Aghhhhhhhhhh, I just knew I would come unstuck with this idea, following on from my post of 25th September featuring the Iron Orchid Ginger and Spice mould Marc sent me a while back …… BUT, I think I got there in the end!
I’d given the characters ample time to dry completely, so I couldn’t put off painting them any longer, especially as I’d also treated myself to two new sets of pointed tip paintbrushes from Temu (a posh set for £2.66 and a cheaper one for £1.79), to see what the difference was, in the end, there was very little, but I think I prefer the more expensive ones.
My choice of paint, Wilko emulsion tester pots, was perhaps not the wisest, using acrylics may possibly have been better?
The characters came out awfully dark and even though I was in full blown Christmas mode, I wasn’t really sure about the red and green either …….
……. especially when teamed up with the 33p picture frame I found in a charity shop that I thought would be perfect for the idea …….
……. but again, at this stage it also came over as too dark. Sooooooooo, I put a new background paper in and painted the frame gold.
However, I was still not feeling it! I hated the green and red (red and green should never be seen?), despite gently rubbing the paint to get a more faded and subtler effect, but I felt I had invested too much time to simply chuck it all in the bin and start again.
Yet, despite loathing the green, what did I go and do, only painted the wooden letters green as well, in an effort to try and draw things together?
There followed far too much fiddle fart, before deciding, rather than being an all year round decoration/picture, I should instead “embrace” more Christmas, by going the whole hog, adding wooden snowflakes (Temu, £2.48 for 50) in an effort, this time, to draw the attention away from all the “dreaded” red and green. The letters were duly Glossy Accented and that is how I left things overnight, still not convinced, this wasn’t an absolute pigs ear!
By the morning it was all change, again everything was wrong, the “home sweet home” didn’t say Christmas, it was all so flat, where was the magic?
The original fabric background was resurrected, with slopes of white glitter card stuck along the bottom to form a basic snow scene.
A new set of letters were painted white and glittered, as were the snowflakes. A long forgotten gingerbread house was rediscovered, as were some small Christmas trees. It was finally coming together.
With everything in position, I then set about carefully lifting each piece, one at a time, to glue down exactly where they had been placed.
When I saw the end result, after all the fuss and bother, I was pretty relieved. I liked it. It is on the “busy” side, but that’s Christmas for you and I’m not 100% about the bead noses, but again that’s working up close to a project over a period of long time, from a distance they work.
All it needed then were my signature clusters of three white dots and a sprinkling of confetti snowflakes ………
……… only to then discover that I’d been working with the frame upside down, with the hanger fastenings at the bottom, but nothing that wasn’t easily sorted, duh!
The frame will now be carefully wrapped and given to Marc as an Advent present for 1st December ……. after all, it was him who started it all! Happy, if at times, frustrating days!
