Welcome, Gourd-geous Springtime!

Welcome Spring!

You are such a cheerful time of year.

I found a basket of these small gourds at a local thrift store

for ten cents each.

(Please excuse my paint holder purple "Junk" box.

It is a remnant from my childhood.)

After I soaked them in water with a little bit of bleach in it
for about 2 weeks,
I washed them and then scrubbed the "skin" off.
It's tedious but necessary to make the paint stick.

They then sat in a sunny windowsill to be dried,
taking about another week.

(I have problems with crafts taking over the windowsills.
I think I need help).

Then I base-coated them.

and sketched an image on them like here,

(I didn't take a picture of the sketching process for the

butterfly gourd, so I'm showing you this example)

I then inked in the picture using permanent calligraphy ink

and calligraphy pen.

Here' is the completed inked version
along with the image I got from The Graphics Fairy

 

After it was thoroughly dried

(a few days),

I erased the pencil markings

and then painted the picture,

using watered-down acrylic paints.
Once the paint dried...

I Modge-Podged it to seal it.
Now it sits on an egg-holder from an Easter Egg
(a small candle holder would work as well).

I also added some tiny white glitter when the whole thing

had dried.

I brushed on a slightly thick painting of glue wherever I wanted the glitter to be
and then poured the glitter on those spots.

A beautiful butterfly sitting on the new cupboard that I finally finished painting...


and will show you soon!

Linked to:
Finding Fabulous: Frugalicious-Friday
Suzys sitcom: Commercial-break-Thursday
Someday Crafts: Whatever-goes-Wednesday
Domestically-Speaking: Power-of-paint-party
Restore Interiors: Restore It Wednesday
Todays Creative Blog: Get-your-craft-on
A Stroll Thru Life: 57th-table-top-Tuesday
Graphics fairy: Brag-Monday
Sarahndipities: Make-something-Monday-link-party

Mad in Crafts: Mad-skills-link-party
BNOP: Spring-sprucing-on-porch-welcome 

And to: