Pottery Barn KnockOff – Birds & Branches

Hello! I finished this PB knockoff painting yesterday. Finally. This started out as a “simple” project. Or that’s what I thought.

Can someone please tell me why things that should be easy turn out complicated and things that are complex wind up pretty simple? Or is it just me?

Pottery Barn

Ok, so I made a few changes from PB’s Green Sentiment rug. Like, I didn’t paint a rug; I painted a hanging canvas. Not that I didn’t want a rug. I just didn’t happen to have a white rug hanging around. (White? On the floor? Seriously? Not in my house, thank you very much.)

I also decided to paint red cardinals instead of robins [thanks, Deb! I had no idea the original birds were robins].

I thought I’d try and leave them simple (there’s that word again) and not detail the birds.

But I couldn’t stand it. Just a little wing and feather detail with some Barnyard Red. Simple . . .

. . . except I used a different red on the 1st attempt and when it dried it looked pink. As in fuchsia pink.

But that was an easy fix. Don’t you agree that the cardinals look better with just a little shading? (say Yes. I’m in a fragile state. ha!)

Before I get to the sparkly-snow-stuff, I wanted to do the border because the snow-stuff has to dry overnight and I didn’t want to move the canvas around a lot. Smudges, you know?

So instead of printing off a typeface pattern and transferring it, I decided to keep it simple and just hand letter the border.

I don’t have to say anything else, do I? Other than ‘simple’ and ‘hand lettering’ do not belong in the same sentence.

So now you understand why I whipped out a Sharpie instead of a liner brush.

It actually didn’t look too bad either and I probably could’ve (should’ve?) left it alone.

Too late. I painted the lettering with Martha Stewart’s Glitter Paint.

(Don’t pay any attention to those burlap rings in the background. There’s a tutorial coming up for those.)

Last summer I had the privilege of being a debut blogger for Martha’s new line of decorative paints and I was also chosen for a Holiday promotion (which I’ll post on November 17) so I have even more products to choose from.

The glitter paint is one of my favorites out of the entire decorative line.

I love how they make fine tip caps that just screw onto the paints. Makes hand lettering with glitter, um, simple!

Now – I’m not getting paid by Plaid or Martha Stewart  for this post, but they did give me the products for other paid posts. That’s my disclaimer.

But I’d tell you anyway if I liked or didn’t like a product. I always will too. If I use something and get good results, I’m gonna share it with you. If I have problems, I’ll share that too. Chances are you’ve gotten a good result and can offer some suggestions!

Once I got the border glittered up, I pulled out some Sparkle Texture Effect. I had used Snow-Tex years ago so I was excited to give Martha’s version a try.

Pretty similar in texture.

I used a palette knife to apply it. (a plastic knife works fine.)

I painted some white on the areas I wanted to add texture to because when I tested it I noticed it had some translucency to it.

I could probably add some white paint to the sparkle texture first, but maybe next time.

For now, stick a fork in it . . . it’s done.

I didn’t have a rod to hang it with, of course. Who actually plans these things out? I just paint, ok?

I’m not sold on the birch branch yet. Hm . . .

A little pine garland maybe? Maybe just a sprig or two would be better. Yeah, that might work. And how about some Sparkle Texture on the pine too?

Ok, I’ll stop now. I’m gonna write up a holly tutorial for ya. It’s really . . . .simple! (sometimes I just crack myself up too much, lol!)

What’s your opinion on hanging it? Get a rod? Just the birch? C’mon, chime in!