Roadrunner on Mailbox

Wyle E. Coyote and the Roadrunner cartoons are some of our all-time favorites. The Roadrunner never runs out of energy, can run really fast and stop on a dime, and never lets poor Wyle win.

 

This is the back of the piece. Beep! Beep!

Yosemite Sam Mailbox Decoration

On the way to town this morning, we put up Yosemite Sam, one of our favorite cartoon characters. This is the back of the piece.

 

This is the front. He makes us smile.

Godzilla on Maibox

This is the back of the piece. You can see where I had to paint the bottom of the piece on the mounting bar.

 

Here’s the front. He doesn’t show up far down the road as some of our pieces do, but my husband is pleased with him. I’m relieved that he’s happy. We love Godzilla movies. They’re so awful! :0)

Godzilla

We put Godzilla up on the mailbox yesterday, but I forgot to take my camera to take pics. We went to town three times yesterday, trying to get everything done we needed to before my husband had his second cataract surgery this morning.  Simply too busy.

This morning we were up at 5am in order to be at the hospital on time for the surgery. Needless to say, I was barely functional at that hour, and so didn’t remember to take the camera.

Maybe I’ll remember tomorrow. This was a difficult one to paint. My husband says its one of his favorites, so I’m happy he’s pleased with our efforts. :0)

The Fedex Man

Fedex

Last evening our Fedex man brought us a delivery.

He jumped out of the truck with a serious look on his face. He looked at me and said, “You should sell this stuff.”  When I looked a bit blank, he added, “My wife and I just joined an artists group and they’re going to have shows. You and your husband should bring your artwork and sell it. I bet it would sell really well.”

 

Well, THAT made our day! :0)

We discovered that his wife is into interior design and furniture, and apparently has a real gift for decorating. But then he started talking about our critters again. I told him that it was harder and harder to find scrap metal. We used to be able to go to a junk yard and prowl around, gathering things that looked interesting. We did that at auto salvage places, too. Now, due to liability issues, no one will let you prowl around anymore. Sometimes we luck into things, but it really has limited our critter making.

He told us he would be on the lookout for interesting scraps and would bring them to us when he found them.

Isn’t he wonderful?

Sylvester and Tweetie Pie Mailbox Decoration

We took advantage of the drier weather today to change our mailbox decoration to Sylvester & Tweetie Pie. This is the back of the piece.

 

This is the front.  We’re satisfied with this piece because you can see what it is from fairly far down the road, and we did 3-dimensional whiskers on Sylvester and some hair on Tweetie Pie.

Easter Rabbit Mailbox Decoration

This is the back of the Easter rabbit and egg mailbox decoration. I tried to blend the support bar into his feet.

 

This is the front. I used Snow-Tex on the tail to give it more texture.

The ladies who deliver the mail drove up the driveway yesterday, instead of leaving the mail in the mailbox because we got a package we had to sign for. My husband came in, grinning. He said the ladies both told him how much they enjoyed ‘our artwork.’

ClipArtKid

 

Happy Easter!

“I’m Popeye the Sailor Man…”

We put Popeye up on the mailbox this morning. He makes us smile, and we hope he makes others smile, too.

 

He’s a tall piece (about 2-1/2 feet tall) and would bend in a good wind if we didn’t put a bunch of braces on him. Here is the back of the piece. You can see where the rods are, and how I tried to blend them into the figure.

Now I’ve got the Popeye song dancing around in my head…

Here are some lyrics so YOU’RE singing, too!  (Version One)

“I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m strong to the fin-ich
Cause I eats me spin-ach
I’m Popeye the sailor man.

I’m one tough Gazookus
Which hates all Palookas
What ain’t on the up and square.
I biffs ’em and buffs ’em
And always out roughs ’em
But none of ’em gets nowhere.

If anyone dares to risk my Fisk,
It’s Boff and it’s Wham, understand?
So keep Good Be-hav-or
That’s your one life saver
With Popeye the Sailor Man.

I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’m strong to the fin-ich
Cause I eats me spin-ach
I’m Popeye the sailor man.”

---

“I’m Popeye the sailor man     (version two)
I live in a garbage can.
I eats all the worms
And spits out the germs
I’m Popeye the sailor man.

I’m Popeye the sailor man
I live in a frying pan
I turn up the heat
And burn up my feet
I’m Popeye the sailor man

I’m Popeye the sailor man
I’ve never stepped foot on the land
I like to go swimmin’
With them mermaid women
And float on my back to get tan.”

Carla’s Bowl is Finished!

I glued the felt on the bottom of the bowl this morning so it won’t scratch furniture.

 

I also did the final clean up of the glass.

 

Carla gave me the prettiest gift at Christmas. It’s a glass bowl, turned over on its top, in a base. You open it up, put some wonderful fragrance oil drops in it. and plug it in. The bowl itself is white on white, with white mosaic type shapes above the background. As it heats up, the whole bowl changes colors as you watch. The fragrance makes the whole room smell good. I put it on my buffet, so the wonderful smell spreads into the dining area, kitchen, hallway, pantry, and utility room. She said she ‘thought of me when she saw it.’

This one doesn’t change colors, or do any tricks, but it’s made with love and  I hope she likes it.

Mosaic Bowl is Almost Finished!

Yesterday morning I grouted the bowl. It’s a bit like making mud pies, in that you put a huge glop of grout on the side, then try to mash it in-between the tiles. Then you add another glop. There’s some water involved, vinyl gloves, sponges, cloths, etc. You cover the bowl generously, then start using the sponge to remove the excess. You want to end up with the space covered as evenly as possible with none left on the actual tiles.

 

I did this as much as possible yesterday. I’ll do a bit more clean up today, then paint on the sealer, and see if I can add just a bit of glitter. I’ll also cut a round piece of felt to glue on the bottom so that it won’t scratch furniture.  I’ll take pics again when it’s finished.

St Patrick’s Day Mailbox Decoration

We put this up this morning to be ready for St. Patrick’s Day. We used to have just a bare shamrock piece cut out, but I like this one better This is the back of the piece. You can see where I tried to blend in the mounting bar into the painting.

 

And this is the front of the piece.

“St. Patrick’s Day is an enchanted time – a day to begin transforming winter’s dreams into summer’s magic.”  ~Adrienne Cook

 

Current Mosaic Piece in Progress

I’m making this for a friend. What I’m picturing is that it will be a nice place to put a tea light and that it will glow through the pieces of glass.

All of the pieces of tile are now glued onto the glass. (This is the bowl upside-down. I’m planning to spread grout on the bottom so I can ‘sign’ it, using a baby trowel type tool.)

The next step is fun, labor-intensive, and quite messy – like playing in the mud or messing with play dough or finger painting.

I put grout all over the piece, making sure I get it all around all the pieces of glass tiles as evenly as possible. When that is done, I use warm water and a sponge, or cloth, or both, to wipe the piece to get all of the excess grout off the glass. This takes a lot of time, effort, and lots of warm, clean water. I have to get it completely cleaned up before the grout dries or it will be like trying to scrape cement off.

I’ll take pics when the grout is on and the piece cleaned up.

Pepe Le Pew and Penelope

I loved the Pepe Le Pew cartoons, and particularly when his ‘girlfriend cat – Penelope’ was included. I still smile when I see them. This is the back of the mailbox decoration. I tried to blend the horizontal support bar into the figures.

 

Here is the front of the piece. I hope people smile as they pass our driveway.

“Mr. Natural” Mailbox Decoration

“Mr. Natural is a comic book character created and drawn by 1960s counterculture and underground comix artist Robert Crumb” ~ Wikipedia.

This is the back of the piece.

 

And the front.

Mr. Natural was a “white-bearded, diminutive sage-cum-charlatan, ranging from charming, free-wheeling early ’70s stories to the disturbing, controversial stories of the 90s”. He’s one of my husband’s favorite characters due to his controversial nature, fitting my husband’s sense of humor to a “T.”

Stupid Cupid?

“Stupid Cupid”  – Song by Connie Francis

“Stupid Cupid you’re a real mean guy
I’d like to clip your wings so you can’t fly
I’m in love and it’s a crying shame
And I know that you’re the one to blame
Hey hey, set me free
Stupid Cupid stop picking on me

I can’t do my homework and I can’t think straight
I meet her every morning ’bout half past eight
I’m acting like a lovesick fool
You’ve even got me carrying your books to school
Hey hey, set me free
Stupid Cupid stop picking on me

You mixed me up for good right from the very start
Hey now, go play Robin Hood with somebody else’s heart

You got me jumping like a crazy clown
And I don’t feature what you’re putting down
Well since I kissed her loving lips of wine
The thing that bothers me is that I like it fine
Hey hey,…

You got me jumping like a crazy clown
And I don’t feature what you’re putting down
Well since I kissed his loving lips of wine
The thing that bothers me is that I like it fine
Hey hey, set me free
Stupid Cupid stop picking on me

Hey hey, set me free
Stupid Cupid stop picking on me”

Songwriters: Howard Greenfield / Neil Sedaka

Stupid Cupid lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Here is the back of the “Cupid” mailbox decoration for the 1st half of February.  I tried to blend in the mounting bar as much as possible with the painting.

Here’s the front of the decoration. We used to just have a large heart, but did this design to replace it.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sunday Afternoon Fun

HandsOnAsWeGrow.com

I’ve decided that this afternoon is a perfect time for me to have some fun.

I thought of some ideas for new Christmas cards and Christmas ornaments. The ideas have been driving me nuts, rattling around in my head, particularly when I’m trying to get some sleep.

I’m going to take this nice Sunday afternoon to go up to my art room and play – to at least get a start on seeing if I can bring my ideas to paper and wood.

I hope that YOU have some fun ideas on how you’ll spend this glorious day. Have some fun!

Snow Goon Mailbox Decoration

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson is one of our all-time favorite cartoon strips. We created this Snow Goon to honor a terrific part of the strip. (A Snow Goon is a hostile, living snowman).

This is the back of the piece. I tried to blend in the horizontal bar attachment piece.

 

 

 

 

This is the front of the piece. It shows up nicely from fairly far away from our mailbox. We hope passers-by enjoy the decoration as much as we do.

 

 

Decoration Changes & Refurbishment

This is the ‘old style’ attachment method we used when we started making metal decorations for our mailbox. We simply cut a flat piece of metal and welded it onto the side of the piece after drilling a bunch of holes in it.

Since then, my husband designed a much stronger method of attachment – a square metal rod with L-shaped attachment piece welded onto it, and then attached to the decoration. He was upset that some of the decorations we put up this past year still had the ‘old style’ attachment and wanted to change them.

We had gone through the decorations, figuring out which ones we wanted to keep, replacements we wanted to make, and new pieces in the works. The turkey for Thanksgiving and the Rabbit and Egg for Easter needed the new style attachments.

My husband cut off the old style and then made new attachments and welded them onto the two pieces. The process of welding did a number on the paint of the decorations, so I’ve been trying to blend in the new attachment bar into the design on one side and refurbish the pieces as a whole.

 

This is the front of the refurbished Thanksgiving turkey. You have to look carefully to see the black rod sticking out to the left.

 

 

This is the back, where you can see the rod going all the way across the piece. I blended it in as best I could.  I also added googly eyes to both sides this time, rather than just having the hole in a white circle.

Here’s a pic of the old piece to compare.

 

The second piece was the Rabbit and the Egg for Easter.

 

 

My husband had a hard time welding the attachment rod to this piece. There was a LOT to try to blend in. I had fun adding Snow-Tex to his cotton tail this time.

 

Here’s the back of the piece, with the rod blended in as well as I was able. I didn’t put Snow-Tex on this side.

Calvin and Hobbes – Happy New Year!

We hung up our new Calvin & Hobbes Happy New Year mailbox decoration!  This is the front of the piece. It doesn’t show here, but when the sun is shining on the piece, the “Happy New Year” glitters. :0)

 

This is the back of the piece. We had more problems than usual with this one, in that we put the overhead projector in one spot to do Hobbes’ face, had to move it to do Calvin’s, then flip the transparency over and reposition again to do the “Happy New Year.”

We’re hoping that folks passing our driveway will get a laugh from this one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year Mailbox Decoration Progress Report

Yesterday I finished painting the back side of the Calvin & Hobbes Happy New Year mailbox decoration.

 

 

Today I flipped the piece and started painting on the front of the piece.  I’ll show more pics when the front is finished. We plan to put the piece on the mailbox after Christmas, so I’m really having to hurry to finish it in time. :0)

Mailbox Decoration for New Years

My husband got the bug to make a mailbox decoration for New Year’s. He found this cute Calvin & Hobbes design on the net. We had to modify the one he found, moving the wording from the gray square on the left of this picture down to across the bottom, larger, and with a different font. We also needed to add an elbow to Hobbes.

My husband translated the picture to the code needed by the computer attached to our CNC setup (computer guided plasma torch) so that we could cut the design out of sheet metal. We made a mounting  pipe and welded it to the cut out design. We then painted everything with gray primer paint to keep the metal from rusting.

I then marked both sides of the piece with the design. For some unknown reason, it was really difficult to get the design to match up with the transparency on the overhead projector on the back side. We ended up marking Hobbes’ head, then moved the transparency and lined things up so that I could do Calvin’s head, then moved it again for the words. I then had to free hand all the things that came between the 3 moves to complete the design.

I painted the first coat on the back yesterday. It went pretty well, considering all the guessing I had to do to get the design to come together. I’ll try to finish the back today, except for the accents.

We trying to have it ready to put up on the mailbox right after Christmas.

I’ll post pics when it’s up.

Have a great day!

 

New Santa Mailbox Decoration is UP!

 

 

“HO, HO, HO!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas Mailbox Decorations – Part 1

We just put this Christmas mailbox decoration up. It’s one of the first decorations we did using the new CNC equipment with the plasma torch. If you look carefully, you can see the old style black metal we used to attach it to the mailbox post.

 

This is the back of the piece. If you look carefully at this side, you can see where the black mounting piece goes across the Christmas tree design. I tried to paint it so that it wasn’t too noticeable.

We decided to use the old decoration through the 14th, and then put up the new decoration from the 15th through the end of the month/year.

We talked about enlarging this design and doing it again with a new mount, but then found another design that included a tree with a boy and girl that we liked better. We’ll do that one for next year!

Santa Mailbox Decoration is Finished!

This is the mailbox decoration before I had fun using my new Snow-Tex and glitter glue.

 

I had trouble getting pictures today, but the left mitten gives you an idea of what the glitter glue does, and you get an idea of the Snow-tex on Santa’s eyebrows, etc.

 

This is a close up of the Snow-Tex. As my husband says, when you’re driving past the house at 45 mph, you probably won’t be able to appreciate the texture. I think my husband would have preferred I left Santa as he was before the new experiments, but I had so much fun doing it, I’ll just let his opinion slide. HE can paint the next one… :0)

Snow-Tex!

I don’t have pics to show you yet, but I had SUCH fun playing with the new (to me) Snow-Tex stuff. It comes in a jar kind of like grout. You can use almost anything to put it on whatever surface you want. I used a brush, but was dabbing heavily on the hat fur, his mitten fur, his eyebrows, mustache, beard, etc. My husband wasn’t impressed with the texture, but I loved it. I also used the glitter glue on the sign frame, his mittens and the red part of his hat. Gaudy and Christmas-y! :0)

Will turn the piece over tomorrow, paint the special effects, and take some pics to post.

Such a fun day!!!!

Hopelessly Spoiled

This showed up this morning!  We weren’t up yet when it was delivered, but whoever it was pushed the package through the cat door in the garage, making lots of noise with our driveway detector.  As you can see, the company personalizes the art box. :0)

 

I was dazzled by the wonderful array of art media when I opened the suitcase type box! Here there are watercolors on the left with nice places to put water under each group of watercolors. There is a beautiful group of oil pastels. I’ve used ‘regular’ pastels, but never oil, so my mouth is watering. You can also see there are two brushes.

 

On the other side is a nice group of colored pencils, a pencil sharpener, and two nice erasers. There is also a group of colored pens.

My husband said he found this offer on Brad’s Deals, a favorite free-subscription-to-nice-deals-on-all-kinds-of-things place.

I’m really looking forward to using this. I can take it anywhere, bringing a bottle of water and some paper, and be all set up for some serious playing!

What a happy gift!

 

The Merry Christmas Santa is Coming to Life!

Yesterday I finished the second coat on the front of the mailbox decoration. Today I’ll flip it over and do the 2nd coat on the back of the piece.

I checked on my order of Sno-Tex, the textured white paint I want to experiment with on this. It had not been shipped! I cancelled that order and ordered from another source, so it should be delivered tomorrow. HOORAAAY!

When the 2nd coat is on the back and is dry, then I get to play.

Clipart Kid

I already have my glitter glue to make some things sparkly. THEN the Sno-Tex is supposed to make things like Santa’s hair, mustache, bear, and fur on his mittens and hat 3-dimensional. I’ve never used these before, so I’m like a kid at Christmas.

I’ll show you some progress on these two things as I can.

Mailbox Santa Progress

This is the front side with the first coat on. This will need a second coat, and then the glitter glue and Snow-Tex before it’s finished.

 

This is the back side of the piece, with the progress I made yesterday. I’m about to go out and start working on all the black on the piece.

I received my glitter glue, but I haven’t received the Sno-Tex yet. I’m excited to see what interest I can add with those new media for me.

 

Progress Report – Christmas Mailbox Decoration

This is the Christmas decoration after the billious yellow-green primer and my using the overhead projector to mark it. This is the back of the piece, with the mounting bar going horizontally at the bottom of the sign.

The next step is what I call ‘color blocking,’ where I just get a quick coat of paint on everything showing where the colors are.

 

This shows where the white paint will go on the front.

 

Today I added the dark green of the sign, Santa’s skin, and his hat and mittens.

Tomorrow I’ll concentrate on the black and see if there is any correction needed. Then I’ll turn the piece over and do the same thing on the back.

I received my clear glitter glue today. I’m excited to see what that will add to the piece, but I’ll have to wait until the main painting on both sides is done.

The final touches will be the glitter glue and the Sno-Tex, a white paint that is supposed to add a bunch of texture to the white of his hat, mitten cuffs, hair, and beard.

New Mailbox Decoration for Christmas in the Works!

I found this picture on the net a month or so ago. My husband said he didn’t like the Christmas tree we’ve displayed for a couple of years now, and wanted something different. I saved a bunch of possible images and finally got him to look at them a few days ago. We decided on this one.

My husband got onto his computer and ‘did his magic’, transforming an image to a code that the computer can recognize and recreate using the plasma torch, cutting the outline out of a sheet of metal. I will never cease to be amazed that he can do this. I love watching the torch cut the piece out of metal, untouched by human hands!

After we cut the outline, my husband chipped the slag off the back of the piece with a power tool, and then built and added the metal support that attaches the piece to our mailbox.

He then hung up the decoration outside and sprayed it with primer spray – a billious yellow we had plenty of – that will keep the piece from rusting.

We hung it up on a stand in the shop. We had printed a transparency of the design and put that on our overhead projector, turning off the lights in the shop so that I could use a magic marker and mark the design on the metal, front and back. (This one was more complicated because we had to do the Santa and the lettering separately so that it could be read on both sides.)

I’m now painting the decoration in the shop. I’m first just making sure the right color is where it should be on the front side.  I did the white yesterday on the front. After I get the color blocked on the front, I’ll turn it over and paint it on the back.

I’ve ordered some clear glitter glue to paint over the red and green to make it sparkle. I’ve also ordered a special paint called, “Sno-Tex” that will give the white a lot more texture. I’ve never used either of these, so it’ll be fun to see if the results will come close to the picture in my mind’s eye.

I’ll take pics as progress is made and post them.

Thanksgiving Lewis Mailbox Decoration

Today before we went to town we put up our Thanksgiving mailbox decoration.  People stopped as we put him up, saying they enjoy driving past our driveway to see what we’ve put up lately. Can you think of a nicer compliment?