Barn Wood Santa - DCC Blog Hop

This month's Blog Hop

features Handmade craft ideas!

I have so many works-in-progress,

I literally had to search through my

hundreds of photos and figure

out which project I could blog about -

considering I have spent more

hours in a smelly, noisy gym than out

in the past two weeks. 

Keep in mind, when I'm in the gym,

I'm watching my kids play ball,

not painting or taking pics or blogging.

(and I certainly wouldn't want you to think

I was actually working out at the gym)

I don't really do that.

So before I head to the gym again

tomorrow morning, to not work out, I thought I'd share

this little barn wood Santa I made.

 I really liked these planks of barn wood.

While they did require a heavy hand

with the wire brush, they didn't have many

nails that had to be removed.

So I could clean them quicker and get

on with my instant-gratification fix.

;)

Materials List:
Wood Plank
Power Drill & 1/8" Drill Bit
Baling Wire (12" length)
Fabric Scraps or Tulle
for bows
Acrylic Paints:
Flesh, Red, White, Black
Brown, Light Green, Dark Green
Metallic Gold
Sponge Roller, Paint Brush
Pink Powder Blush
Cotton Swabs
Oil Based Wood Stain
or sealer of choice
Clean Rag (to apply stain)
Sanding Block 
Tracing Paper (for pattern)
Transfer Paper
Stylus

I squeezed some white acrylic paint onto

a paper plate and used a sponge

roller to apply several coats of paint to the

planks.  I didn't paint all the way

to the edges - I wanted some of the barn

wood to show through.

I drilled two small holes in the top

corners of each plank,

so I could thread some wire through for

hanging when I finished.

 I made a pattern by sketching out

a skinny Santa face onto

a piece of tracing paper; and I

transferred the pattern to each plank

using a stylus and transfer paper.

 I painted the hats and suits with

red acrylic paint, and the hat brims and

beards with another coat of white paint.

I painted the faces flesh tone.

Next, I shaded around the beards with

a chocolate brown paint, and I shaded

underneath the hat brims with

a golden brown paint.

To give the cheeks a little color,

I used a cotton swab and pink powder blush.

Next, I painted three holly leaves

onto the bottom of each Santa plank.

The green paint over the red paint

never really achieves opacity;

but I've noticed with experience that

once you've shaded and highlighted each

leaf, the blotchy base coat actually

looks really good.

I shaded around each holly leaf with

chocolate brown paint.

Next, I shaded the lower and left sides

of each leaf, and then highlighted

the top and right sides of

each leaf with a lighter green paint.

 I used a liner brush and metallic gold paint

to add swirly stems and curls.

I added metallic gold and red dip dots.

I used my hand sander to remove some

of the paint from each plank,

then dotted the eyes and highlighted

the tops of the noses.

I shaded under the mustaches.

I stained each piece with an oil based stain.

I added a jingle bell to the hat

by painting a 1" flat wood circle with

metallic gold paint, outlining with

black paint and a thin liner brush,

and then attaching it to the hat with a

1/2" nail.  I added some white

outlines on the beard, the mustache,

and the eyebrows.

I threaded some baling wire through the

holes I'd drilled earlier, and curled

the ends to secure the hanger.

I added a tulle bow.

Then another.

Oh, why not three?!

HO HO HO

Barnwood Santa!

I've set him aside as a hostess gift!

 Use the link at the top of this post

to go through the hop

and check out more Handmade craft ideas!

~ Peace and Happy Painting ~

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for all the happy, healthy

children in my family.

We miss you, Jordan, Macy, Silas, and Logan!

Our Thanksgiving Day just wasn't

the same without you.

Peace & Love, Aunt Meggan 

Oh, and P.S.
How great would it be if I made this
my Christmas card??

LOL!!!
Just keepin' it real ...

... and we have curtains!

Actually, I've had curtains for a few days.

I'm multi-tasking right now ... I have a few irons

in the fire.  Nothing new there.

I'll show ya:

Curtains,

Kitty Pails, Shelves,

more Curtains, a POP of color in the way

of flowers and a ceramic vase,

and some unfinished ornaments pulled

out of storage by Crafty Girlfriend

with instructions to

FINISH THESE!!!

Some towel storage in the barn bathroom,

Some Jack-o-Lantern and Frank Pails,

more POP in the bathroom,

and, you guessed it, more POP ...

as well as a few scarecrows awaiting finishing

touches and friendly snowmen;

... and a few of my shelves ...

while they were still empty.

I would have taken a pic of my shelves FULL,

but my camera battery wasn't cooperating.

I'm looking forward to the weekend!

I'm hoping to spend many hours

in my studio making lots of

holiday goodies!!!

Peace Out

The Refrigerator - Part II

When we decided to build a barn

out in the middle of nowhere,

I knew we would need a room for

storing snacks and beverages and possibly

for cooking light meals.

Some people refer to this as their

"kitchen"

I like to think of this as my

"probably wouldn't need it if it were just me,

but since I have a hundred kids

and they're always hungry and thirsty,

and if I'm serious about getting some actual

crafty-work done in my new studio,

we'd better put in a room for storing snacks

and beverages and possibly for cooking

light meals" room.

Ya know what?  Maybe I will just

call it a "kitchen"

Anyway, I didn't want to dedicate a whole

room to this "kitchen area"

so I dedicated a wall on the outside

of our build-out, on the inside

of our barn.

When you open those big garage doors,

you see this:

Now we get to the part where I talk about the

"probably wouldn't need it if it were just me,

but since I have a hundred kids

and they're always hungry and thirsty,

and if I'm serious about getting some actual

crafty-work done in my new studio,

we'd better put in a thing for storing snacks

and keeping beverages cold

and popcicles frozen"

... or refrigerator, as some would call it.

By now you've surely determined that

this will be no ordinary refrigerator.

But of course,

I had to start with an ordinary refrigerator,

which you can read about here.

Now, I personally wanted to have the fridge

sprayed a shade of barn red;

(after all, we have a paint sprayer for

just this very type of project)

however,

Some One wanted it painted with a roller.

Since I personally wasn't doing the painting,

Some One else was doing the painting,

so he got his way.

I pick my battles.

Here's why I thought spraying would be better:

Yikes!!!

Here is where Some One tells me that

it will need more than one coat.

(umm ... AGREE)

And here is also where I personally

share my sudden recollection

that red paint usually needs an orange base coat.

Well, we are miles away

from the nearest paint store,

and so we will press on.

Without the orange base coat.

Ta daa!!!

 But it isn't finished yet!

I thought we'd add a little white trim

- to make it seem more barn-like.

And special.

On a side note,

oooh!  I got a new saw and I have

sooo many project ideas

that will require me to use this delicious

piece of toolery!!!

I'm not sure if toolery is a word ...

it sounds like jewelry, which is a word,

and I like them both so much!

Badda

 Bing

Badda

Boom!!!

Now, we ran into a little hiccup

when it came to the handles.

When I initially dreamed up a barn fridge,

I had pictured in my mind our 

old upright freezer-on-top fridge-on-bottom

in a lovely shade of goldenrod yellow.

When I went to the Grove house to

clean my fridge, I discovered this strange and

unusual white side-by-side

in the goldenrod fridge's space.

I then remembered we

must have given away goldenrod fridge

and purchased this 

strange, white side-by-side

many years ago.

Funny how I forget stuff.

(Actually, it's not that funny, but I digress)

So, the handles I had pictured for this

barn fridge wouldn't work

since we now had this ice maker and 

the narrower doors to work with.

For the larger door,

(and this was Doc's idea)

(See - I give credit where credit is due)

(when I remember to)

we used a rail from a decorative window packet.

Don't know exactly what it's called,

and the packaging is still out at the barn.

For the smaller door,

I'm going through my hook and knob

collection to see if I can

find any really rustic-looking handles.

Until I find the right one,

no popcicles.

Just kidding.

I'm sure they'll figure out a way

to access the popcicles.

They're resourceful like that.

Hungry buggers.

Peace and Toolery