Lighthouses

I am, by no means, what I would consider a "crafty" person. I have very little talent when it comes to being artsy, and I've learned to live with that. However, there are times that I amaze myself.

Long about November, I happened across a craft fair. I was pretty excited about it too. It's the first one I'd seen since I moved to Florida 8 years ago. Anyway, I stopped and wandered about the booths, marveling at how crafty some people really are. I mean, I look at a pile of stuff and think "just junk, trash it". But these people look at that same pile and say "Hey, I can make a scale model of the taj mahal with that stuff! All I need to do is add a button right here!" But not this time.

I came across a booth that was being manned by a kindly older gentleman. He obviously wasn't a true crafter as he was willing to share every step in the process of making his craft. Had his wife been there, I'm sure she would have stopped him long before he gave me all the trade secrets! But it was my lucky day and I decided that I was going to try to build these lighthouses to give as gifts this past Christmas.

Armed with the knowledge of how to make them, I went to Lowe's (One of the few times I agreed to go with husband without kicking and screaming!) and got the necessary supplies. This was followed by a trip to Michael's (Which I must say, I never have a problem getting John to go to. He's so much the better person than I!) to pick up some creative stencils for painting and decorating. Once we arrived home, it was time to start working on the project.

Overall, it took about a week to make the three. I worked on them all at the same time so I bounced from house to house to house. That worked out kind of well as it didn't allow me to get bored working only on one pattern over and over. The fourth one I worked on by itself, so it only took a couple of days to complete. Yes, they are working lighthouses. The solar light will glow at night once it's dark. It looks really cool too!

Here's a tip...If you're trying to paint a stencil on a rounded or curved surface, don't do it! The paint will just drip since the stencil isn't laying flat and it ends up adding more work for you to "touch up". I did discover, however, that I could draw the stencil pattern on and then paint. That worked out much better.

Oh yes, and let me mention, a special thank you to John for this project. He helped me do some of the painting when my steady paw was a little shaky! I also needed the capital W but only had lower case letters so he made a capital W for me out of scraps. See what I mean about crafty people? I was going to just use all lower case!

So anyway, that is how the "lighthouses" came to be. And each one matches the personality of its new owner. An added bonus, I saw the things down here so not too many can be found up north. They'll be "one of a kind" for a while...until somebody comes along and steals the idea again!

I have to start thinking about what I can do for next year. This will be tough to top!