed), "HP" (Hot Pressed), and Rough.

"Not" or "Cold Pressed" for starters, when it is made, runs through cold rollers which presses the surface smooth. This would be a good paper to begin with, as it is not loaded with texture.

If you have small detailed work, a textured paper really is what you need. "HP" would be my choice as it is nice and smooth as it has been pressed through hot rollers, like an iron in fact. Washes do not hold very well on this, so I wouldn't even try to do one.

Rough is a very well textured paper which can be very effective as the paint does not always reach the raised surface. Probably not good for a beginner to use though.

Many artists like to stretch their own paper, though if you are a novice, wrinkling could be a problem. You will find that if the paper is wet, it really does stretch, but not necessarily so that it will be even all four ways.

Here I will explain how to stretch paper. This you should always do first. Collect together the following items. A smallish bowl with water in, a natural sponge, scissors, plus brown gummed paper on the roll.

Cut four strips of the gummed paper, making sure that they are longer than the four sides of your paper. Then you need to, with your sponge, wet it completely in the bowl and in turn, wet your paper.

Starting from the middle you need to gradually flatten your work out on a flat surface or board. This can be done with a clean rag or even the side of your hand. All that you need to do then, is to tape the paper down with the gummed strips. You will need the gummed paper moist for this.

This has to now be left to dry out naturally, so that it will not have a wrinkled effect. At this stage, when it is finished, it is what artists call their support. This is the best you can have for watercolouring.

The support plays a big role in watercolour painting, as it affects the way the paint is held on the surface, how the paint responds, or the ease with which the brush moves over the surface.

The aim of your work is for it to have a decent finish to it and the transparency of watercolours can make it a bit puzzling at times to use. In fact, if you have white paper it will always, and you will need to be aware of this, be the lightest part of your work. So yes, the support is vital.

Paper comes in different grades by weight. If the paper is heavy it will take water well, whereas if it is light, it will wrinkle and get distorted. Heavy papers are a joy to work with, but are expensive.

Various choices are are at hand in our shops. Ready stretched pads which have glue all round. Ready perforated and spiralled pads with hard backs, or simply just sold by the sheet. These are what you have to choose from for watercolours.

About the Author:

Want to find more interesting "How To" guides such as this one? Anna Meenaghan, the creator of this guide and also a contemporary artist, runs a online art community where she also provides help for artists and art lovers alike. As a contemporary painter I found it of great benefit to myself. Comment by Michael Bruckner.

Beach Vacation Scrapbooking Layout Ideas

Looking for ideas to embellish you beach vacation photos? This article has plenty of pictures for inspiration, quotes and tips.

Beach Vacation Scrapbooking Layout Ideas