Shabby-Punked Bird & Outhouse

Play day! Bliss!. Well...play-afternoon.....but productive nonetheless!

A week ago we got in these new Outhouses.....well they are technically birdhouses to be decorated...but it looks like an outhouse to me!!

And the paper mâché bird form is a perfect little buddie for the birdhouse..... He's sitting on a spool and has acquired a few steampunk-style embellishments. He also was painted in patina blue, then a coat of crackle glaze, and topped with a buttery shade of Nougat (Nougat with a drop of Irish Cream and Haystack).

I started with a stencil/mask pattern that I thought would work well on the roof. Recently I was given a pumice paste and a heavy modelling paste to test, so I used the modelling in the central areas, the pumice at the top, sides and lower edges.... I must say..scraping the pumice paste through the stencil was a bit like nails on the blackboard.

Next I base coated it with Nougat, then French Roast Fresco Acrylic Paint. It's a very cool toned, brown-black shade, but also great mixed into other dark browns? The Nougat wasn't completely dry, so in some areas it blended through, but that adds interest to the next layer, so I wasn't too worried about getting uniform coverage.

Next I mixed up a Brown Shed and Chocolate Pudding wash, with a bit of Nougat. It makes a kind of pinky brown for step one of the wash. (sorry no picture). Next I wanted a warm wash...Pumpkin Soup is the perfect shade, but I needed it to be a bit more opaque to be visible on my dark roof, so I added a dash of Nougat, and a dash of Chocolate Pudding to the mix. Plenty of water is the trick here. I actually like to spray water on to get the paint to dribble down.

Then I tapped brilliance black ink pad over the raised portions, and softened with a blending tool.

So for the outhouse I painted a base coat, then dry brushed lots of different colours on top. For the base, I mixed up a gorgeous patina green (Guacamole, Nougat, Sky, with a drop of Inky Pool and Toad Hall).... And got to work applying that in all the nooks and crannies. One coat is all you need with this paint.

The paint dries almost instantly, so I was quickly able to dry brush with the same warm buttery-nougat I put on top of the bird. If you start with a light colour, then the other colours you put on top will show on top of the pale shade more clearly.

A tip on dry brushing. You need a dry brush (slaps forehead), and the smallest amount of paint, most of which I remove off the brush onto a paper towel, and then you start applying to the surface. You should not be putting on wet paint.... Just scuffing on almost-dry dregs of paint.

So you switch from colour to colour. Dry brushing layer after layer. I used French Roast, Pumpkin Soup, more buttery-nougat mix and so on. On the front door, I decided it looked nice lighter, but I did use Claret as the first layer, then a touch of Beach Hut, and back through all the darker colours. I also tended to put it on, and if it got too dark, I dabbed it back off with a baby wipe to knock it back to creamy tones. If you do this, make sure the wood is dry before you resume dry-brushing. And I often returned back to cream tones.

You can see the back of the outhouse here, and the final tones of the roof. You don't have to be any kind of expert to create this effect with paint, it's just lots of light soft layers.

I hope you get a chance to have a go this weekend!

Leandra

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