Home Sweet Home: Watermelon

What comes to mind when you think of summer? Maybe things like playing outside, eating watermelon and spitting out the seeds in the grass until you were a pink drippy covered mess and then swimming in the pool to clean off.  This is the image that I wanted to capture in the bright cheerfulness of my watermelon "O".

I started with painting the entire block of wood white.  After a couple of layers I lightly drew lines with a pencil around the outside edge of varying widths and painted them with a light and a medium shade of green acrylic paint.  The watermelon pink paint I admit was a custom mixture of colors.  It took a couple pinks, a little red and some white before I found the right combination that made me think summer.

Once all of that was dry I sealed it with a satin gloss finish acrylic paint sealer and then hammered carpet tack nails randomly across the front for the seeds.  A big thank you goes to my sister Amber for the idea of the carpet tacks.  They look cute and it saved my from possibly messing the whole thing up by trying to paint on little black seeds.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Home Sweet Home: Summer Sun

My children were watching Care Bears a couple weeks ago and the way they animators drew and brought to life the moon, sun and all the little stars are what gave me the inspiration for for the face on my summer sun "O".

I started with a yellow acrylic paint as a base color and let that dry.  Then I sponged a yellow/orange color around the sides and on the sun's rays and let that dry.  Finally I sponged a bright orange in a thinner layer around the sides and over the sun's rays and gave that time to dry.

Next it was time for the face.  I used a dot dash pattern around the edge of the sun's face and painted on the face with the smallest paint brush I had.  The white dots on the eyes I added very last with the tip of a toothpick.

It turned out so bright and cheerful, just like all those fun summer days I remember as a kid playing outside, eating popsicles and swimming in the pool.  A perfect project for a blustery fall day when you are missing the out of doors.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Home Sweet Home: Patriotic Star

Veteran's Day is coming up in less than a week and it has me feeling a bit patriotic.  So while I should probably be painting my "O" symbol for the month of December I couldn't resist the opportunity to paint my patriotic star for the month of July.

This Star has been one of my favorite "O" symbols to paint for this project so far.  I used a pencil and a ruler to mark the stripes Then I picked red, white and blue paint.  It took several coats of paint to cover up the pencil marks and I learned that faint marks on future projects will be easier to cover up.  I used some white sheer ribbon and some silver grosgrain ribbon to decorate the middle.  The stars were sparkly silver brads from the scrapbooking section of the craft store.  I cut off the prongs and glued them onto the wood with superglue.

I love how this turned out and I can't wait until July comes around so I can set it out and use it for the the month.  If only all of the "O" symbols for this little wooden sign turn out this cute.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Home Sweet Home: Pumpkin

This simple pumpkin has been one of my favorite "O" symbols to paint for this project so far.  I used several different shades of oranges and layered along each of the black lines where the grooves and bends would be in a real pumpkin to give it depth and shadow.  At least as much as you can give depth and shadow to a flat piece of wood.  The layers of oranges are a little bit hard to see in the photos.

My sister Amber was the one who came up with the idea for the rafia ribbon along the top and the fall oak leaves that are coated in glitter and sparkle.  The green vine curls were done with florist wire wrapped around a pencil.

It turned out cute enough I am looking forward to putting it up in a couple days when we get to November and it is time to switch from Halloween decor to fall and Thanksgiving decor.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Home Sweet Home: Ghost

Fall is moving in and October is quickly blowing by.  Already is almost time for Halloween.  And what better time to add to my Home sign decor with with my ghostly letter "O".

This simple little ghost sure stretched my painting ability.  I have never before tried to paint fabric folds onto a flat surface before.  It made me wish that the 2 x 4 piece of wood his shape was cut out of had a wider base.

The idea for the patches I got after looking at lots of scarecrow pictures on pinterest and I decided that they would look cute on a ghost too.  I sanded the wood, painted with assorted acrylic paint colors and then sealed the paint with a satin finish gloss sealer.

Costumes for the kids have taken a really large back seat this year and I admit that they will mostly be reusing costumes from past years and hand me downs but none of them have complained yet so maybe that means I can let myself feel a little less guilty about not doing as much sewing and enjoy the painting I have been doing just a little more.

You can check out the main post for this project and all it's monthly letter "O" links here HOME SWEET HOME.

Home Sweet Home

Well, it has been a long time since I sat down to do crafting or even think about crafting.  Let alone blogging about it.  Our family has recently moved and in the process of unpacking all the boxes and trying to find new places for all my crafts I came across a half finished project that I have pulled out and put on the crafting table with every intention of finishing it sooner then later.

My sister Amber and I years ago bought this little wood cut out project that spells the word HOME in big letters with a different shape for the O for each month depending on the season.  I am sad to say that it is not yet finished.  But maybe by blogging about it and sharing it with all of you it will get closer and closer to being finished.  So here is the first installment.  The letters themselves are painted a light brown with acrylic paint and then a black dot and dash line travels around the outside edge of each one.

The Apple itself a symbol of fall or school starting again I am honestly not sure which was painted in a custom mixed red that I like to think of as bright apple.  Then a little cream mark was painted on for the worm to exit from.  Seal it all with a satin finish wood paint sealer. Then add my favorite part and the finishing touch the worm itself.  It is made up of five green puff balls and googly eyes hot glued in placed.

Honestly I am not sure whether this lovely little apple should be used for the month of August or September.  What are your thoughts?

Home Sign Links for:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December