So, some ideas just work better than others. I haven't been able to get out for craft supplies...and, in all honesty, I haven't had any great inspirational ideas anyhow...so, with some rain outdoors and a sense of just needing to do something slowly creeping up, I tried two projects that both seemed to be no-brainers and things that couldn't be messed up...I was wrong.
The first was a simple decoupage project. I had some really pretty 4th of July napkins that I wanted to pair with some old, tin buckets I had sitting out on my gardener's bench. This seemed like a simple enough thing to do-just separate the layers of the napkin and ModPodge the picture on the bucket.
At this point, I was happy...but, the ModPodge is still wet. As soon as it dried, the pretty pattern of the napkin just kind of faded into the silver of the bucket.
And so, I soaked it off and painted the bucket a light gray hoping that would help.
And, it did but I am still under whelmed with this project.
I realized that I really couldn't come up with anything else for the 4th of July so I moved on to my next decor which will be sun flowers. Nope. Nothing striking my fancy there just yet either. Then I remembered that I had been wanting to try my hand at painting pumpkins...but not just any ordinary pumpkin. I wanted to do something a little different and, if I liked how it turned out, maybe I could make them as gifts for family and friends.
With that in mind...and no fabulous supplies laying around, I decided to use the wood fence slat I had cut up earlier. I started by giving it a dry brushed coat of white chalk paint.
Next, I sketched the pumpkin and then used a black marker to draw the pumpkin segments. I thought that might be easier than a thin brush and paint but the texture of the wood made the marker lines hard to control.
Then I started filling in a bit with a light orange chalk paint...which dried much too dark for my liking. It was reading more Halloween than autumn to me now so I started adding other colors. I think my plan had been to not try for a realistic pumpkin...to kind of go a bit more modern art-ish...but, I guess that just isn't me because every time it got anywhere near that, I went back and changed it.
I knew I wanted cut out pieces of wording so I got that added...
...and that is where things really went south. I can't even begin to tell you have many layers of paint have gone over other layers of paint to do and re-do this pumpkin so many times. I finally just gave up. For right now, it is what it is. It may end up as a shelf sitter (on a REALLY obscure shelf - Lol), I may have an ah-ha moment and know just what it needs and make it better or, it might never be seen again...we shall see.
I thought about heading out to the pool, but I think Mother Nature just might be trying to tell me something...
My rain lilies are fairly good predictors of what may lie in store for the afternoon. In any case, I'm off for now. I ended up having the best day yesterday with daughter #3 and her family. It was spur of the moment and those things usually turn out to be the most fun. But, I did put a few chores on hold so with "verified" rain in the forecast, I guess I had better get going on that. Stay safe and stay tuned.
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