Paint Your Own Diva Wreath Rail

I can’t believe it’s almost February you guys! Here in the U.S., February is Black History Month when we celebrate all of the well known and unsung black heroes of history. I thought this would be a great time to show you how to paint your own diva wreath rail. I can’t wait for you to see how beautiful this rail is!

Too often history, the art world, and the world in general do not give equal representation to people of color. We wanted to do our part to try and change that within our own small community of crafters. When we designed the diva wreath rails we had no idea how popular they would be and today I’m really excited to show you how to paint your own diva wreath rail! Whether you use these on your own door or offer them to your customers on your business page I think you’re going to love them!

How to Paint Your Own Diva Wreath Rail

For these fabulous wreath rails I use a different painting technique than I normally do. For the faces I still use my acrylic paint but I use it like a stain. I wanted the faces to be nicely blended and look more natural. Putting a full coat of paint on them would not have achieved this look. To “stain” the wood cutouts I used small sections of baby wipes as my staining clothes. Cheap, easy, and you can just toss them out when you’re done! All I did was squirt a little bit of paint onto the face and then used the baby wipe to wipe it in. You want to go with the grain for this and don’t wipe too much or you will start to wash away the paint. It is a baby wipe after all. This method is so much easier and less messy than using actual stain!

I give you the list of colors that I used to paint my divas but you can absolutely use any colors that you want! You can change up the skin, eye, and lip colors any way you like. To make the earrings really pop I used glitter. I love the way they turned out! If you’ve never used glitter on a wreath rail before no worries. I show you exactly how to do it in the video below. Don’t worry, it’s easy to do and I show you how to (mostly) keep the glitter mess contained!

This blog post is all about painting our divas but stay tuned! Coming soon we will show you how to decorate these fabulous wreath rails. Spoiler alert: it will most likely contain some deco mesh! When you are deciding which paint colors to use for your wreath rails, keep in mind what you want your finished creation to look like and go from there. These beautiful rails are highly customizable, you just want to have a plan in mind when you get started.

Diva Wreath Rail Painting Supply List

• Acrylic paint: Nutmeg Brown
• Acrylic paint: Black
• Acrylic paint: Red
• Acrylic paint: White
• Mod Podge
• Green glitter
• Unscented baby wipes
• Paint brushes

Wreath Rail Painting Instructions

For the profile rail…

1. Start by tearing a baby wipe into small sections. We are going to use these to “stain” the face instead of using a brush to paint it. Squirt a little of the Nutmeg Brown paint right on the face and then use a piece of baby wipe to wipe the paint on going with the wood grain. Use as many squirts and wipes as you need to complete the face. Then continue up and cover the rest of the rail.
2. Next, use the black paint and a fine brush to paint the eyelash and eyebrow.
3. Now take a little black and a little red together to outline the lips. Then fill them in with the red.

For the front facing rail…

1. Apply the brown paint in the same way that we did the profile rail.
2. Now use the same color brown to do the eyebrows and shadow her ears and below the nose.
3. Paint the lips red then outline them with a brown and red combo.
4. Use the white to paint the corners of her eyes and then the brown to do the eyeballs.
5. Use the black paint to outline the eyes and eyelashes and then the earrings.
6. Paint the Mod Podge onto one of the earrings and then shake the glitter over the Mod Podge. Repeat with the second earring.

That’s all there is to it friends! I feel like a real life makeup artist painting these beautiful divas. I definitely recommend using a liner brush to outline the eyes and lips. This is easier than applying your own makeup but you still want to be as accurate as you can be. Just use a small brush and take your time and yours will turn out beautifully too! I’ve got to go, I think I hear Hollywood calling to see if they can hire my skills for the next big film. Have fun painting you guys!

If you need any help with painting your own wood signs or wreath rails and decorating your custom wreath rails, be sure to check out more of our tutorials on Hot Mesh Mom Blog.

We would love to see your amazing wreath rail designs! Please share with us over at the Hot Mesh Mom Facebook.

Just pin this project tutorial to save the instructions for later!