Metal ornament customization~ upstyling the off the shelf with paint

Submitted to Community Chat


Paint makes it better, painting for the grands.
Truck ornament customization season 2

Optional possible steps to consider trying.
This years truck is sorta wimpy and fragile. Red with black antiqued finish. Still a value to consider.

  • Remove hot-glued-in tree and save tree. Cut away remove old glue stuck in tree. Use heat gun or embossing tool try try to remove dry puddled yellowed hot glue in truck bed.
  • Eventually remove burlap twine, sometimes helpful during painting/drying process
  • Reset reposition, wheels, wheel fenders as necessary often come with bends/folds and parts askew
  • Seal up fold-over, weld gaps if desired- used a thick craft glue 
  • Chalk paint the truck the color of your choice— this year I use green because it matches their Dads truck color.
  • Made rear bumper using a cut wooden coffee stir stick, painted it metallic, then switched it to a flat gray. Reinforced the existing front bumper with stir stick added behind.
  • Thick fun foam circles glued behind tires to give it a more sturdy reinforced backer support and improved alignment. Added thickness looks more like tires.
  • Paint tires black, and hub cap the color of your choice
  • Also added child’s name to back gate and license plate with current year using Cricut htv.
  • Placed clear plastic window (from a battery card) inside cab -place childs photograph on black poster board insert inside behind window if desired in the drivers area. Sealed up the bottom with poster board, painted it -might add protection to attached contents during display or storage. 
  • Upstyle the removed tree as desired. Added new artificial textured snow ( Testors + glue + cornstarch ) added a piece of cedar twig to the trees wired base w epoxy putty.
  • Lightly spatter painted the trucks outside perimeter top, bed and corners to simulate snowfall
  • Reglued in Christmas tree.
  • Attached cloth woven ribbon- this time, added a jingle bell 

Additionally red chalk painted/with paint —four of last year’s fenced/mirrored trucks, using it for a garland for now -might be a back up stash for future years if shopping supply dries up.


Prior years added headlights and taillights- this year kept it more simple. https://creatorsstudio.chaordix.com/discussions/submission/48090978-6f5d-4679-a2d6-20d98ecd49c9

Repainting these $2 trucks does a nice job improving the overall appearance over the original factory painted off the shelf presentation while creating your one of a kind customization tweaks.

⏰ Now back to the clay and molds…..⏰ ticktok


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