Springtime Colorful Pollies

Spring is here. Flowers are blooming. Birds are singing. I want to paint some bright colored tropical birds for this month’s blog. I have found some pictures of parrots that I really wanted to paint. Looking through my stash of surfaces, I found some nice white 3” x 6” tiles that were just begging to be painted on and then glued into a frame. Here are the photos.

 

I resized the photos and made a pattern with the parrots so I could trace them onto the tiles.  Then I put the patterns aside so I could do my etching magic.

After cleaning the tiles with alcohol, I decided to etch the entire tile, as I would be painting it all.   I could probably have used Dip n Etch, but I really wanted to etch just the front of the tiles. 

I applied the Etchall etching cream to the entire front of each tile, putting it on about ¼” thick, like icing a cake. Now I set my timer for 8 minutes.  

After 8 minutes, I moved the cream around to make sure it was applied correctly and there were no spots without the etching cream, then I set my timer for another 7 minutes.  

With the plastic squeegee tool, I scraped off the etching cream and put it back into the jar.  (Remember, you can reuse this cream over and over?)   

I wiped the glass off with a paper towel, then thoroughly washed the tiles to make sure I got all the etching cream off. (If there is some etching cream left on the glass, it will cause the paint to lift, so be thorough.)

Now, I put the patterns onto the tiles and taped them at the top so that I could lift the pattern up to make sure I had transferred all the lines. Then I put the transfer paper under the pattern with the graphite (shiny) side down against the tiles. Using a stylus, or an old ballpoint pen, I traced over the pattern lines. When done, I removed the pattern from the tiles.

Now to add some paint to the images, and the Etchall gave the tiles just the right amount of ‘tooth’ to hold the DecoArt Glass Paint on the surface.

I painted these birds to look like the photos using the bright colors of DecoArt Glass Paint and then just slip slapped green paint around the birds to form the background and make it look like foliage. Now I will let them dry for 21 days to se the paint. I could have baked them, but I’m not in a hurry, so I let them cure.

I found a nice little wooden display type frame, painted it black, and glued my parrots into the frame using a clear silicone glue meant for wood and glass. I love my new colorful Parrots picture. It will make a great gift for someone. 

I hope you enjoyed this project. Have a Colorful Day.