Tag Archives: mural

Way Back Craft: The Fat Lady Mural

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The Fat Lady

If you follow me here on sewhooked, then you’ve already heard all about my daughter’s Harry Potter bedroom.  It was  a big project with lots of little projects (and some huge ones!) mixed together.

On Friday, I posted about my son’s bedroom door, which is now graced by the TARDIS.  What I didn’t say is that it was The Fat Lady that started it all.  It was the idea of paining her that led to the idea for the HP room, and eventually, the TARDIS.

When you’re a kid (or a young-at-heart) adult, and you’re dearest desire is to go to Hogwarts and live in Gryffindor Tower, who should greet you as you clamber into your living space each day?  The Fat Lady, of course!

When designing the HP room for my daughter almost 6 1/2 years ago now, the very top of our list said “Fat Lady.”

The photos of the door do not do the mural justice.  She comes out looking much flatter and two dimensional than she does in real life.  Part of that is the awkward angle the door sits to our hallway, making it impossible to take a photo straight on.  I hope you get the idea anyway.  Just trust me when I say, she’s a beauty face to face!

And now, without further ado, The Fat Lady, originally posted on my very first crafts website, Jen’s Crochet & Craf.

What You’ll Need:

  • Level
  • Straight edge (yardstick or similar)
  • Fine sandpaper
  • Soft cloth
  • Primer (if needed)
  • Masking tape
  • Overhead projector (optional)
  • Reference image (on transparency film if using projector) from a coloring book, online image, etc.
  • Chalk or pencil
  • Acrylic craft paints
  • Paper cups or empty egg carton (for paint)
  • Artist paint brushes (multiple sizes)
  • Drop cloth or newspaper

Instructions

  1. Prepare the work area by protecting with a drop cloth or newspapers.
  2. Make sure the surface you will be painting on is lightly sanded and free of dust by wiping with a soft cloth. If the surface is unpainted, paint a base coat of primer.
  3. Using the level and straight edge, measure and mark where your painting will be. When this is done, use masking tape to outline the INSIDE of the frame. You will be painting inside of this.
  4. Sketch The Fat Lady with a pencil or chalk either freehand or using an overhead projector. If neither of these options is available to you, enlarge your reference image on a copy machine to the appropriate size. Liberally rub chalk over the back of the paper. Tape the paper in the appropriate location. Being careful not to touch the image too much, outline the entire image with a pencil. The chalk will be transferred to the working surface.
  5. Once the surface has been prepared, begin painting using the reference image as a guide. Use whatever size paint brushes feel best in your hand. If you’ve never painted before, just take it slow. Start with the background and work your way in. Don’t worry about details, just get the basic shape to start with.
  6. When you’re happy with the basic shape of The Fat Lady, use slightly darker colors to go back and add details to hair, eyes, shadows, etc. Use the reference image to see where shadows and details need to be.
  7. Gently remove the masking tape. Let the painting dry overnight.
  8. Using chalk or a pencil, draw a frame around the painting. If you are not comfortable with freehand, you can also masking tape. Overlap the background of the painting. For an extra flourish, add a half circle to the top of the frame, which will become a lion’s head.
  9. Using gold craft paint, fill in the frame you’ve just drawn. Add shadows and details

This tutorial is also available on The Leaky Cauldron’s Harry Potter Crafts

MORE HP Decor:

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

DIY: TARDIS

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Photobucket
TARDIS Newsroom – Pick of the Blogs
July 25, 2009

Is there anything more iconic to a Doctor Who fan than The TARDIS?

Oh, maybe. There are striped scarves and Daleks and, of course, Sonic Screwdrivers. But I think the TARDIS is pretty darn cool.

Photobucket

It just so happens that my 11 year old son does, too.

We’re big on painting, decorating and embellishing in our house. My daughter has The Fat Lady on her bedroom door, and has had for years now. My son has been waiting for just the right inspiration to decide what he’d like on his door.

This summer, it came to him. The Doctor’s TARDIS.

This was not a hard project, but it was time consuming between steps. Here’s how we did it!

Project Supplies:

  • A large, flat surface, primed and painted some variety of light blue
  • Measurements of the door
  • graph paper
  • pencil
  • ruler
  • yard stick
  • calculator (for those like me that don’t do math in their heads)
  • painter’s tape
  • navy blue acrylic paint
  • white acrylic paint
  • 1″ and 2″ white vinyl letters (available at craft stores, mine are from Hobby Lobby)
  • off-white paper, printed with the notice (clickable version below)
  • Modge Podge or other decoupage sealer



The first step is probably the trickiest. After measuring the door, I taped two pieced of graph paper together and then made a scale replica of the door. Using a photo of the TARDIS, I drew up what was as close as I could come to a scale replica, being the door is tall and narrow.

If you’re feeling really detail oriented, flickr user Star_Cross has blueprints of the real deal.



Our door was already painted light blue, so we moved on to measuring. If your door is not blue, remove the doorknob, prime, paint and let dry overnight before moving on.

Next, we used the yard stick and started measuring. We started by finding the center of the door and working our way out, comparing constantly to our graph paper design (which you can see on the right of the photo).

Once the pencil lines were on, we started taping. I’ll show how we did it and add how I wish we’d done it…



We taped outside the windows and inside the door panels (we should have taped inside ALL the rectangles and painted the whole thing navy blue and then gone back and taped off the windows…it would have been easier!).

Then we painted the inside of the window panels white.



We peeled off the tape around the windows and then started painting the rest of the door navy blue.


Once that was good and dry, we peeled off all the tape. You can see the blue from the original door make nice highlights for the panels.



Next, we penciled in lines for adding the vinyl letters. Even though I’d measured carefully on the graph paper, they’re not quite even. My kid is happy, so I left them!



Next, we used the blue paint pen (we tried a Sharpie maker, believe me, it did NOT work) to draw on the window panes and to add mitered corners around the light blue borders.

TARDIS notice

The notice was made in Photoshop by taking a TARDIS pic and then enlarging the notice. I then typed over the words, adjusting fonts and sizes until it was right for the size we needed. The is the scale version.

The notice was attached with glue and then smoothed completely down. I used Modge Podge to cover it, being very careful not to smear the ink.



Once the notice was dry, we added the doorknob back and we were done! I do have silver handles to add to make it even more TARDIS-like, but they aren’t pictured.

Sorry about the awkward photo.  The door is at a 45 degree angle to the hallway, which makes it very tricky to photograph!

More awesome TARDIS crafts:


TARDIS Phone Case by myimaginaryboyfriend


TARDIS Birthday Cake by abbietabbie


and my personal favorite, a squashy, plush TARDIS made by young crafter, Miss K

More Doctor Who crafts from sewhooked:

Share your Doctor Who crafts on the Doctor Who Crafts flickr group or on the Livejournal Group CraftyTardis

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

also posted on craftster and cut out + keep

DIY: Mirror of Erised Mural

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mirror of erised updateMirror of Erised Mural
edited to maintain my daughter’s privacy

This could really be called a Way Back Craft, but I’ve done so much updating, I’m going to stick with DIY.

Six years ago, when my daughter was turning 8 years old, she wanted a Harry Potter room.  All those years ago, we created the most magical room we could manage for her, and she’s loved it ever since.

On the back of her door, I created a Mirror of Erised just for her using a basic 4′ wall mirror.  It’s been one of the highlights of her the HP theme, and what girl doesn’t need a mirror in her room?

Way back then, I never imagined she’d someday be taller than me.  As she grew, it was clear that the Mirror of Erised mural I created for her was going to have to be adjusted for her lengthening height.  Just last week, I did what I needed to do to so she could see herself in her mirror.

The original tutorial has been on every variation of my website for six years now.  It’s posted on The Leaky Cauldron’s Crafts section and was mentioned, uncredited, in Entertainment Weekly in reference to Leaky Crafts.  That original tutorial is below, with edits for the updated version of the mirror.

What You’ll Need

  • Basic rectangular wall mirror, with or without frame
  • Mirror Clips, if not included with the mirror
  • Pencil or chalk
  • Masking tape
  • Newspaper
  • Fine sand paper
  • Soft cloth
  • Spray paint (primer & gold)
  • Gold acrylic craft paint
  • Gold or silver paint pen or metallic Sharpies
  • paint brush of your choice (to paint mirror body)
  • Level (optional)
  • Measuring tape

Instructions

Measure the mirror. Save the dimensions for later.

The Mirror

for frame-less mirror, skip to the mural instructions

Lightly sand the frame of the mirror. Wipe clean with a soft cloth. Cover mirror with newspaper, taping carefully around the edges of the mirror without covering the frame.

In a well-ventilated area, use spray primer to prime the frame. Follow manufacturer’s instructions.

Follow up with 2 coats of gold spray paint.

The Mural

While the mirror is drying, determine where it will hang.

Using the dimensions taken earlier, mark a space 1” smaller than the mirror dimensions on each side.

Use masking tape to tape the area where the frame will be.

Use pencil or chalk to draw the outside edge of the mirror.

This can be done freehand, or using the mirror from the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone movie as a reference. Add clawed feet to the legs.  The mirror shown was drawn freehand, as were the updates.

Paint with gold craft paint.

After the mirror is completely dry, remove newspaper and masking tape.  Mount to painted mural frame.

Using a paint pen or metallic Sharpie, write Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi across the top
of the mirror.

Using a paint pen or metallic Sharpie, ad details like swirls and stars.

Touch up if needed.

The Mirror of Erised
the original mirror, before enlarging

For more Harry Potter DIY, check out the HP Bookcase Mural, the Fat Lady Mural (pdf), and the Hogwarts House Canopies!

If you make a Sew Awesome Craft or any pattern, craft or recipe from sewhooked, I’d love to see a photo. Email me or add it to the sewhooked flickr group.

Way Back Craft: Harry Potter Bookcase Mural

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HP Closet Mural

It’s hard to believe I’ve never blogged about this project!

Years ago, I had a website called Jen’s Crochet and Crafts.   It eventually morphed into sewhooked.   The Harry Potter Bookcase Mural was originally posted there, along with the story of how it came to be.

When my almost-14-year-old-daughter was about to turn 8, she asked for a Harry Potter-themed room for her birthday.   Being a big HP fan myself, I was as excited as she was to take on the project.  Among her requests were castle walls, an enchanted ceiling, The Fat Lady on her door, red and gold hangings for her bed and a magical bookcase.   I managed all of those things, but the bookcase remains my absolute favorite part of the project.

The original bookcase was drawn freehand with chalk.  I’ve since made a map for use on an overhead projector, or, if you have a steady hand and feel up to it, to use as a free-hand guide.

Supplies:

You need a clean dry surface to start with.  If painting on an older surface, you may want to paint with primer first.

Print the template on clear acetate and project the image onto the selected area.   Position the bookcase where you’d like for it to appear. Use masking tape to outline the area that will become your bookcase.

Use semi-gloss paint and the paint roller to paint the taped-off area.

Paint a second coat if necessary. Allow to dry overnight.

Using a pencil or chalk, trace the bookcase (not the contents), adding a border if needed or desired.  A ruler or yardstick comes in really handy for this step.

Paint bookcase shelves and allow to dry.

Starting with the top shelf, trace contents.

Bottom left - close up
bottom left, close up

After tracing, paint contents using a variety of colors.  An egg carton works great to have multiple colors available at once.

Repeat for all shelves, allow to dry overnight.

Using a variety of permanent markers, add book names using this list of books provided.

vBottom right - close up
bottom right, close up

Randomly place books where you like, except for The Standard Book of Spells. Look for these on the second shelf from the top, on the right side.  The seven books are more or less together, each with a line across the top of the binding (only 6 books are listed in the HP series, but I’m assuming there would have been a seventh if Harry had returned for his final year of school).

Top left - close up
top left, close up

Add embellishments; names on potions bottles, cat whiskers, etc. with permanent markers.

Stand back and admire your work!

More photos from the Harry Potter bedroom with instructions on sewhooked

If you make this or any sewhooked crafts, I’d love to see a photo!  Email me or add it to the Friends of sewhooked flickr group.

Happy Crafting!

Also posted on The Leaky Cauldron and cut out + keep