Sunday, February 15, 2009

Mini wall fountain tutorial




Good morning. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! I saw the movie "Fireproof" with my hubby (a great movie!) and we had some quiet time in front of the fire.

Yesterday afternoon I came up with a wall fountain for the mini garden. This is a quick and easy project.

Items needed: Metallic plastic frame scrapbook sticker (I get a four pack from the Dollar Tree), Small scallop shell or some sort of jewelry finding with a bowl, Barrell type earring back, fishing line - about 2 inches long, Tacky glue, Super glue, Antique copper acrylic paint, Dark green glaze or thinned acrylic paint (or several shades of green in either the glaze or paint), scissors, scrap of paper

Instructions: Attach sticker to scrap of paper and trim along the scalloped edges of the frame. For this fountain I turned the sticker so that the oval center ran up and down. Glue (using a combination of tacky and super glue) the earring back to the top point of the sticker. Glue the item you are using for the fountain bowl at the bottom of the oval with the bowl facing up (towards the earring back). Depending upon what you are using for the bowl, you might have to trim or bend parts to make it fit snugly against the sticker. For the shell jewelry finding pictured, I'd have to bend the ring and part of the shell up to give a large enough surface to glue. Once the super glue has set and the pieces are firmly stuck together, paint a light coat of antique copper paint over the whole thing, being careful not to get paint into the hole on the earring back. Once that is dry, paint another light coat of the antique copper. Give that a couple of minutes to dry and then, with a very light hand, highlight areas on the fountain with the green glaze or thinned paint. You are adding the patina. If you want your fountain to look old you'll want more green. If it's to be a newer fountain, go more lightly with the green. Now, go away for awhile and let everything dry thoroughly. When you come back, put a dab of glue on one end of the fishing line and glue it into the hole on the earring back. Let that set and then trim the line so that the other end rests in the bowl of your fountain. Add tacky glue to the bowl and let it set up a bit then put the other end of the fishing line into the glue in the bowl. Once it is all dry you have water running into the bowl of the fountain. I used a different type of finding for my fountain. You can't see into the "bowl" so I just glued the bottom end of the fishing line directly into the finding. Just adjust the directions to fit the frame and finding you use. Another finishing option would be to use acrylic paints to give it a stone look. (I just posted an example of that at the top of this post.)

3 comments:

Debbie said...

Love the little wall fountains. Thanks for sharing your tips.
Mini Hugs

De said...

Thank you, Debbie!

Susan B said...

Great idea! I'm saving this project for later inspiration when I put together my turn of the century (aka: circa 1900) general store. Thank you. --Susan