Friday, February 12, 2016

My Journey As A Scroll Saw Pattern Designer #1696: Old Fashioned Foiled Eggs

I am a sucker for nostalgia. It seems the older I get, the more I enjoy seeing things that remind me of  'days gone by’. It isn’t as if I want to live in the past, but I think that those old fashioned items bring back many of the memories that I associate with them.  Memories of people and places and perhaps times when I had a bit less responsibility and life (for me, anyway) was a little simpler. It is somewhat comforting seeing these things and remembering. 



The other day when I was at a Winners store near me, I saw (and ultimately purchased) a foil-covered Easter Bunny piece. I had remembered items like this from my youth and I thought it would make a wonderful centerpiece for my spring table. there were some other foiled items as well, but they were a bit pricey. I thought the splurge on the bunny was all my pocketbook could handle at the moment, and was happy with that. 



Yesterday I sat down to work on my next couple of projects that I had been showing you the past few days. When I pulled out my supplies, I found that I had an extra box of faux eggs that I had intended to repaint and use for my own decorating. This box was pre-colored, but the colors were rather ‘blah’ and I thought I would be able to figure out something much nicer. To my dismay, many of them had cracked and they looked even worse. I was ready to throw them out:



Then I had an idea … 



What if I covered them in foil like my new bunny and used them that way?  I think that would be pretty cool!  But I didn’t want them all silver, I wanted them to be in pretty colors to match my new bunny. 



I thought about all the different kinds of paint that I had here and in searching through my supplies, I came across my DecoArt Glass Stains. They would be PERFECT for this project! Not only are they semi-transparent, but they are also made to adhere to slick, non-porous surfaces (like the foil!) and should work well. I crossed my fingers and got started 'playing’ … 



I cut a piece of foil a bit larger than the egg. I GENTLY crumpled it and uncrumpled it to give it some texture and laid the egg in the center:





I then got out my bottle of Aleen’s Tacky Glue. I knew I needed something that was thick and had some body to it so the foil would sitck. 



I covered all sides of the egg with the glue (the crack in it wouldn’t even matter!) :



… and I spread it around the egg using first an old paint brush, and then I figured that it was easier just to use my fingers. (No pictures of that – I didn’t want glue on my camera!)  I left the glue semi-thick so that it could 'grab’ the foil. 



I then gently rolled the egg in the foil and cut off the excess. I didn’t want lumps in the egg. There were a couple of places that I cut a little 'short’ where I saw the egg sticking out, but I just put some glue on a small, irrigular piece of foil and patched the hole. You would never be able to tell where that was! 



I then rolled the egg on a hard surface to flatten the foil as much as possible:



This also helped the glue stick. After letting it 'dry’ for a bit (about an hour) I went back and made sure there were no loose 'flaps’ where the foil overlapped. If there were, I gently cut them again with sharp scissors. If need be, I added little patches where the foil shifted, but this wasn’t necessary except in a few places. 



Once the six eggs I covered were dry, I was ready to add color. I picked six pretty colors of the DecoArt Glass Stain to use. For my project, I used the transparent ones:



I simply used my deerfoot stippler to tap on the color. I loved the effect! Even the 'darker’ colors looked pretty and bright!



(HINT: You can always add another coat after the first is dry if you want more intense color!) 



I used a variety of colors and I was THRILLED with the effect. Even the ugly, broken eggs had new life added to them! 



I then had ANOTHER idea … 



What if I tried to cover my SLDPK211 Bunny Ornament Cutout using the same method??  



It WORKED!!!! It took a little more trimming and patching around the detailed areas, but was not hard at all! :D 



While it kind of side tracked me from my task at hand, I felt this was a wonderfully productive day!  I changed a piece of damaged 'trash’ to a pretty 'treasure’ and gave it new life!



I am so excited about this because it has the three elements of a successful project – Easy, cost effective and BEAUTIFUL!



Here is a photo of my new eggs and bunny with the bunny I had purchased:



Don’t they look spectacular together???



I suppose I can mention that you may want to spray the pieces with a GLOSS clear coat if you like. I didn’t spray mine yet because I wanted them to dry overnight. I imagine you would just need a light coat for protection. 



Thank you to DecoArt for offering so many amazing products!  I am really beginning to think you have 'something for everything’!!  



Now on to completing my new surfaces and patterns as I intended to do yesterday.  I wonder what other surprises I will think of  while doing them?  I guess you will have to check back … .



Happy Friday to you all! 
















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