So, Des and I have a fondness for owls. Hoo-Hoo was the first animal noise he learned and he really embraced it. We point out owls to each other everywhere we go. Artistic owls that barely resemble the real thing, photos of real owls sitting on branches and flying with their wings out. Big owl fans. Anyway, the other day I was looking for projects to do with toilet paper tubes and I found these adorable decorative owls. There is another example that is slightly less formal.
I thought these were pretty darn cute, so while Des was watching Phineas & Ferb yesterday, I got out the tubes and started making ears. They're really easy, not too messy and only as time consuming as you want them to be. They aren't easy enough for a 2-year old, so Des just watched, but kids not too much older could handle the ear-tuft folding and kids that like to paint and draw more could do that part. Des isn't too much into painting, unless you can use a back-hoe, so I just let him watch. I was using these as my me-time.
First, select your tubes. I plan to save these and do something with them (haven't figure out what yet), so I chose tubes without bent up edges. Rub the places where the glue was holding paper on to make sure it's all off and they're smooth. Next, for the ear-tufts, fold the end down and try to get it matching up as evenly as possible on top. You could cut some so they are shorter than the others if you wanted to give them varying height.
For the next stage I would put out newspaper. Grab your favorite colors of acrylic craft paint and a brush. I used aged paint from my craft stuff that is probably from a class I took in high-school, so probably going on 10 yrs old, and a narrow foam brush because it was handy. I used two and just had to keep washing them out as I switched colors. It worked fine, but it would be handier to have as many brushes as you do paint.
Next, paint each tube in as many coats as it takes to look like it's not a toilet paper tube. It took only a couple coats on the pearlized paint, several on the yellow and orange, so it just depends on the paint. Just keep adding layers and letting them dry till you're happy with them. Don't forget the top and the edge where it meets in the middle; you'll want to make sure it's coated so you can't see brown from any angle.
After your paint is completely dry, find yourself a really nice permanent marker. I used the type that is wide-tipped and you'll want one with good ink flow. Settle yourself somewhere comfy; I picked in front of the TV watching with Des-man, so I believe it was Oomi-Zoomi. Draw on your owl's features. I decided to be more realistic than my examples, but stylized looks fun, too, and I might do more that are even more patterny. They dried really fast and the pen wrote great on the paint, which I wasn't sure it would. I didn't even end up with too much marker on ME, which I thought was pretty impressive.
Last thing was that I sprayed them with Matte Finish spray to make sure the paint and marker didn't get rubbed off. I wanted to use a gloss finish so they'd be shiny, but I didn't have any handy. I wasn't sure if the spray would make the marker run, but it didn't. I think it did make it bleed when I held the can too close, but if you make sure you stay about 8 inches from the owl, you should be good. Also, so several layers and let it dry a few seconds in between, that also helps with the not bleeding. They dried really fast and Des was able to hold one in minutes. He really like the Hoo-Hoo's and make Daddy look at them. He watched me photograph them in their "natural habitat" from the yard and had a hard time not coming to "help" me. Did manage to let the dog out and he didn't come back till this morning and he's been sleeping all day, so he must have had some adventure out there.
There are my finished Decorative Owls! They were pretty fun. I have to think of something neat to use them for, haven't decided what yet. They're currently just hanging out on the fireplace. Any ideas?
No comments:
Post a Comment