Friday 19 December 2014

Secret Santa gift - a Christmas Potting Shed scene

I found this cool lantern at K-mart.  I immediately had ideas...  I bought one, then went back later and bought several more.  SUCH a useful thing!

I masked the exterior, then spray painted the interior.
Then I started the gold leafing on the outside
In progress:

First you paint the outside with the goop in the pot, this is gilding milk.  Sounds revolting...

Leave to dry until tacky, about 20 minutes depending on the surface of the object.  The fun starts when you take the goldleaf sheets and start to apply them to the goopy areas.  The stuff has a mind of its own.  Bit by bit apply small areas of gold leaf to the object, and use a medium soft paint brush to brush over the area and make the leaf adhere well to the goop.  If the goop dries, it can be re-applied, and then more goldleaf can be added, to patch any areas that get missed. 

The final effect is so much nicer than just gold paint:
I made the brick patio floor by cutting a paper template, then a piece of board.  I marked a diagonal line to set the direction of the bricks, and started spreading glue, a smallish area at a time, and applying the bricks.  I wasnt too fussed about the bricks fitting closely, as I wanted to have weeds growing through.  Just as well, as they werent terribly evenly made.





Once the bricks were laid, I pushed glue into some of the wider gaps, and then sprinkled model railway scatter over the whole area.  I applied glue to the edges too, as I wanted a fairly weedy look to the edges!


I asked my hubby if he liked the effect, he said, no, cos he just spend the whole afternoon removing weeds that looked exactly like them from our driveway... I am thrilled with it though, and am planning the next project to be able to do it again!

I assembled various goodies from my stash, stained the wooden crates and the potting bench, mucked up the shiny finish of the gardening tools, added "dirt" to the seed trays and various places, and then glued all the bits in place.

This is the front view of the finished product:
 I also had a string of star shaped Christmas lights, with a battery and switch unit, that I hung from the chimney area:

One of my favourite bits is the dandelion:

Sorry, not a very good picture.  This was made in Inge's dandelion workshop.  Too cute!

So that's it, The Christmas Potting Shed.










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