When we moved into our house, the previous owners had left a plastic cardinal lawn decoration in the back garden. It was one of those things on a post but had wings like a propeller that would spin in the wind. It had seen better days; faded, missing a wing other wing broken, etc… I was hopeful to fix it up and at least get it looking a bit better.
Unfortunately, being made of plastic and sitting in the sun for so long had made it brittle so it cracked as I was removing it from the ground. So then I had an opportunity to make this guy. I traced the old cardinal onto a piece of plywood. Copied the details (feathers, eye, beak, etc…) and drew them on the ply. Jigsaw to cut it out and then Dremel to rout the details. (I don’t have a router attachment for my Dremel so things are a little wonky, but I think it adds to the character.) I had some red and black spray paint so I did a coat of black first. Dumb Steven…now it was time to put the red on…oh wait…that’s not gonna work. Spray paint doesn’t work like stain or brushed-on paint…so I ended up spraying the whole thing red then going back in with some black acrylic paint and painting in the details by hand. Afterward, I applied a glossy, clear coat to seal things up. I think it turned out pretty good and it was definitely a good learning project.
I of course got lazy and only did the one side so I suppose I will probably just mount this somewhere outside.
