Thinking Inking

Barn Board Tree with Ornament Hooks

Welcome! Today is my last craft post for a while since I'll be posting for the MFT Stamps December release starting Saturday, but I had one more project that Rick and I spent a few days on between us, and I couldn't wait to share it! When I was in Oregon earlier in November, I saw some delightful barn wood Christmas trees in a farm store. I bought a few small things there that I knew I couldn't make, but I mostly gathered ideas for my "honey do" list! The trees that I saw were plain grayish barn wood with no added ornamentation, but I wanted to have a lighter colored tree so that I could display a few little jewels of ornaments and have them show up well.

So. . . I won't bore you with the whole process, but let's say that this was version two of the tree. I had handed Rick a not-very-detailed picture and said, "Can you make me something like this?" Rick can do pretty much anything--he's a keeper for sure! But when I saw version one, it looked more like an arrow pointing up than it did a tree. The layers were almost even from top to bottom, and the angles on the branches weren't severe enough. It was really my fault because the picture I gave him had distorted perspective, so I looked at that tree for a day and a half before I decided to say, "Do you think we could change this up a bit?" He had me mark where I wanted the "limbs" cut and we proceeded to turn that arrow into a tree. :-) (Lesson learned: Don't assume that someone else knows exactly what you have in mind!)

First I base-coated it with a Tommy green chalk paint mixture (Avocado lightened a bit with Lime, and with a smidgen of English blue tossed in for good measure). Honestly, the green color doesn't matter that much since it is covered with white anyway. All that shows is whatever you choose to sand down. After the green coat, I used the Tommy Neutral Wax to brush lightly over the high spots and the ends of the "branches" so that I could easily remove paint from those areas after my top coat. I let the wax sit for a couple of hours, knowing that the green paint underneath still needed some curing time anyway (12-24 hours is recommended). 

Next I painted the whole tree with Tommy White Chalk Paint and let it dry overnight. I used a sanding block to brush over the  rough wood grain and the ends of each board so that some of that awesome wood grain and saw-blade texture would show through. I used a damp cloth to remove all of the sanding dust (though I probably should have asked Rick for one of those tack cloths that they make to remove sawdust without wetting the wood). The picture above is what we ended up with.

While in Oregon, I had picked up a bag of 36 antique-looking mercury glass ornaments in blues and blue-greens that would be perfect to hang on my tree! I had asked Rick to leave room in between the branch layers for my little ornaments to hang free. I found only gold screw-in hooks at Home Depot, so those had to be spray-painted white. And then I proceeded to screw in 40 hooks, two of them through knot holes. (I'd prefer to forget that afternoon!) I have ordered a few more ornaments from Amazon; I found some that were a similar style, but were reds and greens. I'll have plenty to fill in those last four hooks and to do some color mixing and matching when they get here.

The tree still needed something--maybe a star? So I asked Rick to cut a quilt star for me--using 1-1/2" wide boards, cut 2-1/2" long at 45 degree angles on both ends. (Notice that I had learned after the "arrow tree" incident to be more specific in my request!) The pieces fit together perfectly, and I base coated them in red chalk paint, waxed the places that I wanted to be able to remove paint, and them coated them in white paint. (That sounds fast, but it's at least a 24-hour process when you give the paint 12-24 hours curing time between coats. If you don't let the paint cure, the colors will start muddling together when you paint the top coat. (Don't ask me how I know that.)

Here's is my wood-glued, almost-finished star. I love it! I tried one more product that I haven't tried before: it's hard to get a picture that shows sparkle, but I used some Tommy Timbrillo (diluted with water) to paint my star and give it sparkle. It's a subtle but very pretty silver glittered pearl base. (You can also mix Timbrillo in with any of the Tommy Chalk Paint colors to make them sparkle too.) I'm still looking for an antique drawer pull to put in the center of my star. I am also considering getting some of that LED light tape (that people put on the back of TV's) to stick on the bottom of my board-branches to light up the ornaments. But I'm not sure how I would make it run from layer to layer without looking tacky. . . Thinking on that one still!

I hope you've enjoyed this week of "crafty" posts. On Saturday, I will have the first of my MFT Stamps December Release posts going up if you're looking for cards again. Thanks for stopping by,

Tommy Chalk Paint Colors: Avocado, Lime, English Blue, White, Ruby

Tommy Neutral Wax

Tommy Timbrillo

Scrap oak boards

Wood Glue

Sand paper

Hooks

White Spray paint (to paint hooks if you can't find white ones)

Paint Brushes (I keep one brush dedicated to wax and a couple of others that I paint with. I do not like foam brushes for rough wood. They tear up quickly and shed black foam bits on the wood.)

Merry Christmas Mini Plaque

Welcome! I have a few more Christmas-y projects to share today, starting with a really simple 5" x 7" wooden plaque. I had put a base coat of a royal blue chalk paint (Tommy English Blue, to be exact), then waxed the edges and painted a white topcoat without really having any idea what I was going to do with it. (How's that for a plan?) With a holiday season coming up, a Christmas sentiment seemed perfect. 

This particular sentiment was one that I had lettered time and time again in different styles while practicing lettering on my iPad, so I simply found one of my practice pages that I liked, printed it out, and then transferred it to the wooden surface using graphite transfer paper. You can see where I have transferred it above. Here is my file if you need a quick Christmas project:  View this photo . (It should come up in a window where you will be able to copy or save the file to your computer.) You're welcome to use it if it helps!

I took the easy route on this one after finding that my brush lettering on chalkboard skills were a little rusty the other day: for this one, I used two sizes of red paint pen (fine/3mm and medium/6mm tips). It was fast and seriously EASY. I used a mono weight style with my lettering so that I wouldn't even have to go back and do thicks and thins. Mono weight works well for whimsical lettering anyway, so I lucked out there. :-)

Finally, I added three small rusty bells and a twine bow--simple! I put one more coat of Tommy Neutral Wax on the entire front after everything was dry and then buffed it to a soft sheen a few hours later. The wax protects the chalk finish, which can otherwise be somewhat fragile. (That's what make chalk paint so easy to distress.)

Now,  as requested, I took a few pictures earlier today of some of our previous years' wooden ornaments. Some of my pictures had too much glare from the sun, but I'll share the ones that were good below, as well as a picture of the Christmas tree. We keep it pretty simple. I don't enjoy taking down decorations in January. So I remember that when I'm putting them out in November. ;-)

This is a favorite for obvious reasons. . . Who can resist that baby face?

I have no idea where we found this pattern--could have been a stamp set, or could have been in a periodical. Anyway, it is NOT original, but I liked it, and Rick cut it out for me to paint. 

The next two ornaments were from old Stampin' Up stamp sets. I can't remember the name of the set and don't still have it, but I know it was Stampin' Up!

(Also SU--probably the same set as the one before, but I'm guessing that it's from ten years ago or so.)

And here's our tree. Usually we have a LOT of snow on the ground by now. This year the ground is still bare, but I'm certainly not complaining!  Tomorrow I will have one more project that Rick and I have spent a few days on, and then I'll be getting back to cards after that. I hope you've enjoyed the little crafty projects though. Thanks for visiting,

Supplies are for the first project--the Merry Christmas plaque at the top of the post.

5 x 7 wooden plaque

sand paper

Tommy Chalk Paints in English Blue and White

Tommy Neutral Wax

Graphite Transfer Paper

3mm and 6mm red paint markers (I used Painters brand from Walmart)

Blessed Vintage Framed Blackboard

Welcome! I was asked after my last post to show a few more of our wooden ornaments, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures today when I had good lighting. I will try to get more of my favorites photographed this week and share them. I still  have a few more decorating or gift projects up my sleeve to share though!

Today's project is a blackboard that is going to hang above my keyboard as soon as I get a hanger in the wall. When Rick and I were browsing through Home Depot last week, he ran across a display of 18" x 24" Barnwood Framed Blackboards on sale for under $10 each and asked me if they were something I could use. Ummm, YES! I've been loving lettering over the last year, and I really had to restrain myself, purchasing only two of them. (Tell me that I'm not the only person who has ever bought--well, maybe ten of something that was a good deal, just sure that you would get them all made, and nine of them are still in your basement?) But I had concrete plans for TWO of them, so I was good and bought just two. 

I started by coating the plastic-feeling "blackboard" surface with Tommy Black Chalkboard paint. The surface was a little too smooth and perfect for what I had in mind,  and painting it left some lovely brush marks that could catch chalk dust better than a smoother surface.  I masked the wood when I painted the blackboard so that I could just paint quickly without having to work carefully around edges. I had good coverage with only one coat since I was painting a black surface. However, the instructions for the blackboard paint suggest two coats, with a 72-hour drying time--just an FYI.

I wanted my "blessed" to stretch from edge to edge. Here I have sketched it out in chalk. I have a mechanical pencil that uses a chalk "lead"; it's a dressmakers chalk, and I love it for projects like this--no sharpening needed--awesome!

Next I painted my letters with white chalk paint. I'm going to level with you: it was not as easy to paint letters as it is to draw them on paper or in ProCreate. In fact, next time, chances are good that I will use a chalk marker rather than painting my letters. My thin letter parts ended up being thicker than I had wanted them to be, but I can live with them. I adjusted my expectations. ;-) The white chalk paint covered very well. I also went back to a couple of bobbles and edged a correction with the Black Chalkboard paint after the white was completely dry. So the fault was with the user--not the paint. . .

Lime and Turquoise, anyone? No, I haven't lost my mind. . . yet. I wanted a distressed white finish, but I wanted a few hints of brighter colors to peep through the white. So my first coat was Turquoise, leaving room for Lime in between in no particular pattern. This layer needed to dry 12-24 hours for best case scenario. I might have rushed it a little bit. . . (If you're thinking that it's a crime to paint barnboard, (1) it's probably fake, and (2) my walls are a similar gray, so I needed contrast.)

After the Lime and Turquoise paints dried, I used Tommy Neutral Wax to wipe on the edges and high spots of the hardwood texture so that when I coated it with white chalk paint, I would be able to sand back down to that Lime/Turquoise layer easily enough.

The white chalk paint covers the underlayer well, but that Neutral Wax that I had put before painting the white will give me a finish like. . . (wait for it!)

THIS! Cool, eh? I let the white paint dry (again, should be 12-24 hours curing time), then lightly sanded in places where I had waxed the barn wood. When I had exposed as much of the Lime/Turquoise layer as I wanted to, I sealed my frame with a light coat of the Neutral Wax. It darkened the white a bit, but I still have plenty of contrast with the gray wall on which it will hang. 

As a finishing touch, I took a stick of chalk and rubbed in on my board, especially coating the edges. Even though I don't intend to try to get the focal word off, I wanted it to look like that was a possibility. Without chalk dust, it was just a little too clean. I may wipe a little more of it off--the jury's still out on that one. But overall, I was really happy with my new framed piece to hang above the keyboard. 

My next two pieces will be all about Christmas--one a small gift, and the other a very cool ornament display. . . that needs one more coat of paint. . . Thanks for visiting!

18" x 24" Barnwood Framed Blackboard (Home Depot, under $10)

Tommy Chalk Paints in Black Chalkboard, White, Lime, Turquoise

Tommy Neutral Wax

Fons and Porter Mechanical Fabric Pencil Leads (Out of stock on Amazon, but maybe you could find them elsewhere. Any 9mm lead holder will work with them.)

Polar Bear Pals Wooden Ornaments Trio

Welcome! We've been cleaning house, cooking, and decorating for the holidays this past week, as I'm sure many of you have too. One of our traditions is that we try to get a few new wooden ornaments made each year for our tree. My husband enjoys working with wood out in his shop when the day are shorter and cooler. Sometimes I toss out requests, and this week he has gotten plenty of them!  I scoured magazines and book stores for ornament patterns that I liked and came up empty. It seemed like most of the pattern magazines this year had more crocheted or knitted ornaments than wooden ornaments. So I came home and started flipping through my stamp sets for inspiration when I ran across the My Favorite Things Birdie Brown Polar Bear Pals stamp set. I love those little bears and thought that they would make a great addition to our ornament collaboration! (Rick cuts them with a scroll saw, and I paint them--team effort.)

I picked three of the Polar Bear Pals images to use as references, enlarging them slightly, and gave him a pattern. He cut them out of 1/2" pine. All of those ears were tricky, I'm sure! I wanted to use my Tommy Paints and wax in order to give them a shabby, worn look. The Tommy paint line is an artist quality chalk paint line rather than a craft paint, but I prefer using really good paint since I hope my son will enjoy the ornament collection for years to come.

First I lightly sanded and then painted the cut outs with Tommy Chalk Color Pale Blue paint. Next I used the Tommy Neutral Wax to lightly brush the edges of the wood, making sure to put wax in areas that I wanted to be able to easily sand down to the Pale Blue layer later. 

I let both the Pale Blue paint layer and the neutral wax layer dry before painting the ornaments again with white paint.  

Here I have sanded down to the Pale Blue layer--or a little past that layer in a couple of places--oops! That's okay--it looks worn and loved that way.  Having applied wax to the edges of the cut out made it really simple to sand the white paint off of the blue paint. It's important to get the dust off of the piece after you sand it, or you'll have some extra texture in your paint job. . .

Finally, I penciled the details on, then inked them before painting and shading them. The inking was the one part that I had a little trouble with: first I tried to use one of my Copic 0.5 Multiliners, but it didn't take long for the pen clog up on the chalk paint. I probably should have used a heat tool on the white paint layer to be absolutely sure that it was very dry before trying to do line work, but it felt dry to me. I also tried an extra fine point Sharpie, and I managed to clog that too. So I just keep trying to clean off my marker tips for long enough to get my lines all in. Again, next time I will use the heat tool or let the top layer dry over night before putting my lines on. 

Other Tommy Chalk Paint colors that I used besides Pale Blue and White were Ruby, Lime, and Turquoise. For the really light shading, I found that my Zig Clean Color watercolors paired with a small water brush worked very well for shading on the white chalk paint. I used mostly a pale gray and a pale purple for shading (all colors listed below). After my paint was dry, I used a scrap of terry cloth towel to apply and rub my Neutral Wax coat into the ornaments for a long-lasting finish. The wax protects the chalk paint finish and makes the surface nice and smooth. After that, I screwed some eye hooks into the top of each ornament, and they are now tree-ready! I'll have a few other decorative or gift projects to share in the next couple of days--hope you don't mind a change of pace from cards once in a while. Thanks for stopping by,

Polar Bear Pals -- My Favorite Things Stamps

Tommy Chalk Colors: White, Pale Blue, Ruby, Lime, Turquoise

Tommy Neutral Wax 

Zig Clean Color Brushes: Light Gray, Lilac, Deep Violet, Deep Red, Light Pink, Persian Green, Mid Green

Small Waterbrush

1/2" clear pine/1/2" screw eyes