Thanksgiving (cupcake) leftovers!

Sorting through my pictures today (while watching Cupcake Wars on tv; love that show) and came across this gem that I had meant to post last Thanksgiving. This lovely cupcake (!) was made for my son Ed by his girlfriend, Mariah. Isn't it incredible? And edible! And delicious! Or at least, so said Ed. I only got to photo-document it. Ah well, I appreciate the feast for the eyes that it continues to be.

Wall treatments

Hi all,

I know, I know--its been a loooong time. My apologies. That's what happens when you get divorced and start working full-time! Gack! But here's a new post dealing with wall treatments.

Like many folks, I have painted walls and even dabbled a bit in some so-called "faux" finishes. It can be lots of fun. Be not afraid! Get a good reference book--I particularly liked Sunset's guide Decorative Paint & Faux Finishes--read up and go to it! Don't be afraid to try new techniques. And don't be afraid to paint right over them if they don't work. (For that reason, I stay away from textured treatments; much harder to cover up a mistake.)

Here's my first wall treatment. We painted our living room a deep gold color and had a lot of gold accents in the room. So I though a metallic gold would be appropriate on the walls too. The crown molding got painted with a flat yellow latex and then was streaked with a metallic gold paint and a simple stencil was applied as a border directly underneath all around the room. I thought it turned out handsomely.

 Here is the wall at a higher magnification. I loved the look of the gold stencil paint so much that I did an all over gold stencil in the dining room next door. You can just make it out through the doorway. It took me quite a while to go around and do the whole room but it was worth it (and covered up the flaws in the drywall, to boot.)

In this dining room wall, I did a fairly complex faux finish and then completed the look with star stencils. I started with a layer of orange paint (pumpkin orange!) and then mixed a deep red paint half and half with some glaze. I then dry-brushed the thin red paint over the orange. It took three layers to get the effect I wanted. Then I applied hundreds of star stencils in gold, dense at the top and falling down and thinning out at the bottom. 

For all of the stenciling I used Delta Stencil creme oil paint Delta Stencil Magic Paint Creme Folk Colors Traditional--it was very easy to work with and gave great results. Love, love, love, the metallic gold especially.