Painting the Blues Away

After more than a week of horrible air conditions and a sad state for our forests, we’regetting some much needed precipitation in the Pacific Northwest. Whilst indoors and trying to make the best out of a bad situation, I decided to tackle some of my back-burner projects this week. A while back, my mom had hinted at painting some of her resin birdhouses that she had sitting around, and this felt as good a time as any. I was happy to accept her task, but as I gathered my supplies, it dawned on me that I haven’t painted anything in AGES. The last thing I worked on was my Warhammer Vampire Counts army, which speaking of, I really need to get back to! I’m sure it’ll make an appearance here some day.

Happy Coincidence

Given the choice between three very different birdhouses, I selected one that had a barrel-shaped base with a rooftop made of flowers. Initially, I thought I had chosen my color palette at random, but upon reflecting, I realized I practically copied my Animal Crossing: New Horizons town perfectly. Subconscious or not, I am still happy with the colors though.

Coincidence? Ehh, I don’t think so anymore…

I approached this project in a pretty standard way; alternating between painting base coats, washes, and dry-brushing. In an effort to constructively criticize my own work, I see now that I’m loading my brush with too much paint. I’ll need to keep this in mind for when I return to the world of miniatures because it’s so easy to lose details with a heavy-handed brush on a tiny form. Thankfully though, this larger-scale project was kind to me as I glopped on paint, merely hoping for the best. Despite needing to refine my technique, I’m happy with what I’ve done, and more importantly, my mom is too.

But Wait, There’s More!

I breathed a sign of relief, thinking that I had escaped the clutches of my mom’s painting tasks. The next day, a set of four Halloween ornaments were sitting on the table. I’m not exactly sure where they came from, but I understood the message, so I got to work later that night. For these, I stuck to a pretty common palette. I did chose to invert the witch colors from the “norm”, but that just adds to the diversity, which is always a nice thing. I was also pretty pleased with the pumpkin fella’s plaid shirt, thought the lighting didn’t quite capture the distinction between the three colors I used./

Not Quite Done…

As I was putting away my supplies, I glanced over at this little mushroom abode, sitting in a state of half-painted limbo. I realized that if I didn’t show this remaining birdhouse some love, it probably would have remained unfinished indefinitely. I had painted the base coat purple initially, but decided later that the more popular red version would look much better. Also among the pile of scrapped ideas was the notion to make the butterfly a monarch. After painting the very prominent black accents on the wings, it took over the whole piece. As you can see, I’ve modified that choice as well. 🤣

I can’t express how happy I was when my daughter grabbed a paintbrush to help on this project! She gave the flowers a base coat and embellished a few rouge lines of paint here and there. While not everything made it to the end result, I tried to stay true to what she chose for the most part. The big exception was the orange flower, purely because that paint was too thin and giving me a hard time. Yellow prevailed as a result.

A Return to Felt Food

Not long after finishing my unexpected painting projects, I realized that there was a specific void in my crafting life. I had left my poor felt in boxes for far too long, and it was time to remedy that. There’s something so simple, yet gratifying in working with it, and with fall coming, my inspiration feels endless. As promised in the last post, I want to give away my first felt food pattern for free!

I’ve chosen a crop that’s harvested September through October, which is befitting of this time of year. It’s the star of holiday dishes, baby food, and healthy diets; I bring to you: The Sweet Potato. This pattern is pretty straightforward and can easily be adapted to suit your needs. In fact, I highly encourage you to do so, creating much more realistic-looking felt food. When making multiples, I also try my best to subtly alter the shapes so they closer resemble what you would find in the real world.

There’s no two things in nature that are completely identical, and those differences define the true beauty of life!

Now that you’ve got a fun project in front of you, I’m going to head out! Take care of yourselves out there, and let me know if you make some sweet potatoes for your loved ones. Please use the hashtag #rainydayfelted or tag @rainydayfelt on Twitter or Instagram if you make these so that I can appreciate your work on social media!

❤ Daveanna