Apr 23, 20203 min read

#clapforourcarers

Good morning to you all!

It is 6:10 am and I am now wide awake. The sun is shining and the birds are chirping (loudly), so I have decided to take this time, whilst everyone else in the house is still in dreamland, to spend a bit of quiet time pondering the happenings of the past few months with regard to this virus. There are so many questions, for which we do not have answers, but one thing is for sure, I am filled with an incredible sense of thankfulness and gratitude.

It is the fourth Thursday in Lockdown and as has become customary, we shall yet again #clapforourcarers tonight at 8pm, to show our thanks for all that they do. The list of people who form part of this "carers" group, grows day by day as we realise who we really need to make the country function in a time of crisis. To all our NHS staff, doctors, nurses, shop workers, care home workers, teachers, refuge collectors, delivery drivers and yes leaders of our country..... the list grows and

we thank you!

I have painted a sign to put outside our house, to show our support, so here is a little guide of how I went about creating this sign.

Rummaging through my husband's shed, I knew I would find a piece of hard board I could transform, so I chose an off cut and painted it with #thjokopaint, Silver Moon. (Unfortunately this paint is only available in South Africa at the moment)

Of course, I wanted to paint a rainbow, but one with a twist, so using the Oriental Blossom design from the Folkit Flat Brush series, I got started.

First I dotted the shape of my rainbow onto my board, using pencil. This is simply a guide for my first row of blossoms. The fun part is choosing a range of rainbow colour Paints to paint the blossoms. I use DecoArt Americana paint in the following colours; Santa Red, Canyon Orange, True Ochre, Antique Green, Deep Midnight Blue, Mulberry and Frosted Plum. All these colours were blended with Titanium White, to create a two-tone effect. This technique is taught in the Folkit Oriental Blossom kit.

I used a #10 flat brush and starting with the red blossoms, placing them randomly on my dotted line, filling the space and overlapping the blossoms. This step is then repeated with the rest of the colours. I think I must have painted about 200 Blossoms - seriously good practice for the pivot stroke in all directions!

My sign writing skills are not yet of a standard that I can write free hand onto a sign, so I printed off "THANK" in a font that I liked and lettered" you" by hand on paper with pencil, until I was happy with the size and shape. I positioned the words, taped them in place and then slipped black Graphite Paper between the board and paper. Using a dotting tool, I traced over them, to transfer the design onto my board. Now it was simply time to go over the words in Black Sharpie to make them stand out.

As this sign will be outside, I have finished it with a protective layer of Decorators Varnish.