Bored or Board

How many times have we heard I’m bored, there’s nothing to do…..  Well I heard it a lot with 3 kids, however bored to me means something totally different.  Board is something I cannot leave untouched when it’s a good solid board with no purpose.  It might be a board from a broken pallet, or a board from a different project that gets tossed in the scrap pile to be burned.  So here I am picking boards out of the scrap piles to find a new purpose.  In July when I was getting ready for the Jazzed Up Junk sale this board was calling my name from across the garage.  It kept saying “save me John thinks I’m burn material”.  I can’t get this voice out of my head until I take it out of the scraps and paint it to work on blending of paints while wet.  I liked the process on this board but then what?

So I’m sanding away on a couple chairs and this butterfly keeps checking out my project.  I’m not much of a butterfly person but I am a dragonfly girl so it was time to put the vision on the board.

I’ve said before I am a distress lovin’ person so the sander came out on the dragonfly as well, which in my opinion made him even better.  A little wax and he’s one of my favorite paintings. 

At the sale my good friend purchased him for her house.  I’m so pleased that he gets to brighten her home and bring a lot of color to her décor.  Since the sale I’ve painted about 6 of them for others on boards and license plates, each one makes me smile and they’ll never get old.  The only picture of them is this one and they aren't totally done yet so trust me.... when they were done, distressed and tied with a ribbons they were very cute.  One of the dragonflies hangs in our little Andee's room on her daddy's license plate from his first truck.  Jr has a truck one like the top right in white to match the color of daddy's first truck. 

My lastest request was to do the dragonfly but on 3 boards to display on a wall together at a friends cabin.  Of course I can’t make all 3 boards with the same dragonfly so I got the brain thinking again with a little help from Pinterest and her dragonfly gallery was born.  I painted the boards again with the wet paint blending technique and let them dry.  

I was going to try it on the green blue board but decided to add some more color, a little red

And more color.... a little orange

Then sanded them to bring back the colors underneath.  Now those colors have a smooth blended look.

 The 3 dragonflies got drawn on and the painting started, I normally pencil my drawing first but I rarely follow the lines... it's just a guideline for me for spacing.

All done being painted.

Distress and added clear wax.  The below photo shows the one on the right clear waxed and the one on the left not waxed.  See how that wax just pulls the colors out.  Waxing may be a lot of work but this gal is a waxoholic and my right arm that's bigger than the left and aches daily is the reminder for me everyday.   Hi my name is Connie, I'm a waxoholic and haven't touch clear wax since Tuesday.....

Last Sunday my granddaughter Mallory came over and she was so excited to tell me this story. 

Mallory talking with so much eye expression and body language it cracked me up … "Grandma I did something just like you do.  My mom and us went on a walk around the block and I found a piece of wood, I picked it up and said “mom I’m going to paint this wood and make it pretty like grandma does”.  I brought the wood home and chalk painted it just like you…. (with sidewalk chalk).  It’s really pretty and lots of different colors and I put it in a paper towel so the chalk won’t rub off and when I want it to look like it’s worn off in spots I just rub it with the paper towel".   

Oh my what have I done to my grandchildren?  She’s homeschooled so I’m thinking I need to take a day off of work and go to their classroom to teach art class with chalk paint.  Mallory would love it, so would her mother, and probably the other homeschool families they connect with.  

I found a garden gate to hang the three boards up, they will look so good at a cabin up north.  

So are you BORED?  Just pick up a BOARD, search Pinterest  and see what happens...... Later