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!