Snow Day Play: A Trio of Insect Plaques and Bee Hooks

Snow day!!!!!! 

Here's Maria, my weather gal on my rooftop deck.

Days like this I'm so thankful I don't have a real job!!!!!

 Here's how I spent my day inside:

I worked on these great insect plaques.

They didn't start this way….

nooooooooo….

 They looked like this when I 

picked them up yesterday from Goodwill.

 Bee..

 Dragonfly

 Butterfly

 Sometimes, I can just see the end vision of something….

How it should be…

and then I just copy that vision..;)

 I started the transformation by painting 

the background area in french linen chalk paint.

 Here they are with one coat of the background paint.

 Next, I'm going to start layering colors on the insects...

 …I got paint all over my fingers opening this sample, 

so I just did a little finger painting.

 Do you see how I'm starting to "build" a finish?

Now I just take some craft paints….in teal, turquoise, brown, orange...

 …and start dabbing over the area...

 Don't worry about them looking alike...

 …that's the beauty of them!

 I painted a second coat of french linen on the backgrounds...

 And then I added some of the teal paint to the black frame…...

 Here's what they look like at this stage. 

(Wilma must be a butterfly gal…)

Not finished though!!!!!!

 Next comes the stinky part: 

Minwax stain in Jacobean.

 I just pounce on the stain with a brush..

 And when I wipe it off..

 Again: 

With stain applied.

 Wipe it off fairly quickly…

The longer it stays, the darker it gets.

 And here is the finished series.

 See how the stain gets in all the details? 

The lettering…

all the dimension?

 And you thought this was just a bee! 

Oh no, 

it's Bombus fervidus!!

And meet Marpesia petreus!

And while I'm on a bug roll,

I thought I'd do these as well:

 A couple of little cast iron bee hooks I had already primed.

 Again, I just dabbed on the various paints.

 I use a paper plate for my easel. 

That way, I can just toss the whole thing when I'm done.

 They look pretty dang ugly don't they?

 No worries! You really can't mess these up!!!! 

The stain makes them little works of art!

 Dab it on...

 …wipe it off...

 They look like aged, rusty iron with verdigris patina.

Here's the entire collection.

The set of plaques is $75.

I'm feeling rather buggy myself…

a little cabin fever going on here.

I still have my PJs on……..

SNOW DAY!!!!!