A beautiful late summer day is the perfect scene for a craft project. The husband outside mowing, sun tea brewing on the porch, windows open, Dizzie Gillespie on the record player. Ah, yes.
Enter today's craft: a window painting/drawing I have been planning the past couple weeks to amp up my fall porch decor. Homeownership is so fun!
I've had four single lane old windows stored on my apartment's back patio for probably almost three years. I've had several dreams for them over that time. I used one as a makeshift light box for pattern transfer for a wedding embroidery once. I have three more, so I guess maybe this will be a repeating seasonal project.
I cleaned up the window frame a bit, but not too much since I think the dirt is charming.( You should see my house it is so "charming".)
I added a hanging wire using a couple eye hooks and some floral wire I had on hand. I don't recommend floral wire, it's just what I had. I doubled it up to make sure it would hold the weight of the window. In case you don't know the trick to winding hanging wire: it is key to DOUBLE BACK. This locks the wire and keeps it from slipping.
I found a vintage Halloween design on Pinterest that I wanted to zeros and enlarge at work for this project, but I forgot. So this also became a drawing project But for those of you who think ahead, this could be a step to skip. Still, with a gorgeous day like this and a sunlit workstation, I was happy to be drawing.
Here's the original image I was working from.
Great, right? I wanted to find something that could stay up through Thanksgiving. I figure a plump harvest moon should do the trick.
I started out sketching the ideas and shapes of the drawing then took more time to fill it in and establish the spaces that would need paint and those that would be left bare.
The paper I drew the template on was pre-sized for the window pane. I taped it to the front of the pane . I decided to paint the back of the pane for two reasons. I thought maybe having the glass in front of it would give it extra depth and I wanted to protect the paint from the outdoor elements.
Next step is to follow the template using a paint marker. (You probably have one of these lying around now because you tried to do that marker decorated mug thing.) if you need to purchase, no fear, they are only a few bucks and you can get them other places than craft stores. Menards has them as does Walmart.
Be careful as you paint to not paint anywhere where you might need to rest your wrist. I worked from the upper left corner down to the bottom right, because I'm right handed... and a bit anal. Also, the paint pen dries very quickly. Work in small sections so you can finish before it dries. When you try to paint over dry paint it acts as an eraser. Another trick is to compress the pen tip fully and refill it with paint. This helps you go over multiple times and makes a thicker line.
It is important to stand during this craft so that you are copying the drawing directly overhead. Otherwise, your drawing will be skewed. Of course, there's room for some error here. Don't agonize over every detail. Follow the paint if it flows a little. And, if you do screw up big time, you can simply scratch off what you've done and redo.
Once the image is traced, you remove the paper and VOILA! I'm super excited about the final product and looking forward to spending a fall afternoon making a winter porch painting.
I hung the flag pole today too, and did some outdoor cleaning and decorating. it was a productive and lovely day. I am so grateful for the stage of life I'm experiencing.
Come by the house soon! the Franks are open for autumnal visitors.
