Water barrels are practical and economical, but they are not always visually pleasing. Painting nature's pictures on the sides of water barrels can turn them into pieces of art to dress up your yard. You can apply paint to any type of water barrel, whether it is made from resin, plastic or wood. You do not have to be an artist to transform one of these barrels. With some paints and stencils, anyone can do it. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Lady Bug and Ivy Rain Barrel
1. Before painting the empty barrels, wash them off completely with dish detergent and water. If they are the older style made of wood, give them a light sanding with sandpaper--just enough so paint will easily adhere to them. Rinse well and let them dry completely before painting.
2. Next, choose the paint; make sure it is the correct type for the material that your water barrel is made of. Paints that adhere to resin are different from those used for wood. Use brown spray paint to cover the complete outside of the barrel. Give it a second coat once it has dried, to hit any thin or bare spots. Let this dry overnight in a garage or an area shielded from rain.
3. The next day, place a stencil of a large ivy vine on the bottom of barrel with masking tape to hold it into place. Spray paint this an evergreen color, moving the stencil each time so it will look as if the vine is crawling around the entire barrel and up towards the top rim. Continue coiling the ivy painting until the water barrel is covered with the green foliage. There should be brown showing through, but the majority of the barrel should be covered in the ivy vines.
4. Let the ivy dry for a few hours and then take a smaller stencil of one ivy leaf, about half the size of the ivy vine and randomly spray leaves of black all over the rain barrel. Spray the black leaves about six inches apart from each other. Let this dry for a few hours.
5. Next, paint lady bugs on your rain barrel. Use a paint brush and red paint to make ten to 12 large red circles or ovals randomly all over the barrel. The circles should be about the size of coffee can lids. When those are dry, go back and paint a little less than one quarter of each circle black, which will represent the lady bugs' heads. Paint four to six small black dots on the red to be the spots on the lady bugs. Finish them off with two black antennae each and four small quarter moon black shaped legs. It will be helpful if you print a picture of a lady bug from your computer and use this as a model.
Tags: lady bugs, water barrel, four small, paint make, them completely