OY!! Take Two!

 I woke up thinking I would at least start my Halloween project today. I knew this one would take a bit if time. I figured even before I started to paint the frame, I should see if my idea for the pumpkin man was going to work. And so, I started to gather my supplies. And I was being joined by my raven that was a gift from daughter #3 last year. He came out because I thought about him at some point during the night and realized that he didn't have to wait until autumn to be in my decor. My yard and pool area are FULL of those things this time of year so he won't be out of season and he might as well be out where I can enjoy him a bit longer. In any case, I put him on the table to join me until I found a place for him

Now this is probably more than you want to know but he is a "lamp". He has a socket that hangs from his mouth with a unique bulb. I had everything on the table when I put down my cup of "munchie" ice. I must have hit the cord for the lamp because as it was sliding off of the table it made the bulb start to roll and the last thing I wanted was for that bulb to fall and hit the slate floor of the sunroom. And so, I reached out too quickly. I caught the bulb but in doing so knocked over the very large cup full of ice and water and it spilled across the whole table. And, of course, across pumpkin man as well who I had spent many minutes painstakingly cutting out. I dried him with my hair dryer very quickly but he was water stained. Probably not that much that I couldn't use him but, if I was being honest, I kind of wish I had made him a bit larger so....I started over! He actually looks worse in person than he does here but if you look closely, you can see the stains.

I resized him and printed a new one. He is just enough large enough now to sit where I want him. And, of course, I cut the new one out.

And there's that culprit raven who started the whole mess keeping his eye on me! Lol

At this point I traced the man onto the foam core and cut him out. I again used my method of holding the foam core up and cutting along the lines and through the front and back at the same time. This seems to work so much better for me than pressing down on a cutting board as long as you keep using very sharp blades!

Then I painted the edges black and put some color on the foam where I thought the man might not match exactly.

I also painted the back just in case it shows because pumpkin man is going to sit off of the frame a bit.

I just used Tacky glue to adhere the image to the foam core and I was happy with how it looked so I was on to the next step...which took forever!

I started to paint the frame. This is another of those laser cut frames with a very intricate design and many swirly edges. At first I planned on leaving the edges the color they were as the laser makes them a fairly dark brown. But, once I started putting on the black it became obvious that I would need to paint those swirls! This was definitely a lesson in patience as every time I thought I was finally done I would look from another angle and see what I had missed. But I persevered and it is done. It is not perfect but I am going to be using antiquing wax and Rub&Buff so I think the missed spots will get covered. I am DONE for today Time to give my back a break and put my feet up before having to figure out what I will have for dinner but, I think I like where this is going.

I did want to break up the black a bit so I ripped a piece of orange spider web paper to fit in the inner oval.

And here is where my raven ended up. If the sunflowers were going to be out a bit longer than they are, I would probably do some rearranging and find him a better home but at least now he is out and I will remember him next year when the sunflowers come out.

Hello again. It is now Sunday and looks to be a pretty rainy, gloomy day so I felt no guilt in heading straight back to my Halloween project left hanging yesterday. The first thing I wanted to do is see if I could get a little finish on Pumpkin Man. Luckily, I kept the water stained one and decided to try a thin coat of ModPodge. Sometimes the ModPodge causes the ink to smear but, I guess I gave it long enough to cure this time because it was fine and gave me the sheen I was looking for. I also added a coat to the paper on the frame.

 The inspiration that I saw used antique wax so that is where I thought I would start...except that hind sight is better and when all was said and done, I would have skipped this step. Even though you can see it here, once I added the Rub&Buff, you couldn't see any of the distress with the possible exception around the ripped edges.

The inspiration also used gold Rub&Buff-which I have-but I wanted to see what antique copper would look like. I have never used that before and it is a bit different in texture from the gold rubs. At first it just looked black and I wasn't all that thrilled but when I "rubbed" more-which is what brings out the sheen on these things-the copper came alive and, since copper is one of my favorite finishes, that is where I went.

So here is where I am at this point. The inspiration also used some battery powered fairy lights behind the man but they are not the kind I can find anywhere locally and it's the same old story. I'm not going to order two dozen of them-and pay for two dozen of them-if I am only going to use one or two at most. And so, I think I will sit with this for a bit to wait and see if I get any other bright ideas before I glue it together as is. I could add a tag or a bow? Not sure if it calls for either. We shall see.

No other big plans for this week until daughter #1 and grand daughter #2 arrive along with their two dogs who I will have with me while they move grand daughter #4  into her apartment in Gainesville to start her first year of law school...exciting changes and new opportunities are on the horizon! Stay safe and stay tuned.