I had an idea for a small memento for Christmas gifts. What could be hard about a small wooden plaque and a painted cross? You would think that it would be easy, but the more I tried, the worse it got. In the photo above, you can see where I started. I painted two small wooden plaques from Hobby Lobby black. I then drew a white cross with acrylic paint on each and used some silver leaf to embellish it. CRAP ALERT: It didn’t really work to my satisfaction. Being a true crapsperson, I knew I could try another step, so out came the pink spackle.
As seen in the photo above, I laid on pink spackle with a palette knife. As it dried, the spackle turned white, so the next day, I re-worked the black by spraying on some black enamel paint and then covering the cross with gold acrylic. Not bad so far.Not leaving well enough alone, I tried the silver leaf again. I wasn’t completely satisfied, so why not try one more thing?
I taped the background, and spritzed some turquoise paint over the crosses.

ANOTHER CRAP ALERT: I was going for a weathered appearance, but I wasn’t yet happy with the look, especially when I noticed the black paint separating from the cross along the edges. Yuck!
Persevering (after all, this was a good idea, right?), I started over, going straight to the spackle on the raw wood.
Unsurprisingly, but without photo documentation, this was a massive failure as well. I painted the whole thing black, adorned it with some gold paint, and had the good sense to stop while I was still ahead. STILL ANOTHER CRAP ALERT: I now had the look I’d originally started with (see the third photo), but a bump on my table chipped the spackle right off.

Though perseverance is an admirable character trait, I knew when I was licked. This one craft that must have been meant all along for the trash!