Christmas Is Coming!!!!

     Yes, that's right.  Christmas is 6 months away, which means that the 2015 Festival of Trees for Primary Children's Hospital is only 5 months away.

     This isn't exactly a make-over, but I'm excited about this project and want to share it anyway.  This is my cute father!   That other person is me.

     For the last 4-5 years, he has been cutting out little wooden cars for the Humanitarian Aid program in South Eastern Idaho.  He's done over 4,000 so far.
     Over a year ago, I asked him for some cars to paint to possibly use for the Festival of Trees, and he gave me this whole big box.

 

      I looked at the box and wondered how I was going to do this.  What kind of tree would I have?  I started painting some of them, but just really had no direction. 

     Last year, my friend Michelle and I went to the 2014 Festival of Trees and she got an idea.  We had been looking at quilts and door wreaths.  She suggested we do something together again.  She would make a small quilt and I could do a wreath.  We were originally inspired by Christmas Nutcrackers, but some time later, she called me with something different.  She had all this fabric she had purchased that had car themes.  Could we do something based on that?  And I thought of that box in my office.
    
     Christmas on Route 66 was born!  She gave me some cloth that would give me the color scheme.

      I had a wreath that I used to use outdoors, but I took it and washed it down really well.  It's pretty big, but will fit on a 36 inch door and it's in perfect condition.

      I took out the cars I had started working on last year and went to work on them again.

     I put those funny little "eyes" on the purple car as headlights to see if I liked it, and I do.  Most cars are a shiny metallic.  At the time I only had pearlized paints, but I went out and bought a whole bunch of metallic paint.  Originally, I had painted the tires a flat black, but you know how the car wash guys wipe down your tires with this stuff that makes them shiny?  I can do that!  So I'm repainting all the tires with a black gloss paint.

     Now that I have a goal, this is going to be a fun project.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all progresses. 

 

     Ah, yes.  Here is my friend Michelle, the quilter!  I told her she needs to take pictures when she is putting the quilt together so I can include them here.  I think I need to remind her.

 

     Remember to clean your brushes!

Let's Get This Done!

Hi Everyone. I've been a bit slow about posting blogs and getting these bunnies done. 

So let's finish this. 

 

 

I've got the basic colors mapped out.  That actually takes longer than it looks because you have to be a lot more careful with your edges, especially on the first coat.  The second and third coats (if necessary) take less time.

 

 

Ears for bunnies and cats, are actually quite fuzzy, with lots of long hairs poking out.  To replicate this effect, I used a fan brush and got it quite dry, then stroked it over the ears. It sorta worked.

 

 

I want the base to be a vibrant green, so I tested some colors to see what I liked. 

Going with the bright green there.

 

 

As you can see, I've added the stripes back in to the shirt and covered the red dress with a pink pearlized acrylic paint.  Looks shimmery.  On the eyes, I used black gloss paint, rimmed them in white, just like the bunny from my last blog, then added a dot of blue gloss to the black.  When that was dry, I added a tiny white dot to look like a reflection.

Now comes the detail on the dress. 

 

 

 I used pearlized acrylic paint in purples, greens, and yellows.  A very spring time dress, I think.  Much better than the original sack.  In fact, it's still a sack of a dress, but now,

its a sack with flowers all over it.  :)

 

My boy bunny got dots on his kerchief,...

 

 

 ...dashes on his britches and I just couldn't resist that big flower on his knees and big belly.

 

 

More dots and dashes to add pockets and seams.  These little details "make" any makeover. 

This kind of detail is just not done much on mass produced items that need to be done quickly.

 

 

For her flower, I used yellow on the outside and tangerine orange on the inside to make a two color tulip.  The leaves were painted a solid color of green, then I took a darker green, added water to it to make a wash and carefully dripped it into the lines.

 

 

The base was made up of three colors of green.  First the medium, then a darker, then a brushing of yellow-green.  Finally, I'm ready to finish.  I chose to use an acrylic varnish.  There's no smell to these and they do make a nice shiny finish, but you have to be careful, because they bubble easily.  Be sure to paint out the bubbles.  I did 2 coats of the varnish.

 

And here they are all finished! 

 

Don't forget to sign your work!

 

And here's the difference. 

Before.

After

 

I don't know that they look better, but I do think they have more character

and are all ready for Easter.

 

Finally, I can get on to some other projects.