Five Ballerinas Yard Art Display

Five Ballerinas Yard Art Display

  

This is a guest post by Tina Lang.  

This was such a fun project.

It was done for Mississippi Dance Company in Crystal Springs, MS http://www.mississippidancecompany.com/index.html to be placed among the many scenes in the Crystal Springs, MS Chautaugua Christmas Display http://crystalspringsmiss.com/.

I used the following materials.

2 sheets of ½ inch exterior grade plywood with one good side

Kiltz2 primer

Brown exterior paint

Elmer's wood filler

Sandpaper

Jigsaw with wood blades

Large sheets of paper for drawing the pattern

Apple Barrel craft paints

Various paint brushes

Carbon paper to transfer the pattern to the wood

Pencil

Fine point permanent black sharpie

Krylon Crystal Clear interior/exterior spray paint

½ inch metal electrical conduit cut at 4ft with brackets and screws.

I was given a clipart picture of five precious little ballerinas and asked if I could make them into yard art figures. The needed materials were purchased and I began by painting the good side of the plywood with Kiltz2 primer and then the back side with a brown exterior paint.

 

While the paint was drying I laid out my large sheets of white paper and drew each figure at 4ft tall. I then took the patterns along with a sheet of carbon paper and pencil and transferred the pattern to the primed side of the plywood.

 

The next step was to cut out the designs with a jigsaw. After cutting, I sanded the edges to remove any splinters, filled any holes with wood filler then used a black sharpie to trace over the remaining pencil lines.

Painting with the craft paints was the best part. I used specific colors but lightened or darkened them by mixing together so each ballerina would be a little different. After the paint dried I traced back over the lines previous drawn with the sharpie to outline the drawing.

The final step was to spray the Krylon Crystal Clear paint over the craft paints as a sealer so they can be displayed outside. Then I installed two brackets on the back about 2ft apart for the pipe to slide through which will be hammered 6-8 inches into the ground to display the figures.

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