Painting the Roses Red

This last Saturday Auntie Heather and Uncle Andy came for a visit to help get some things ready for the Small Person's birthday Party. She is having an "Alex in Wonderland" party.

The Small Person was on paper chain duty. We took bets as to how long she would manage before she got bored. It didnt take long.

The paper-chain making station. With coffee. My Coffee - very important :)

Mr Bogert took the Smaller Person out for a walk because we pretty much took over the living room. He even decided to pitch in when he got back (after making fun of Andy and telling him he was a good boy!).

Mr Bogert joins the painting crew :)

Here we have the process of making 4 white rose trees and 40 red roses all ready for "Painting the Roses Red Relay" and they will double up as decor.

The work room (sometimes known as the living room).

I started by sketching the outline for the bush part of the tree based on the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland onto a large peice of corrugated card. I actually had to stick 2 bits together making sure to only stick sellotape on the wrong side (because of painting the front).

The Smaller Person thought it was all very fun.

Everyone used this as a template to draw around to create 3 more trees. I also drew and cut out a rose shape based on the Disney ones. This was then used as a template to draw 8 roses on the trees and a further 40 roses on thinner card (cereal boxes) to be cut out seperately.

Drawing in the details with marker pens.

The basic leaf shapes were sketched onto the trees around the rose shapes, then all the detail is inked in with a black marker ( so that it will show through the paint).

All of the leaf area is painted with dark green paint, then an ouline of lighter green is painted around the leaf shapes and blended with the dark green to give the leaves some definition.

Painting the green base.

Painting in the leaves.

Working hard.

Finally the roses are painted white. Once these are dry, the lines on the roses are drawn back in with the black marker (but not the leaf lines).

Heather just starting to paint in the leaf detail.

Mr Bogert and Andy at work.

I drew the lines on the 40 seperate roses with the black marker. The Small Person painted them with red all over, while I added some deatial shadow with a darker shade of red. Once dry, the black line were added back in.

The Small person really enjoying the red rose painting.

Painted roses drying before black lines are added, and plain roses ready for painting.

Finished red roses.

Mr Bogert said the roses looked better without the black lines drawn back in and I agree, but once they are held against the tree, they look batter with the lines, so lines it was.
We will add the stem/trunks at a later date when we also add display velcro to the roses. Each person on each team will have a red rose to "paint" the white roses red before the Queen of Hearts (Auntie Simone)arrives and shouts at the Playing Card Guard (Uncle Anthony). First team to cover all their roses and sit down wins!

Stages of tree making (Heather, Mr Bogert and Andy with their trees) L-R: Almost finished apart from balck lines on the roses, Leaves finished just the roses to do, Outlines drawn, green base painted.

My finished tree.

I think we all did a rather good job. Well done us - thanks other grown up types for giving up the time to help. It is much appreciated! It's lovely to have wonderful friends.

(Still plenty more to do though...)