Family Tree

Once again, my poor little blog has been neglected. I usually write during naptime, and last week's naptimes were consumed with an art project. I "stole" this idea from somebody I worked with years ago as a camp counselor. Her version was a little more "country" than mine, but I'm very pleased with the way mine came out.

This is the stairway leading down from the main level to our basement/family room. I started by taping the outline of a tree trunk and branches with painter's tape.

I then "colored in" the outline with high-gloss black paint. Can I just take a moment here to say how scary it is to put high-gloss BLACK paint on your recently professionally painted cream-colored walls? Because it is. Very scary.

Unfortunately, one of the lessons I learned on this project was that it's not worth it to get less expensive tape. The paint leaked through the tape and left me with fuzzy and uneven edges. So that night, I hand trimmed all the edges again with a fine-point brush.

I also drank wine while I did it.

By the time I was finished with that step, I was not so sure that I hadn't gotten in over my head. But it was too late to turn back, so while Mia napped the next day, I got my brushes out again and painted the twigs and leaves.

Much better! The final step was to gather pictures of Kevin's and my families. I bought inexpensive black frames at a craft store and hung the frames from small nails using black ribbon.

Tada! I'm still missing a few pictures, but those are coming. All total, the project took me 3 days. Not bad, and I have some unique art to show for it.