First, it is important to decide what kind of stick it should be. Naturally beautiful and shiny. This requirement is fully met by New Year's tinsel, foil and rain, which are always used to decorate christmas tree. The rain will flutter beautifully as the child moves, so using it is a win-win option.
Here's what you'll need to make it magic wand for fairy:
Regular foil, which is used in the kitchen;
- silver tinsel;
- rain, also silver;
- stick (you can take a simple balloon stick);
- tape to fix the parts;
- scissors.
You can show your imagination and expand the list of elements - this may be necessary to create a single design for a robe, wand, and other accessories.
How to make a magic wand?
To start, you will need any stick. You can take a tree branch the right size, a balloon stick, a long pencil, or borrow a small part of a fishing rod from your husband (if he is interested in fishing). Then the selected stick must be carefully wrapped in foil and secured with tape. It is important that the stick is completely covered with the material. However, try to do this carefully, as the foil breaks quite easily.
The next step will be the rain itself. They also need to wrap the stick, but your imagination will tell you exactly how, completely or in a spiral so that the shiny foil is visible. You determine the amount of rain yourself. The design depends on how long the train you need and whether you need it at all. At the ends, it is better to first secure the rain with threads, and then secure it on top with tape. If you still decide to make a train, then it is better to tie the end of the rain with a thread so that at the most crucial moment it cannot unravel.
From any bright tinsel on the table, place a star or snowflake of the required size, the shape of which must also be fixed with threads. You need to secure each of the corners of the figure. You can first make it out of thin wire and then wrap it with tinsel. This option will help the star or snowflake keep its shape better. It is also better to secure the rain using tape.
The wand is ready. You can safely go to the holiday.
When choosing rain for a fairy wand, pay attention to the main colors of the costume so that the set looks complete. Your child will be happy with such a small, but very beautiful gift. Also, make this little masterpiece
In this lesson we will look at a technique on how to create a rain effect on a photo using Photoshop. And it won’t even stop us that initially the weather in the photo was bright and clear.
Rain is one of the most complex tasks for a photographer, because capturing raindrops on camera is very difficult. Therefore, when processing a photograph and introducing rain artificially, it is worth taking this into account so that the work looks more realistic.
To create rain we will use filters such as Add noise And Motion blur. As an example of processing, a sunny landscape with bright and rich colors was chosen. The changes in such photographs will be more obvious, which will make the effects that we will use clearer.
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Step 1 Download source files for rain.
Replacing the sky
Step 2
Most of the image is occupied by the sky - lush, bright, picturesque. But in this form it is not needed for work. This photo shows cirrus clouds, but, as you know, they are not rain clouds, so they are not suitable for the future composition. We will change the sky and for this we need source codes.
After making your choice, add a picture with clouds to the original image in any way convenient for you.
Step 3
Now you need to transform this sky according to the width of the original image and the height of the sky in the photo; to do this, press the hotkey combination Ctrl+T or select this function in the menu: Editing - Free Transform. To see what you get, lower the opacity a little in the layer settings.
It should look something like this:
Then, with the same eraser, only with soft settings, walk along the edge of the forest so that the sky does not cover parts of it.
In order to properly configure Eraser you need to right-click anywhere in the image and select a soft brush and suitable size, then in the tool settings menu make it a little smaller Opacity And Pressure. This will allow you to work more freely with the tool.
Don’t worry if too much has been erased somewhere and the rich and provocative sky has begun to show through, this will be corrected in the next stages.
Step 5
The next step is to make the original sky, which is visible near the edges of the forest, merge with the sky that we have already applied, use adjustment layers: Hue/Saturation And Color balance.
If you managed to achieve the desired result with one layer, you don’t need to create a second one. To open it, click on the fourth icon in the line under layers and select Hue/Saturation. Now adjust the sliders so that the frame around the trees disappears, but do not pay attention to the fact that the color will change for the entire image, you only need the frame.
In the current example, we needed to lower the Saturation and lower the Brightness. In layer Color balance, which is created in a similar way, you should add a little blue.
Step 6
After this procedure, fill both adjustment layers with black using the tool Fill, you can call it with the G key or select it on the toolbar.
The effect of the layers will disappear immediately, after that take a soft brush and brush it along the edge of the forest, that is, in places where the effect of these layers is required.
Correcting image tone and color
Step 7
Start by paying attention to the smaller details of the photo. IN in this case in the corners the grass is too bright.
Use an adjustment layer Color balance and move the middle slider towards purple and the bottom slider towards of blue color. After that, fill the adjustment layer with black and white and select the grass as you did with the edge of the forest.
Step 8
Now you need to remove excess glare and excess light from the photo, to do this, use the correction that is in the menu Image - Correction - Shadows/Highlights. Adjust to a value that suits you.
Step 9
Create a new adjustment layer Hue/Saturation reduce the saturation of the entire image so that the rye is not too juicy and the grass is in unison with the weather.
Making Rain
Step 11
After the processing has been done, combine all the layers into one. In order to have a chance to correct any possible error, we will save the existing layers; to do this, press the hotkey combination Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E. This will replace a series of manipulations.
Then create a couple more copies of this layer by right-clicking on the layer and selecting. Remove the top layer so that it does not interfere - click on the eye icon.
Then add noise on the layer below. To do this, go to the menu Filter - Noise - Add Noise.
Step 12
The settings should be such that the pea size is visible:
Step 13
Use a filter on the same layer Motion blur which is in the menu Filter - Blur - Motion Blur. The settings of this filter depend on the type of rain you want to receive: heavy rain or light drizzle. Indicate the degree in which direction the rain should fall and the offset.
Step 14
Do the same procedure with the second layer, of course, turning on its visibility. Settings only Motion blur should be slightly different. In the current example, the settings are: 85 - degree and 15 - offset.
Now for each of these layers create a layer mask, to do this, click on the third icon at the bottom of the layers. Then use a filter on the masks Rendering - Clouds.
Specify for these two layers Soft light.
Step 15
Looking at the image as a whole, you would like to darken some of its areas that do not look natural; to do this, use the tool Dimmer. You can call it with the O key or select it from the toolbar.
Step 16
Now add highlighted droplets to the image, as if rain had fallen on the photograph’s lens. To do this, you should use the texture of raindrops (included in the materials for the lesson at the link at the beginning of the article).
Add a texture to the project and stretch it across the entire image. Since the texture was with clouds, you need to go over the bright white areas with a dark blue brush, and then change the blending mode for the layer with the brush to Brightness, this will remove the white areas and avoid spots on the main image.
Step 17
Merge the texture and brush layers, then change the layer blending mode to soft light. You will get droplets like this:
Step 18
However, the tone of the entire picture has changed due to the light texture, to fix this, use an adjustment layer and add clipping mask, so that its effect only affects the layer with the texture.
Step 19
After all the manipulations done, you can adjust the adjustment layer by reducing the saturation to a minimum and slightly reducing the brightness.
When it rains, humidity always causes fog or even a slight blurring of the horizon. This can be achieved by using a soft brush gray with low opacity on a new layer (under the rain layers). Draw a line along the horizon while holding down the Shift key (this will make the line even). Afterwards you need to correct the fog with separate strokes, since the fog in reality is not perfectly smooth.
Step 20
Lower the opacity of the fog layer a little until it looks realistic.
Looking at the image, I want to add some stand-out raindrops. To do this, create another image layer, as you already did when you created the rain, and do the already familiar procedure with noise.
Then use the same filter Motion blur Just set the offset value to 200 pixels, and make the degree a little sharper so that the drops do not merge with the previous layers. Now on the new rain layer use an adjustment layer Curves, you need to configure it like this:
Step 21
Change the blending mode of the new layer to Lightening the base. You can also use another mode related to light, experiment. This is what it will look like:
Step 22
Now on all layers with rain, use a soft eraser, removing excess. Please note that the higher you go to the clouds, the worse the raindrops should be visible, so you need to remove more on the clouds.
Finished result (click to enlarge)
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When talking about decorative rain plaster, they mean a special application technique that creates a texture similar to rain. Any structural plaster is suitable for this purpose. The fine fractions in its composition, together with a special application technique, will ensure the creation of the desired pattern on the wall. If you want to know which companies produce decorative rain plaster, there are a huge number of them. In fact, you can take a dry mixture of bark beetles from any manufacturer.
It’s worth mentioning right away that the “rain” texture is the same effect of the bark beetle, only done in a slightly special way. You could even say that this is a variation of it.
Preparatory stage
To create a rain effect on a wall, you first need to be properly prepared. Decorative plaster cannot be applied to wallpaper or old painted walls. Therefore, you need to prepare the working surface by clearing it of old coatings. The wall should be smooth, but perfect smoothness is not required. Structural decorative plaster will help hide small defects that no one will simply notice. If there are large chips or part of the plaster has crumbled, then it is better to smooth the surface using putty.
The dry surface is covered with deep penetration soil to improve the adhesion of the mortar to the wall. After it dries, the solution should be mixed. The dry mixture is poured into a bucket or other container, adding water in the amount indicated on the package. All this is stirred using a drill until a thick mixture without large lumps is obtained. The work will also require certain tools.
Decorative rain plaster is created using the following tools:
- Putty knife
- Trowel
- ironer
- Roller
- Container for mixing the solution
- Drill with mixer attachment
Technology for applying and creating the “rain” texture
The solution is applied several times with a small spatula to a wide trowel, with which it is transferred to the wall, where it is leveled in a thin layer. The layer thickness is usually 3 mm, since granules of exactly this diameter are in the solution that creates decorative coating with rain effect.
Apply the solution with slight pressure from top to bottom. There shouldn’t be a perfectly smooth surface, and you won’t be able to get one even if you wanted to because of the granules in the solution. Immediately after applying the mixture to the wall, we proceed to the next stage. Decorative plaster rain is created by using a trowel, which is passed over the wall over the entire working surface.
After each such wiring, you need to remove the solution from the ironing board that has stuck to it. This is done with a dry spatula, and the iron itself is washed only after all work is completed.
The easiest way is to run the iron vertically from top to bottom. After you have already walked along the wall once, you should walk a second time. The solution will dry out a little and the texture will not change so much. However, thanks to this repetition, it will be possible to make the rain effect more expressive. Moreover, this effect will manifest itself due to the fact that when you move the grater, you will pull through the granules contained in the solution. They will create the necessary grooves.
Painting the wall as a finishing touch
A day after applying the plaster, you need to paint the surface. You should decide on the color in advance. The paint is applied with a roller. This is faster and more convenient than using a brush. You need to work carefully to completely paint the entire surface.
Within a day the paint will dry and you will need to apply another layer. Without this, decorative plaster will not gain its expressiveness. For these purposes, pearlescent paint of a suitable shade is used. WITH color scheme you will have to figure it out on your own, because this is a matter of personal taste.
The second coat should be applied only to the outer surface, not to the grooves. To do this, excess paint is removed from the roller, which is done by several passes of the tool along the prepared plywood or hardboard. All excess paint should remain there. After this, use a semi-dry roller to run it along the wall without pressing. All you have to do is let the coating dry for another day, and it will be completely ready.
Rain at an angle - difficult, but beautiful
Many people advise doing decorative rain plaster at an angle of 45 degrees. This coating should look more natural than traditional version(vertical). However, this method of creating texture is not suitable for beginners due to its complexity. What is the reason?
Grouting at an angle is done in the same way as the traditional version, with the only exception that grouting is done at an angle and not vertically. This is the only difference, but it is very significant. The problem is that all the grooves created must be parallel for the coating to look good. In the case of the vertical method, it is not difficult to make parallel wiring, but to carry out the grouting in such a way as to work the float along the entire wall at the same angle is a difficult task.
The best way out of this situation is to draw the wall with a pencil. This way you can measure everything and draw parallel lines under the ruler, and they can all be at an angle of 45 degrees. However, in this case, you will have to apply the solution at an angle along these same lines. And then you will need to grout, using the solution applied at an angle as a guide. The method is a little complicated, but nothing could be simpler. So if you fundamentally do not like vertical rain, then you will have to adopt this method.
Creating rain with textured plaster
There is another way to create decorative rain plaster. Instead of traditional structural plaster for such purposes, thin-layer textured plaster is used. The work is carried out in 4 stages:
- Leveling walls to perfection
- Applying the base layer
- Application of the second layer
- Creating a Texture
Unlike structural plaster, when working with textured decorative plaster it is necessary to make perfectly even and smooth walls, just like for painting. To do this, you will have to carry out high-quality putty work.
A thin layer of tinted solution is applied to a smooth surface. You need to decide on the color of the future coating at this stage. The solution is applied with a trowel and carefully leveled with it. It is required to apply the material in as thin a layer as possible. To do this, the solution is constantly stretched along the wall to cover the maximum possible area.
Applying the second layer is the main step in creating decorative plaster rain. It is applied with a brush using vertical movements. The second layer should be a couple of shades lighter than the first layer.
If the material is very thick, you can dilute it with water, but not more than recommended by the manufacturer. It is necessary to make decorative plaster as convenient as possible for application with a brush.
Immediately after applying the second layer, we begin to rub it in with a plastic float. Vertical movements from top to bottom must be repeated many times. You should go over the entire wall this way several times to achieve the desired effect.
Today, decorative plaster occupies a significant share in the total volume of finishing technologies for interiors. Their popularity is facilitated by wide range colors and textures, as well as the magnificent aesthetic effect that voluminous textures provide. One of the most popular types decorative finishing The walls are covered with “rain” plaster.
Rainy texture
As the name implies, this technology simulates raindrops flowing down a wall. At the same time, the stripes of “flowing rain” can be located both vertically and at an angle, and even horizontally - it all depends on the design idea. But the most popular option is still an inclined arrangement of stripes. To create such a texture, you do not need to purchase any special mixture - you can get by with ordinary cement-based plaster. You can also use regular gypsum putty - it all depends on the application. For example, for baths, kitchens, saunas and other rooms with high humidity It is recommended to use cement-based mixtures: they are more resistant to moisture. The photo shows options for plastering walls in the “rain”.
Attention ! In places with high dampness, the use of gypsum plaster mixtures Not recommended.
If it is necessary to apply plaster here, it is best to use cement mixtures, covering them with a layer of water-repellent varnish.
Preparing the work surface
The work of applying plaster always begins with appropriate preparation of the walls. Decorative plaster is usually applied at the final stage, when all the others have already been completed. Finishing work- installation of door and window openings, cement strainer flooring or installation floor coverings. By and large, preparing the surface in this case is no different from preparing walls for applying other types of plaster.
First of all, residues are removed from the wall. old paint, putty, wallpaper, etc. For this purpose, metal spatulas, scrapers, and plaster planes are used. Particular attention should be paid to various flaking elements - bubbling and cracked remnants of old finishing materials. These areas must be thoroughly cleaned to avoid subsequent peeling of the new plaster. It is usually very difficult to remove paint from walls. In this case, you can use a grinding machine or a hair dryer.
Next, the cleaned surface must be primed, having previously removed dust from it using a damp cloth or roller. The primer will increase the adhesion (“adhesion”) of the applied plaster to the wall surface. The primer also helps strengthen the load-bearing surface and prevent further cracking and peeling. The time it takes for the primer to dry completely depends on its type and should be indicated on the packaging. Usually it ranges from several hours to a day.
If decorative plaster is applied in rooms with high humidity, then before this you will also need to treat the walls with an antiseptic. It will prevent the possible appearance of fungus and mold on the walls, which often appear under the influence of dampness. If the surface concrete walls has deep cracks, they need to be filled with special putty adhesives to avoid their expansion and increase in length.
When the wall surface is completely prepared, you need to evaluate how much flat wall. If the walls are excessively crooked, you will have to apply a base layer of putty or plaster to level them. This layer will serve as the basis for applying plaster “in the rain.” When applying a leveling layer, to increase its strength, it is necessary to use a reinforcing mesh.
Important ! Preliminary leveling should be done if the decorative plaster will be applied in a thin layer.
When structural plaster is applied in a relatively thick layer, or the wall does not have pronounced curvatures and irregularities, then it is not advisable to perform preliminary leveling.
Upon completion of the leveling of the walls, the final stage of preparation is carried out - grinding the surface using fine sandpaper. After that, the dust that has settled on them is again removed from the walls, and the surface is primed again.
Marking lines for rain plaster
Before applying the decorative plaster solution, you need to make markings, depending on how your stripes will be located - vertically or at an angle. To do this, draw lines from the ceiling to the floor at intervals of 2.5 - 3 strokes. If the width of the trowel is 18 cm, then the pitch of the stripes should be 45 - 55 cm. This process is quite labor-intensive, but you should not save time on this - high-quality markings will be the key to the beauty of the decorative finish.
Once the marking is complete, place a strip of masking tape along each line. You need to start gluing the tape from the upper right corner - this way, when working, you can avoid the possibility of splashes and drops of fresh mortar falling onto the surface that has already been treated with plaster. With the help of masking tape, we not only delimit the working surface into separate zones. It also plays the role of a visual guide, based on which the correct direction of the slope of the decorative design is determined.
Application of decorative plaster
We begin applying plaster from the upper right corner of the wall. This is due to the fact that the solution is usually applied with sweeping movements from right to left. At the same time, its drops will fall to the left and down, onto an untreated surface.
Important ! If you are left-handed, then you need to start working from the upper left corner, if you are right-handed, then from the upper right.
Decorative plaster is applied with a layer thickness of 2 - 5 mm, a strip a meter long and the width of a trowel. Then, to simulate “drops,” we apply the trowel to the freshly applied layer of solution, and then remove it. In this case, you do not need to press hard on the surface of the solution. Fresh plaster will be slightly pulled by the smoother being removed, eventually forming a surface similar to a “hedgehog”. In this way we go through the entire length of the strip, applying a smoothing iron to it and removing it. Then we clean the surface of the tool from the solution adhering to it and run it along the plastered strip, lightly pressing on it. As a result, the “hedgehog” needles are smoothed in one direction, forming stylized “rain” stripes. The relief of the texture depends entirely on the thickness of the mortar layer and on the force of pressing the trowel on it. The thicker the layer and the greater the force, the more pronounced the texture of the decorative surface will be.
With a stripe width of two and a half to three strokers, the third stripe will slightly creep onto the limiting work area scotch. After completing work on one area, remove the tape limiting it and move on to processing the next area. The joint between the working areas is smooth and does not require additional leveling. Apply the following layers in the same way plaster mortar and give them a relief structure. In this case, each subsequent layer is applied with a slight overlap on the previous one.
Important ! When plastering one wall “in the rain,” you cannot stop for a long time.
If you apply the solution with a significant break, then after complete drying the joint between the different layers will be clearly visible.
After the “rain” plaster has dried sufficiently, its surface will need to be lightly cleaned with sandpaper or an abrasive mesh. This will help remove plaster defects that are too conspicuous and give uniformity to the texture. The photo shows how high-quality plaster should look like in the “rain.”
Painting plaster for “rain”
The final stage of finishing a wall for “rain” is painting it. For these purposes, you can use any paint: enamel, acrylic, water-based, etc. You just need to follow a few simple rules when working so that the decorative plaster does not lose its relief texture.
If textured plaster is painted in one color, then the visual effect of relief may disappear. As a result, it is recommended to use the “dry brush” technology in conjunction with the wash technology. However, for “rain” plaster, unlike other decorative plasters, only the washing method can be applied. This is due to the fact that the relief in this case is directed not outward, but inward to the base.
For painting plaster in the rain, long-haired rollers should be used. To paint a wall decorated to look like “rain,” you will need moisture-resistant paint. Before starting painting, the wall will have to be primed again to improve the adhesion of the paint to the plaster base.
Painting a wall with a wash is a rather difficult technology. Its purpose is to maximize the relief of the texture. To do this, take paint of a sufficiently dark shade and apply it with a roller to the entire surface of the wall. Then you need to wait a while for the applied paint layer to dry. Take a damp cloth or sponge and thoroughly wipe the painted surface of the wall. The paint applied to the outer surface is partially washed off and becomes paler. And the paint in the recesses of the relief remains the same rich color as before. Thus, we get a visually emphasized surface relief, with darker recesses.
After washing, the wall surface is covered with one or two layers of varnish. To do this you need to take the varnish on water based, diluting it in a one to one ratio to obtain a more fluid consistency. If the varnish turns out to be too liquid, it is recommended to cover the wall in two layers. Apply the varnish using a wide brush to the entire wall, preferably without interruptions, to obtain an even color.
As you can see, applying decorative plaster in the “rain” with your own hands is not such a difficult task. To do this, it is enough to have basic skills in working with plastering tools. The video shows the main points of applying decorative textured plaster that imitates raindrops.
