Holiday greetings blocks

I like the idea but not my execution of this project.

My husband cut the blocks for me. Each block face is 1.5 inches wide. The outer, tallest blocks are 5" tall, the next tallest ones are 4" and the middle blocks, both vertical and horizontal are 3 inches.

I left the edges bare so that paint didn't meet paint, thinking a somewhat rustic look would work. I wasn't happy with this and added a distressing ink along those edges in a color called tea. I don't have that look photographed. It didn't noticeably improve or detract from what you see here.

I like using blocks to spell our greetings throughout the year. These phrases were on shelves in our main bathroom for a while.

It is probably my lettering that I dislike most on the blocks that I painted. I will repaint them at some point and try this again.

Giraffe #2 and a lion

These over-the-fence peepers are for our grandson. I was excited to get them over to him and didn't think to take my camera so we made do by using our phones. It was starting to rain so we rushed placement. They would look better without a distracting background.

Then again, would a real giraffe and lion pose for us patiently? I wooden think so.... (bad pun?)

The pattern was from The Winfield Collection. Paints used were Patio Paints by DecoArt.

Here's looking at you

At a family birthday party months ago, we were discussing a story in the news about an outdoor sculpture of a giraffe and the reactions toward this item. One adult niece has always loved giraffes and suggested her husband provide their yard with a sculpture. There were lots of digits in that price tags. Lots of them, plus commas, so that wasn't going to happen.

Looking for something totally unrelated to giraffes online, I came across this pattern that sits on a privacy fence and promptly lost sight of whatever I was originally seeking. Could my husband cut this out? Yes. Could I paint it? Yes.

The main part of the pattern that sits on the fence is the neck and hooves with spaces between them. The head is another cut which was later nailed in place.

Here is the finished giraffe on the tall part of a privacy fence in the backyard of one of my sons. The line you see across the giraffe's head is the shadow of a power line.

Here is the giraffe sitting on a lower section of the fence.  My husband has already traced a second giraffe for our grandson and will be cutting out the lion's head too.

Our niece will be gone part of this weekend for her birthday that ends in a zero. Hopefully she feels as I do, that numbers don't matter and will always be a joyful kid at heart. Maybe seeing this on her fence when she comes home will tickle her inner child. 

 

Please add makeup artist to the wild kingdom (wooden wild kingdom) to my resume.

 

 

Painting on glass

This is my first attempt at painting on glass using Martha Stewart gloss paint for glass and also her adhesive stencils.


No staging for this photo, the bottle was hot from the oven. The blue towel behind it
 is to make the stencil visible and hide the knife block on the counter.

The bottle is from a Starbuck's cold drink. I purposely chose to place the doily stencil on the bottle so that the top of it was where the bottle began narrowing for the neck. It didn't go badly but a first attempt would have been better on a flat surface. Scratch that...it doesn't have to be flat, just not a change in size. The stencils are silk screen style and thin so they easily bend around a bottle.

Directions that I saw online suggested using a foam stencil dauber. I didn't have one but I did have a foam brush. I may have pushed the brush a bit instead of a daubing and therefore smeared a bit of paint under the stencil or pushed the stencil itself.

Here is a smaller image on the back of the bottle. Not bad, but still not perfect.

The paint would have cured on its own in 21 days or could be baked in the oven. I chose that method as I don't know where this bottle is going to rest for the next three weeks and I wanted it cured as soon as possible. I will hand wash it in a few days and see if holds up well.

The stencil is Martha Stewart Crafts #33244 Doily Lace Adhesive Silkscreen. There are five designs to the package. The paint is Martha Stewart Crafts Glass Paint Gloss #33120 Wedding Cake.

I will try a transparent paint next. My goal is to decorate the underside of plain glass plates and use them to serve cookies, cakes, etc. when I give baked goods away. The plates can be part of the gift without breaking up a set of dishes that I use here at home and hopefully will bring a smile of remembrance to the recipient long after the cookies are gone. The same will be done for flowers in bottles like the one above or the collection of plain vases from florists over the years.

A Castle Wall

A very good friend of mine is involved in her church's Vacation Bible School every June. Her assignment is to read stories (lessons) to preschoolers. The first year that I helped by creating a backdrop, the theme was a ranch and I was asked to paint a horse's head on a poster board. You should be relieved that I don't have a photo of that to share.

A few years back, the theme was Crocodile Dock. I was asked to paint a fishing shack in a bayou, seen here.  Another year I was asked to make snake hand puppets. I saved the prototype which has become one of our grandson's favorite things to play with while here. I don't have a photo of the puppet as originally created, but here is a recent photo of the snake with a pacifier.

This year, the theme was Kingdom Rock. My friend, with an abundance of faith, asked if I would make a castle wall backdrop. With a fireplace. Painted on a flattened refrigerator carton.

Do you know how big a flattened refrigerator carton is? It is huge! Here it is in my living room, painted primer gray.

It was folded and placed flat on the floor to measure and draw pencil lines to indicate where cement blocks would be drawn with a wide tip black marker.

 

I am lucky to have a sewing/craft room, but it isn't big enough to accommodate a project of this size and allow perspective for photographing.

Originally, my friend only wanted three panels done, but once you have a permanent crick in your neck, why not do all four? Here are three panels partially done and the beginnings of the fireplace.

I'm not thrilled with the fire and the glow that I tried to created but I doubt pre-schoolers are picky critics. If they are, I still have a snake that will defend me.

In case you ever find yourself needing to create the illusion of a block wall, here is the cheater's guide:

 

Decide the size of your blocks, in my case, 8" tall by 12" wide. Measure and mark with a pencil on a surface that has been painted the desired color of your wall. My friend and her daughter used primer gray before bringing the cardboard to me.

 

Use a yardstick and a broad tip marker to create the blocks. Take the hard square-ness off of the block corners by making a "Y" on your lines at the top joins and an upside down "Y" at the bottom with your marker. It doesn't have to be exact.

I used disposable foam brushes (I buy them by the bag for messy work) with very little paint (dry brush technique) to make a black line down the left side and across the bottom of each block for shading, then did the opposite sides in white for highlighting. It was a quick detail that gave the blocks some dimension.

 

Next year, I hope the theme is imagination. Close your eyes children. Close them tight. See whatever you want to see while I read you the story of two friends. One wonders how she gets drawn into projects that she feels is over her head.  The other has faith that with a foam brush, acrylic paints and a marker, her friend can make anything she asks.