My Christmas Project

Last year while we were driving around looking at Christmas lights, we stumbled across a Charlie Brown photo op in someone's yard. We let the kids out and snapped some photos, and I thought it was really cute. It made me think about making something similar for my own yard. 

Christmas Outing 2020

As the Christmas season approached this year, I started thinking about it again, but it wasn't a priority. Then my in-laws were put in charge of their ward Christmas party, and they decided to do a Charlie Brown theme, so that settled it! I wanted to make Charlie Brown photo op (is that what these things are called? I don't even know) which I could lend to my in-laws for their ward party... and again for their family party of the same theme... and then put in my own yard leading up to Christmas. 

The day after Thanksgiving (with no Black Friday goals), we went to Lowe's, bought two sheets of particle board and a can of primer, and got to work!  I had a lot of paint supplies on hand already, so I only had to buy a few things to get by. Scotty cut the wood how I wanted it and built the stand (he's so good to go along with my *big* ideas). Then I started the mural. I looked online and found a photo I liked that worked with the dimensions I wanted (6' x 8').

Here are some of the photos of the project in process: 

Here's the point where we cut out the face holes. I made the mistake of using my head as a guide... forgetting that I have an abnormally large noggin... so the holes are a bit on the big side, but they work! 

I loved watching it come together as I got to add more and more details. I was most excited for Pig Pen. I couldn't wait to paint his unruly hair and make him dirty!

His dirt cloud is kind of hard to see against the dark blue background, which is sad, but I love his filth all the same. 

Here's the final project (pardon the glare from the light coming through the garage door):

I had so much fun making it, and I'm really excited to see it put to use. I'm not sure how the heck we're going to transport it, but luckily we only have to get it half a mile up the road. Worst case scenario, we use furniture movers with wheels and roll it up the sidewalk. I'm sure we'll come up with something easier, but boy, wouldn't that be fun to watch? It's uphill to the church, but we can just set it free to get it back home!

I guess I have the PTA to thank for my ability to create things like this. I don't know if I ever would have attempted such a project if it weren't for my experience making birthday posters for the school for all those years. I wouldn’t have known I was capable. I did cheat a little, though. Right before COVID hit, I invested in a projector. Prior to that, I'd done everything free-hand, and it always took FOREVER!! So finally, I thought, If I'm going to keep doing this, I'm going to spend the money for a projector! (seven years later...) So I bought one... and then COVID came before I ever used it, and I haven't done the birthday posters since (shhhh!!! I'm hoping no one noticed and that we can just quietly carry on not doing the birthday posters). 

Anyway, I used the projector for the first time in October to make the hitch hiking ghosts for the trunk or treat. 

Turns out, the projector doesn't make it that much easier... it's really hard to position (I had to stack and unstack a bunch of books under it and then wedge folded pieces of paper beneath one side to make it straight... then I couldn't get the image clear, and it was very time consuming. 

The projector is nice to get the positions and sizes of the characters correct and is helpful in getting the basic outline. The projector isn't very good for the more intricate details since they don't project very well at the size I create them. So while I did use a projector to outline the big shapes, I still had to do a lot of the details free-hand. 

Now I'm the proud new owner of a gigantic Charlie Brown mural... that I'll have to store... somewhere on my property... for years to come. But I love it very much! So just like my children, it will be worth making room for!