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.