project – MINDING MY P'S WITH Q

Here is a timely ‘playback’ post from 2016. If your Christmas timetable is beginning to crash, and you would like to create a personalized gift quickly, here is an easy way to transfer lettering of all sizes.

Creating this simple ‘PEACE ON EARTH’ plaque was easy and inexpensive. A scrap piece of wood would work just as well as a purchased plaque. I used FolkArt artist pigments for the best possible coverage. Because I wanted the wood to look rustic I only gave it one coat of Napthol Crimson.

The Napthol Crimson alone was a little brighter than I expected; I used Liquitex Transparent Burnt Umber Ink to antique the plaque. It worked perfectly. Quick Tip: Utilize a disposable brush to apply the ink, wipe off quickly to remove the majority of the color.

I chose a font and printed out letters in the size I desired for the plaque. I was lucky; you can see I almost ran out of ink. To transfer these letters to the plaque, I colored a piece of children’s sidewalk chalk over the back of the printed sheet.

Taped onto the front of the plaque with painter’s tape, I could trace around the edges of these letters with a ballpoint pen and transfer the chalk to the plaque. The outline is easy to see, yet any residue left behind after painting can wiped away when the paint is dry.

I used gold acrylic paint to fill in the letters. A swipe of black paint along the right sides gave the letters a shadowy dimension.

PEACE ON EARTH TO ALL MY BLOGGING FRIENDS! A BLESSED DECEMBER TO YOU.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I am an incurable beachcomber. Recently, part of my shell collection has become a project for Halloween. I’ve seen oyster shells fashioned into Santa Claus ornaments with a bit of paint, and I imagined turning my shells into Jack O’ Lanterns. The shells are oblong and oval, much like a real pumpkin. They have a bumpy, lumpy, wavy surface, another commonality with a pumpkin.

I broke out my Folkart acrylic paints and a brush and began to paint my shells.

I needed two coats of the paint, front and back.

After the orange paints were completely dry, I mixed two greens together on the same brush and painted a stem and some twirly vines down the side. I followed the curves and indentations in the shell to give the oyster Jack O’ Lantern a more natural look.

Here’s a photograph showing several of the pumpkins with stems and vines painted on.

I painted black eyes on one, and realized they looked flat and had no depth. To give the illusion of carving, I painted a raw sienna paint in the face pattern first. This gave an illusion of the inner color of the pumpkins. I wanted to have happy faces, rather than scary or spooky.

I found some happy faced pumpkin patterns to use as inspiration at this site. Happy-faced Jack O’ Lanterns

I added the black paint, being very careful to leave a bit of the raw sienna showing for the depth I wanted. The last touch was a white highlight on each Jack or Jill’s eyes.