I have a grand-dog. She is a sweet-tempered rescue pup named Maeby and lives with The Southern Belle and Big Cat in North Carolina.
What do you get a dog for Christmas who has everything she wants? I mean she has all the belly rubs, walks, chew toys and snacks a girl could dream of. She is even famous. Her pretty face is on the cover of Pawblo Picasso custom pet portraits.
That is her on the left side. The happy one!
She really is a happy dog. Her parents love adore her and have a commissioned painting of her pretty face. Recently I was cleaning out a stack of old pictures (under our bed) and ran across this silhouette of me in like third grade. It got me thinking. I remembered that I had a picture of Maeby in portrait.
An idea formed in my little brain. A rustic silhouette on barn wood of Miss Maeby.
Hubby cut the boards to roughly the same length. He wanted to clean up the edge but I wanted it to look rough. I painted it my favorite off white, Cinnamon Cake by Behr then sanded the hound out of it to make the wood show through. Next, I glazed the boards with Behr Faux Effects mixed with just a little Behr Revival Mahogany. I wanted another layer so I wiped it all down with dark walnut stain. I liked the look of the wood enough that I could have just stopped at this point really, but the next step was to print the photo of Maeby on an overhead transparency sheet. If I had a projector that would project the picture straight on the wall that would have been awesome. I don’t. I do have access to an overhead projector. ( Check out school district auctions, they go on sale all the time for a few bucks.)
Shine it up on the wood, trace then fill in with charcoal colored paint.
Sounded good huh? I hated the first attempt. Well, I thought I did anyway. It took a few days and looking at the picture to realize that I really needed to rough up the portrait a little to match the background.
I still want to do a different picture that is all of her but this one makes a presentable present for her Christmas present now.
Soooo what do you think?
I know for sure that Maeby does not read my blog so if you see her, don’t spoil the surprise.
One Christmas present done.
