Birds of a Feather

Remember those shelves I bought from Mr. Durland when Leia and I went on our annual Low Country Crawl?  There they are in the photo - the long ones in front and the short ones in the very back.  I previously painted two of the long ones and made signs. Believe it or not, I have been driving around with the rest of the shelves in my Blazer hoping to find a table base to fit them.  They are rather neat - they have been white-washed and have galvanized metal wrapped around the ends.

I was in a crafty kind of mood today so I scrolled through my Graphics Fairy image file.  I had collected old vintage wedding photos.  Those did not appeal to me today, but three bird images did. One is a pair of birds on a nest.  The second is a line of small birds.  The last is my favorite - a bird nesting in a pink envelop.  I printed them out on my ink jet and gathered supplies:


*Craft paint in various shades
*Three of the short shelves
*The three full size images of birds
*Mod Podge (matte)
*Foam Brush (isn't that an oxymoron?)
*Cup of water (not literally a CUP, just a little bit of water in a cup)
*Wide putty knife (credit card, stiff cardboard, anything to burnish)

The first thing I did was put back the paint because I liked the distressed  white and tan on them after I wiped them down with a cheap, rough paper towel.  No, I did not wash the dirt off - I will seal those beautiful stains under a satin varnish when I finish.

I trimmed the images to have a small white border and put a medium amount of Mod Podge on just the colored image part of the paper (the front side - I forgot to tell you I am using a reverse transfer method here.  If you are a perfectionist, this project is not for you!) After covering the front , I carefully placed it face down in the middle of the board.

The next step has a learning curve to it - a lot of it depends on your touch.  Everyone has a different way.  I gently smooth with my hand until the paper lays flat.  Then I burnish lightly with the putty knife or a piece of stiff cardboard - careful not to tear the paper.  After two or three minutes (before the Mod Podge dries) I slowly lift a corner of the paper and begin pulling up in a continuous motion.  If pieces of paper remain, I leave them.  If pieces of the image pull off, I just accept it. Remember you can always sand  and start over.

Next take your index finger and stick it in the water.  Rub the image - rolling away the left-over paper, but try not to remove the image.  This can be a tedious process. 

Here is my image when I had decided to stop.  I left some paper and as you can see some of the image came off.  After a few minutes of drying, I take my rough paper towel to lightly sand down any quigglies and nappy paper.

Here is the finished product with a satin varnish.  I tried all three on my mantel and liked the look, but I really think they would look great outside.  I plan to go back over them with a polyurethane varnish to protect them from the elements.  (The only "elements" we have in Carolina is heat, humidity, and thunderstorms!)

See the stain?  Yes, I sealed it in - It's distressed!  I started to add some words or numbers to them, but decided to leave them for now.  (But some of those aluminum house numbers might look nice.)

The two birds nesting board is sitting out on the patio.  I have to say it looks at home there.

                                                          Here is a close-up.

My finger may be sore and multicolored, but it was worth it.  I finished some other projects, too.  That means I'll be blogging all weekend.  I hope you take a break from whatever it is you are working on to come back.  Let me know what you have created.

Here's that sweet little bird again.  I may have to keep this one even though I promised to take them all to the shop.  Oh, well, maybe just for a few days she can stay around!

See y'all!   .