Dare I say, spring is here? It feels like it here in my neck of the woods. I mean, I am sure we will still have snow and it is still below freezing at night. But, the sun is warm when it shines and the weather changes several times a day, which is always a sure sign of spring.
My poor little porch has been bare since taking down my Christmas decor. The sunshine spurred me on to work on some simple spring decor for the front porch.
I knew I wanted green and yellow and something that could last and look good for a few months, at least. That meant no specific Saint Patrick's Day or Easter decor. I decided to start with making a sign for my little picket fence that sits on my porch.
I painted a scrap board a warm, yummy yellow. I wanted it to peek out from under the green, so I decided to try to do some crackle with glue. I am showing what I did, but it DID NOT crackle, but I did get some chipping that I liked.
I painted green over the yellow and glue and then used a hair dryer set on hot to dry the green paint and hopefully crackle the glue. No crackle, but some of the green chipped off when I was heating it, which I loved. I wonder if using a heat gun would have worked better?
(This post contains affiliate links. What that means is if you buy something through my link, I earn a small commission. Also, please note, prices you see for Funky Junk's Old Sign Stencils are in Canadian and convert to less is US.)
Using the Widlflower Seed stencil from Funky Junk's Old Sign stencils (see it HERE), I stenciled the sign using white paint. I cannot say this enough times--get as much paint off of your stencil brush before stenciling. I do this by pouncing the paintbrush on a paper towel.
I trimmed the wood to a square size and then hand sanded the stenciled lettering to age it. I prefer to hand sand to control how much gets sanded off.
I attached a jute hanger to screws in the top. I wanted the sign to hang from the top because I plan to paint a fall (or summer??) sign on the back.
I added a $1.50, bright yellow, misshapen, metal bucket from the thrift store on the green, wood wagon that sits on my porch. I want to find some pussy willows to set in it and will plant in it when it is warm enough.
These little, yellow, rain boots have been calling to me from one of my favorite thrift stores for awhile. I didn't realize they were fire fighter boots, but they re just as adorable. I added some rocks to the bottom of them, some plastic bags to fill them, burlap, and tine, plastic plants. i am not a fan of many fake plants, but these looked great and will weather the cold nights.
When I spied this $2 recipe box at the thrift store, I knew its green color was perfect for the front porch spring decor, even though I wasn't sure how I was going to use it. The green is fabric that has been decoupaged on a wood box.
I decided to give it the stenciling treatment too, using the same Wildflower Seed Stencil. I stenciled just SEED across the front,
and added the flourish and the word flower to the top part of the recipe box.
A few rocks in the box (my porch gets some wind) and a scrap of a dropcloth, and a few flower seed packets make a cute "centerpiece" for my round, metal porch table.
I can't wait to add real flowers and plants to my front porch. But, until then, the seed inspired decor, and the cheery, sunny yellow and green touches are perfect to bring a little spring to the front porch. Have you started decorating for spring?
I bought some $1 flowers that were green with shamrocks in them. Put them in some green fabric covered mason jars in a wood crate I made. Also made a topiary using a chunk of firewood that I put a dowel in & topped it with a hand sewn green polka dot shamrock. I think I'm ready for St. Patrick's day for sure! Your porch setup looks very springy!
ReplyDelete