Before you know it the day will have arrived. Thanksgiving, of course. When we first start putting our fall decor around the house it seems like its very far away but we blink twice and it’s time to start basting the turkey, figuratively or otherwise.
A year or so ago my daughter found a set of terra cotta turkey tea light holders at a Thrift Store and insisted we needed them for our table. She thought they were perfect.
I didn’t.
This isn’t the actual ones but it’s a picture I found online that is nearly identical to what they looked like when we first brought them home. I didn’t like the plain terra cotta at all and knew they had to be changed but didn’t have much time to spare just then.
I put a quick whitewash of paint on them for the time being and that was better but not what I ultimately wanted to do with them. I used them on our table for Thanksgiving and never did get around to doing anything else with them at the time.
This year when I was unpacking my fall things unfortunately one of the turkeys came to an untimely and unfortunate end so now I had just one and it still wasn’t looking the way I wanted it to. This year I decided it was time to change that!
I know this is a shock to anyone who knows me but I thought I’d start with a lovely coat of Rub ‘n’ Buff in a Gold Leaf color. It’s my favorite gold.
I used a wiry stencil brush to apply it so I could get into all the nooks and crannies of the feathers.
I suppose I could have left him just like this but it wasn’t quite what I had in mind yet.
I put a light coat of green on the leaves surrounding the pumpkin. I just used some craft paint I had on hand.
Next came some very thinned out chalk paint in white on the pumpkin….
This is what it looked like after those touches. There is no additional coats of anything needed over the Rub ‘n’ Buff but I wanted to add some wax to the chalk paint to seal it and to just age it a bit.
I applied a thin coat of white wax over just the leaves and pumpkins and used a permanent marker to color in his eyes.
I don’t know about you but I think this Tom Turkey is looking pretty spiffy for his special day!
Anyways I hope this inspires you to maybe take home a piece or two that doesn’t feel quite right to you in the exact color or finish it is in at the time. Paint is a very powerful and very simple thing to use to completely transform things and don’t even get me started on the powers of Rub ‘n’ Buff!
Emily’s Inspiration
To see a fall craft that Emily is sharing today, just click on the photo below.
See you next time!
He turned out so cute!!!! I love rub nโbuff!!! Such a gorgeous transformation!! Such beautiful inspiration!!!
Thank you! I’m a little sad that he’s all alone (I’m convinced he’s looking a wee bit lonely now) but at least he’s very handsome!
I really like your ribbon on Tom Turkey! Where is it available or did you make it?
Isn’t that glorious? Actually my sweet and amazing friend Emily sent that to me with some treasures recently. I’m suspicious that she might have gotten it at Hobby Lobby because she had some very similar velvet ribbons with the frayed edge on some book stacks she shared recently and I know that’s where she got those. I had looked for some of it at my Hobby Lobby and couldn’t find it….Here is her blog post https://lecultivateur.com/2021/09/03/french-vintage-friday-vintage-books-and-velvet-ribbon/
Hope that helps and thanks for stopping by!
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