Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A stamp + a little paint = a fun project!

Hi all! Hope your week is off to a great start! I'm going to kick things off here with a fun project that now is sitting in my daughter's bedroom as a reminder of her as a babe with her Nana!

All you need is a unfinished wood frame (I bought mine for $1 at Michael's), some StazOn ink, one of your favorite stamps, some acrylic paint, a fine and a fine line black permanent paint.

To start, I gave my frame a white wash by just sponging on some watered down white acrylic paint. After it dried, I took my Sweet Pea set from Flourishes and stamped it in both corners with StazOn ink. Just like so! (Those angel babies were in the frame when I bought it! ;-)

Here's a close up....
And these are the colors of paint that I picked - two shades of green, two shades of pink and some white....(they are all "well loved" bottles of paint!)
Then, I started to paint with a fine tip paint brush, making sure to darken the areas I wanted shadows and lightening highlighted areas with dabs of white.
While the look above is "OK," I knew I wanted to see the definition in my flowers. So, I grabbed a permanent file line black pen and started to outline the stamped image - like this....
Now I was in a quandary because I thought it didn't look soft enough! So, I let the permanent black pen ink dry and then I took my white wash paint (watered down paint) and I took a foam sponge and sponged the white wash over my entire frame. When this was done, I took a large dry brush and dipped it a bit into ivory paint and added some antique streaks. Its a great way to get a hand painted look without being an artist!! :-)
When it was done it looked like this....
I just love that picture of Ellie and her Nana! So did Ellie and now it sits on her shelf in her room.
Hope you enjoyed this little project. Like I said - all you need is a fun stamp, some paint, a picture frame.... and an afternoon!
Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you back here soon!

22 comments:

Charlene said...

Love it! Beautiful job! love your choice of stamp too. I just happen to have a couple of these frames, I definately will give this a try!

jessie lubyk said...

What a beautiful project, I'm sure your daughter just adores it. TFS :)

Robin Kirkpatrick said...

Stunning project, as always, Julie!

Anonymous said...

This is just beautiful Julie and Pat is gonna cry when she sees it!!!!

Shelley said...

Julie, your frame is beautiful. Although, you really put a lot of time into it, the results are worth it!

The Rubber Maid said...

That really came out beautiful
and of course the two gals in the picture are pretty snazzy too. Love thinking back to that time just laying on the couch with my little darlin. Love it! Mom

denise g. said...

So sweet! I think your Mom could use a duplicate for her new throne room and Mother's Day is coming.

Janine said...

JUST BEAUTIFUL JULIE!!!

Ann said...

Gorgeous! Just gorgeous!

Stacy Morgan said...

Awww.... This is just so sweet and awesome job with the frame! Love it.

Latisha said...

beautiful!!

Stef Perry said...

Wow, you have provided a project I could actually feel comfortable with. Not only is it gorgeous, bur it is easy enough to duplicate for those of us not comfortable with more than paper crafting. That is an absolutely fabulous photo of your mom and daughter, and the frame turned out so very beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing!

Jerri Kay said...

Absolutely gorgeous girl! What a fabulous idea!

Curt in Indy said...

Julie, this is so cool! Love that picture in the frame too! By the way, this is highlighted on Card of the Week! Great job on the painting too! Best, Curt

LeAnne said...

Well, aren't you so creative! This is FABULOUS! Love it! TFS!

Susan G said...

Absolutely gorgeous! And you make it look so simple.

Nimue said...

Thanks for the inspiration, Julie. This is a 'must do' project and I have the perfect picture of my sweet grandbaby and me for it. - Nimmy

Rosella said...

What a beautiful frame!! Love it! This will definitely be an inspiration piece!

Elena said...

Gorgeous frame you created, Julie!

Heather T said...

Beautiful frame and a very sweet picture.

Cheryl said...

It's absolutely gorgeous!

ChristineCreations said...

OH my goodness Julie...it's precious and wonderful all rolled together. What a great great frame...I bet she just loves it!