Make Overs on Garden Statues.

So this deer was at cemetery for the past 10 years (family gravesite) and was in need for some major TLC. So I grabbed it the other day along with a can of clear coat from Meijers.

Ok so this is it before I did anything with it, as you can see it is very sun bleached and has a few cracks and holes... I actually got some very thick glass like spray clear coat for this very reason. I wanted it to hold up well once I was done with it.

For starters I scrubbed it as best as I could (plastic was kinda brittle) and then I covered the holes with some glued on cardboard. 

Then next I started painting!!! I used acrylic paint, first painted it completely brown.. well more of a brown/orange. Then from there I added white and black (after the brown is dry!) and then the eyes last. It turned out great and pretty easy!! I just looked at a picture off the web for guidance of colors and spots :)

The cardboard doesn't look perfect but at least they're not gaping holes anymore. 

I Love what the clear glossy spray coat did for it! Looks great and should last a long time back outside!!! 

What to do with your unused fireplace!

Create a new look for you unused fireplace!!!

This is what I did for mine! I am a painter, so a little more went into it. But I can give a few pointers to help you duplicate it!! I did black lines since that was the same as my fireplace. try to use the same colors as yours!

This is just some pointers for the bricks!!! Obviously painting a fire is a bit more complicated.lol :) But maybe you can just try and duplicate my colors for that.

First off on the board you need to start with drawing a box like so. This is your guidelines for bricks.

Next you add in the lines for the actual bricks, Us the actaul bricks lines for starting points for your lines. I started from the left to top.

And then the middle and next the right.

Lastly you do the bottom.

Next add in color of your bricks. you might have to go over the lines with black or whichever color you chose.

Then next after you've given your bricks color ad in the dimension of your actual bricks.

Like so.

Once youve finished those you have an "empty" fireplace instead of a board.If your not up for painting fire you could always paint some logs of wood or just a pile of hot ashes! For my ashes i splotched black and gray and then on top bright red. Good luck!