I’ve always thought of my childhood home as a grand old lady.

A large stone built building that is at least 200 years old (but probably older than that) She sits in the middle of the High Street surrounded by bushes and flower beds.

Mini Pots

Now before any says that buildings cannot have a gender or personality, I am more than amply aware of that. However the house has a cottagey look to it, with lots of flower pots and baskets and it looks pretty.

So, the house is a She.

Lots of Troughs

Several weeks ago I spent a couple of warm days in the sun potting plants and herbs in both hanging baskets, troughs and large tubs; fuchsias, geraniums, marigolds, petunias, ivy and begonias to name a few.

I added some other trailing greenery and placed all the tubs and troughs outside the front of the house and hung the baskets from hooks on the porch.

Lots of New Plants

Shopping in town a week ago, I saw some metal hanging pots in various colours. I bought red, green, blue, pink and orange and popped to the local garden centre to get some more petunias and geraniums to trail down once the pots were hung up.

The floral decoration looked so wonderful, especially when the sun is shining brightly.

Pretty Blooms

All  it needed was a little bit of a spruce up of the main front door and porch, so I popped to the local hardware store and chose a lovely blue paint for the door and dark brown wood stain for the trellis and porchway.

So, why exactly was I making the front of the house more presentable?

Having Fun

Well, I had been pretty busy on a DIY challenge that I had set myself a few weeks ago.

Now, back in the 1800’s, the house was known as “Rosebank”.

Pretty In Pink

Later on, there was the need for house numbers when town grew and grew, and it became Number 29.

But many of the older residents in the village still know it as the house name and so I wanted to resurrect that again.

New Front Door Paint

Popping onto the internet, I sourced a lovely wooden bevel edged sign and some acrylic paints. I sat down and researched fonts that would go with the age of the house and came across a lovely style that I thought would work perfectly.

I grabbed a pencil, paper and eraser to try and recreate the font.

First Attempt

Once I had the design down, I made a few alterations where I had not followed the font correctly, and then coloured in the font to see just how it might look on the sign.

I was happy with what I had managed to create and now all I needed to do was recreate it again on the wood sign.

Not a Fan of the Rose

Using an old fashioned kids trick, I scribbled lots of black pencil on the back of the design, until it was pretty much covered. Then I placed the paper down on the sign, before pressing hard along the design.

This left a little pencil trail on the sign, which I was then able to make bolder by using the pencil to follow the lines.

Where to Start….

Then came out the acrylic paints.

I started by painting the sign white before using a very thin brush to outline the words in blue.

And she is Off…

Colouring in all the letters, I found it really therapeutic and relaxing to slowly and carefully paint each small stroke, without going over the lines.

Once I had completely painted the font, I realised that the sign looked slightly ’empty’.

Looking Okay So Far

I hopped back onto the internet and researched roses and how to draw them.

A very simple tutorial came up and I thought “What is the worst that could happen?”

Partly There

If I tried to emulate the tutorial and it went wrong, I could rub out the pencil lines OR repaint a layer of white over the area. It really wasn’t too difficult to rectify if I didn’t like what I had drawn.

Off I went, following the instructions to the letter.

First Attempt

I created a small rose, added some more layers and took a look at the result. I felt it needed a few more petals, so the tiny rose grew a little bit.

Once I was satisfied with the drawing, I decided to try a rosebud in the opposite corner.

Not So Keen…

Whilst I didn’t mind the way the rosebud came out, the positioning was all wrong. I rubbed the drawing out and decided to replicate the same rose as I had in the bottom left corner.

Out came the acrylics again, this time I got a small plastic tray and decided to mix some of the colours together to create several new colour hues. I had 4 pinky-red colours and interlaced all the different leaves, to try and add shade and depth.

Almost Finished

To be honest, I didn’t really know what the heck I was doing, but it seemed to come out alright.

It was time to stop adding and faffing with the sign, and let it dry.

Not Bad For My First Attempt

Around an hour later, the sign was dried and all I needed to do was give it a coating of spray varnish to seal it all in.

Eventually when I have painted the front door and stained the wooden porch, I will hang my sign up proudly to declare to all…

Photobomb!!!

Rosebank is Back!

Till next time,

SPSG xxx