Ordinarily at this time of year I'd find myself frolicking through beds of tulips at Floriade, eating mango flavoured fudge from the Fudge Man whilst basking in the glorious sunshine surrounded by the giggles of friendly catchups. But it seems that spring time in Canberra is teasing me this year with lovely sunny days when I'm at work and then turning to cold, rainy days when the weekend arrives. Regardless of the weather I am going to make it to Floriade before it finishes and I will eat mango fudge and catch up with friends.
One of my favourite parts about Floriade is the Gnome Knoll, a place for gnomes to gather and compete for the title of Miss/Mr Gnome 2012, and yes it is based on looks. So you purchase a gnome or two and paint them in either a style that reflects the Floriade theme or in your own flair.
My Dad is an amazing artist and I studied design so you think that painting a gnome should come easy... Well here's some news for you- I have ZERO painting skills. Painting frightens me, I seize up and get all tense and then destroy whatever I attempt. Give me spray paint however and it's a different story.
So this year I finally purchased two terracotta gnomes from the art store for $13 each and then told my hubby (DK) that I wanted spray paint them so we went to the auto store to get car spray paint.
Spray painting gnomes is super fun, pretty easy and I guess you could do it with teenagers if you supervised them. But then again kids and teens would probably love to unleash their creativity and actually paint them with a paintbrush.
Click through for a quick and easy tutorial on how i made my own spring time gnomes.
Materials:
- Primer (optional- use if the terracotta is really coarse)
- Gloss car spray paint - 1x black, 1x white, 1x clear, 1x silver (I chose gloss but you can also get matt)
- Cheap acrylic paint for any details you want to add - 1x light pink, 1x dark pink
- Self adhesive craft diamantes (I used these on Miss Gnome for a bit of extra pizzazz)
- Newspaper or old cardboard boxes (to protect the ground while you spray paint)
- Masking tape or painters tape (to separate the painted areas)
Mr Gnome
Some time ago I stubbled across a fabulous gnome with a gold hat and fell in love with his incredibly shiny chrome like hat. I love the simplicity of this gnome so I decided for my Mr Gnome I would paint him with a high gloss black and give him a silver hat.
Miss Gnome
Well I am a massive fan of cupcakes (you will see them from time to time on this blog) so I decided to give Miss Gnome a cupcake inspired hat. Most of the steps are the same for this gnome aside from the colours used and the technique for the hat.
Step 1:
- Spray paint your gnome with Primer Filler to give it a softer surface
- Leave to dry
Step 2:
- Spray Mr Gnome with black gloss spray*
- Spray Miss Gnome with white gloss spray*
- Leave to dry
Step 3:
- Use masking tape and newspaper to cover up the gnome so only the hat is left uncovered
- Make sure the newspaper/tape give you a crisp base line of the hat
Mr Gnome
- Spray hat with a few layers of silver
- Leave to dry
Miss Gnome
- Using a paintbrush and the light pink acrylic paint, put a generous amount of paint over the whole hat
- With a smaller brush make a dark pink swirl starting from the base of the hat and working up towards the top of the hat
- With the larger light pink brush blend the paint a bit (there is really no technique to this I just experimented so it wasn't a harsh pink line)
- I had some craft diamante strips left over so I cut off diamantes and stuck them like sprinkles to the hat
- Leave to dry
Step 4:
- When the hat is dry to touch, spray a few layers of clear gloss over the gnome
- Leave to dry overnight (do not touch or move after gloss spray- it picks up fingerprints)
*DK gave me a fabulous tip for getting even spray without big blobs of paint - press down on the nozzle when your hand is away from the gnome and then sweep the can over the gnome. Never press down on the nozzle when directed at the gnome as you will get uneven paint, drips and blobs.
Once your gnomes are dry find a nice spot in the garden for them to hang out or take them to the Floriade Gnome Knoll to make some friends or maybe even some frenemies as they compete for Miss/Mr Gnome 2012.
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