Tips for Painting Windows

In the last post, I talked about the Winter Windows.  Over the years, I have come up with a few tricks to make painting the windows faster, I think.  I will share them with you here, in case you want to take up window painting or just decorate your own for the holidays.

Painter's Tape:

Blue painter's tape is handy to use when doing house projects and it is also handy to use for painting windows.  I have used it a few times to mark off areas and then paint.  When you pull off the tape you have a nice edge.  I used a lot of tape for this window to create the trees.  I used the regular size for outlining the trees and then a quarter inch (quilters tape) for little lines inside the trunks to make it look like birch trees.

This year I used painter's tape again, but in a new way.  On the reindeers' "blanket" that is on their backs, I had drawn a heart. I didn't want to have to hand paint around that heart for every reindeer. I came up with a way to create a mask with the painter's tape.

I laid down overlapping strips of the tape onto the shiny side of freezer paper.  I drew my heart and cut it out.  Now, I could just peel off the freezer paper,  stick the heart on the window and paint on top of it.  I made six hearts and also did the same thing for the eyes.

Here is one of the eyes I cut from a corner leftover from cutting out the hearts. You can see the freezer paper here.

Helpful hint: It is best to pull off the freezer paper in a direction that is perpendicular to the lines of the tape.  When I was getting ready to place the first heart, I started to peel it off from the point and realized that wouldn't work as I also pulled off the first layer of tape.  It was easy enough to put back on, but the rest were pulled from the side and I had no problems.

Here is the tape on the windows with the two eyes, the heart and the curved lines of the blanket are the quarter inch tape.

Paper Template:

To paint the outline of the reindeer, I created a paper template.  Basically, I drew the design on a piece of paper, really several pieces of paper taped together.  Then I could tape the paper to the outside of the window and paint the lines from the inside.  I used this technique before when I painted the Fortune Cats. (If you are painting on the outside of the windows, tape the template to the inside of the window.)

Using a template makes the design more uniform.  If you trace the drawing on both sides of the paper, then you can just flip it to have a reverse image.

Here is a pix of the outlining in progress.   

This is a pretty big template.  When I was taping it on one of the windows, a guy outside jokingly said, "What? No free-hand?"  I said I free-hand drew the template and I wanted all of the reindeer to be the same.  What I really wanted to say was,  "I don't want to be here for three weeks and they aren't paying me enough to have six original free-hand painted reindeer."  Or how about, "Why don't you try doing this?" (I know, bad attitude.  But I didn't say it out loud.)

After I outlined all the reindeer, I rolled on the paint to fill the body with a small paint roller (it's only about 3-4" wide) that you can get at the home improvement stores.  You can also get the roller tray the same size, which is just perfect for holding in your hand.

Above is one reindeer all rolled up right over the tape.  (It looks better from the outside.)  Then, I just pulled off the tape and here's the result.

Stamps:

In the picture above, the stars were made using home-made stamps.  Last year, I figured out this idea when I did snowflakes.  I also wrote a tutorial about how to do it here.

This year I made a star stamp and a heart stamp.  I learned something more this year.  You don't want to make the stamps too big or they get hard to work with.  Also, it is easier to do if the stamp is more "lacy," having less surface area for the paint to be on and to make it less likely to slip on the window.  My first star was bigger than the one above.

Brushes:

My last tip is about brushes.  I used a large foam brush and a small foam brush to paint these windows (in addition to the roller).  I brought a small bristle brush just for touch up.  The foam brushes are nice because they can hold a lot of paint and can cover a large area.  I also just used the edge of the large foam brush to make the snowflakes you see on the window (using an "x" on top of a "t" shape).  This made them go very quickly.

There might be some better ways to do these things, but this is what I have come up with over these past five years.  Now, you are all set to go paint some windows!

Winter Windows 2014

On Wednesday, I did my annual Winter Windows painting.  For those that don't know, the Boise Downtown Business Association organizes the Winter Windows each year.  They match artists that sign up with businesses downtown that want their windows decorated for the holidays.

This is my fifth year of painting windows (you can see the windows from the other years here: 2010, 2011a, 2011b, 2012a, 2012b, 2013).  I think this might be my last time.  Last year, I noticed that there didn't seem to be as many businesses that had their windows painted.  This year, I requested to go back to painting two businesses.  But I found out they had more artists than they had businesses sign up this year, so I got one.

Once again, I got the Idaho Trust Bank.  The second time in three years.  I feel they have some of the biggest and largest number of windows to paint.  I asked if I could have a new business since I had just done their windows two years ago, but that couldn't be worked out.

I started to sign up to paint the windows because I thought what the artists were doing with it was cool and I thought it would be fun to come up with some creative design that went with the business. Through the years, I found out that some business owners have their own ideas of what they would like style-wise and others are happy with whatever you come up with.

All artists are paid the same flat fee no matter what business you get.  If you get a business with a few small windows, then I think you are pretty lucky.  Over the years, I have started trying to be creative in the sense of how fast could I paint the windows.  Because the faster you paint, the more you actually make on a per hour basis, based on the flat fee.  The first year I probably made way less than minimum wage because of the amount of time I put into it.

That's why I was somewhat disappointed that I had been chosen to do the bank again because it would take longer to paint 18 large windows.  Also, they had their own idea of what they wanted this year so I needed to change my original design.  However, since they want their windows painted from the inside (I'm not sure why, except to maybe avoid vandalism), I was very grateful I did not have to be painting outside in 14 degree weather!

I had 9 hours put into the design work and getting templates and stamps ready before I even started painting.  It took me 6 hours to do the actual painting, which I thought was pretty good for doing it by myself.

Each year I have come up with what I think are some time savers and will share them with you in another post.  Today, I will show you the finished windows.

 Detail of one of the border designs taken from inside.

There were a total of six reindeer, three trees and all the windows had borders at the top and bottom and snowflakes.

Winter Windows Complete

My Winter Windows are now finished, again.  I went back yesterday and re-did the one that got cleaned.  Fortunately, it was one of the smaller ones.

Here are some pictures.  It's kind of hard to see the design for all the reflections.  I started on the side windows which are smaller.  This is the first one and I realized at some point on this one that there were too many snowflakes and it was better to spread them out a little more.  So this is the busiest one.

I think even less would have been a bit better but it was too late at that point.

Here is a little closer view.

I got lots of nice comments when I was working on the windows.  People actually seem to notice the designs if you are there working on them.

The other comment I seem to get every year is, "So that's how you do it.  I've always wondered." Well, I say, "This is how I do it."  I don't know how the "professionals" do it.  I make it up as I go along.  This year I used stamps.

The time I painted fortune cats, I had a drawing on paper that I stuck to the inside of the window to outline the shape from the outside.  That way they would all be the same size.  

Sometimes I use blue painter's tape and roll paint inside the lines.  I free-hand painted trees last year.  Filling in and details are usually done free-hand.  I'm always looking for a way to do it faster because it can get pretty cold painting outside all day.  (Also, the faster you do it the more money you make per hour since everyone gets paid the same per business no matter how many windows they have or how long it takes you.)

Snowflake Stamp Tutorial

Winter has arrived.  We've had snow here in the valley (it's melted now) and warm sweaters and scarves have come out of the closet.  All just in time to paint Winter Windows. This is the fourth year that I have signed up to paint a Winter Window for a business downtown. For the last two years I have done two businesses.  Because of other commitments, I only signed up for one this year.

When I received the email with my assigned business, I went to Google maps to see where it was located.  I used the street view to look at the windows.  I created a design and called the owner to set up a time to meet and get approval.

When I went to the location for our meeting, my heart sank as I realized they were not located at the address I had.  I gave them a call and they were a few doors down the street.  The email had not given me an address, just the business name.  Even if I had looked on their website, I still would have had an old address (not the one Google gave me).

I showed the owner the designs for the other windows and said I could rework it to try to fit it into his windows, but he didn't seem to like that idea much.  So I said I would create a new design.  I asked if he had anything he envisioned and he mentioned "icicles" and "lacy".

Being a jewelry store, there are lots of display cases in the windows that I need to work around.  I decided to do simple lacy snowflakes that I think will look very nice. The owner approved the idea. Since there are quite a few windows, I am not planning to paint all the snowflakes by hand.

Last year when I had a business with lots of large windows, I tried to figure out how to paint it faster (because you get paid the same amount for each business, no matter what the size of the windows).  I created some simple stamps for parts of it and they seemed to work well.

So this year, I have made my own lacy snowflake stamps to use on the windows and I wanted to share with you how I did it.  You need simple fun foam with adhesive on the back (I bought mine at Michael's), an Exacto knife (or scissors for young kids), cutting mat and a piece of foam core (or thick cardboard or plexiglas).

Making stamps from fun foam is not my idea.  Basically, the idea is that you will cut shapes out of the foam, attach to a support and stamp.  But how do you do a lacy snowflake?  Here's what I did.

I found some polar graph paper on the internet and printed it out on a full sheet of label paper. Using the guidelines of the paper, I created a snowflake design in pencil.  When I was happy with it, I outlined it using a regular Sharpie marker.

Then I trimmed off the extra paper, peeled off the backing paper and stuck it to the back of the fun foam (paper side).

Placing this on the cutting mat, I started cutting outside the Sharpie lines with my Exacto knife.  A new, sharp blade helps because you are cutting through two paper layers and the thickness of the foam.  Straight lines are easier than curves.  Simple shapes are easier than intricate snowflakes.

Here is one almost completely cut.

Now you can peel off the backing paper of the foam and stick the shape to the foam core (or cardboard).

You can try using a stamp pad to make your image.  Or the way I use them is to paint some paint onto to the stamp with a foam brush.  Then stamp on whatever you want.

I made several different sizes.  I'm painting the windows today and will show you the results later.

Kids could use scissors to cut simple shapes.  Or fun foam comes in all kinds of pre-cut shapes.  If it doesn't already have an adhesive back, you could use tacky glue to stick it to your support.  You could also put several different shapes on the same support.  If you want to use pre-cut letters, remember to glue them to the support backwards so they stamp correctly.

Now you know my trade secret - which isn't really a secret, or my trade either for that matter.