From Trash To Treasure

Sitting on our back patio last week, I once again noticed the ceramic sun hanging out there and thought, I really need to throw that thing away. It's just such an eyesore!

Then I thought, well, maybe I should put it in the donation bin because someone else might like it and give it new life with some paint. Oh wait, I thought, I could do that, too!

And so I did. Right then, I grabbed a drop cloth to cover the patio table and found some blue paint in the garage (leftover from the paperback bookshelf unit that Robbie made and I painted years ago). I set to work creating a frame around the sun . . . and immediately began to like this piece again.

Then I started on the sun with some leftover yellow paint that you might recognize as the color of the walls in my craft room.

My objective with this project was simply to have FUN and give this ceramic sun some new life, so I didn't really have a plan when I started and wasn't worried about painting it perfectly. These are some of the points I've been hearing repeated a lot in The Painted Guru Summit interviews I've been enjoying recently - I don't have to know the final outcome when I start, it doesn't have to be perfect, have FUN and enjoy the process.

I was definitely enjoying myself at this point, so I grabbed a few small bottles of paint from my craft room and added some orange and additional yellow to the sun rays. I also highlighted the lips with a peachy color and used the background blue for the eyes.

Robbie suggested a dot of the peachy color to further accentuate the eyes, and I ended up highlighting the eyebrows,too.

All of this took less than two hours, then I let it sit inside overnight so it would dry completely. Robbie had a can of clear Krylon Clear Glaze in his model-making supplies, so the next day I added a clear coat over the entire piece and let it dry overnight again before hanging it back up outside.

So, with just a few supplies that we had on hand and a couple of hours (not counting drying time), I had turned something I considered throwing away into something that makes me smile!

Now the view is much better when I sit out on the patio to read a book or visit with Robbie as he grills.

How's that for acting on INSPIRATION when it strikes!