From Real to Warhol Window

Meet my niece, Leia.  (Pronounced Lee-ah)  She is a flooring sales specialist at Lowe's and had some vacation days.  She is here for a girls' long weekend.  Leia arrived Friday night and immediately we started planning our days.

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know.  What do you want to do?"

"I don't care."

"Whatever you want to do is fine with me."

Yes, we did not want to waste a single second.    So we put on our jammies and turned on the tube and watched "Lost Girl" episodes. We also made tuna salad!  The weekend was off to a roaring start! 

The next morning Leia chose which window she wanted from the stack I scored previously.  She brought her camera with photographs she wanted to frame with the window.  Well, a simple project became a complicated one when I introduced her to Pic Monkey.  If you have not been there to doctor photos, you must do it.  Just make sure you set aside several hours - it is addicting!

Time flew by as she selected which photos to use and gave them an Andy Warhol effect.  She wanted all to have a different color, but needed to balance the colors on the window.  

Even Grandma Jo got in on the action when she came over to go out for lunch.  It took me an hour to pull them away!  Grandma Jo is now contemplating buying a computer - this is major.

Lunch at the Mexican restaurant (Mi Rancho is yumminess personified - fish tacos, mushrooms quesadillas!)

 Final decisions made and the pictures printed (5 X 7) and  cut out.

Leia played around with the placement since three photos were oriented vertically and three were oriented horizontally.

Also, she was picky (um, discerning, I mean).

Leia liked this arrangement the best.  Now for the Mod Podge.

 A thin coat to the front of each - these were printed on regular white copy paper - nothing special.  She made small reference points with a Sharpie on some until she decided just to eyeball them.

She Mod Podged the photo face down to the back of the window.

Leia placed waxed paper over each and gently smoothed out bubbles and wrinkles. 

The window was set aside to dry for a couple of hours while she worked on other art projects.

Out on the patio Leia sprayed a matte finish varnish to the back of the photos carefully spraying the glass with even strokes.  

Let dry for an hour.  Then spray a second coat.  We felt sure this was enough, though I have put a third coat on some items.

This is the front so far.  The matte spray gave a frosted effect to the window panes highlighting the colors in the Warhol photos.

Leia used a dry brush technique with a dark teal craft paint on the front of the window to further enhance the photos.

The finished product - her friends never looked so good!  That is just my personal opinion!

Leia is packing this baby up and taking her home to hang over the sofa.

It would look even better if I could take a decent photograph!

Today we spent hours in the pool solving all the world's problems and discussing important issues.  Of course, we also took naps in the pool on our pool noodles.  Tonight as I blog, Leia is finishing two more projects - one for Grandma Jo and one for a friend.  That means none for me!  Boo-Hoo!

Warhol Leia

So was it worth it to have to clean the house and move all my furniture projects into a corner?  Yes,  I am blessed to have such a wonderful, talented niece who even though she is 24, still comes to visit her Aunt Donna each summer.

By the way, I have another smart, artistic niece (daughter of my other brother) coming next week.  So if I can keep the house clean until then...

See y'all!





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