More Easy DIY Art.

As you already know, I’ve created a ridiculous amount of very amateur art for our home.  It’s fun to use little money and a bit of creativity to spruce up our space.  My latest “creations” include two amazing brights...coral and citron.  Mixing these invigorating colors with my favorite blues add a super fun pop to our home...perfect for spring and summer!

Two of the pieces I made were painted over old designs.  You might recognize them from my last post...

I mixed my colors mostly using a combo of $0.99 acrylic paints from my craft stash.  First I painted over my beloved stripes from Christmas to create blank canvas.

Then I started layering my favorite colors, and ended with a little liquid gold leaf.

After that was finished, I turned my attention to revamping a piece from last spring.  I truly loved it as is, but needed to freshen up the color scheme.  So I swapped out the hot pink for bold citron...just painting the new color over the old.

Then it was time for two new pieces.  Well over a year ago, I found two sizeable gold frames from Michael’s.  Both were on sale for $8...a deal I just couldn’t pass up!

I didn’t have a plan for them at the time of purchase, so I hoarded them in my junk craft room.  

One day I had a light-bulb moment and realized they’d be perfect to hang on our expansive wall that houses our barn door.  I didn’t have proper paper to paint on for these frames, so I simply flipped over the “picture” that comes with the frame and painted on that.  It wasn't ideal, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. ;)

A few brushstrokes later and I had new art!

For wayyyy too long they sat on our fireplace mantle because, well, I hate hanging things.

Several weeks went by and was finally forced to hang them because we were having company.  (Isn't that always the best motivator?!?!?!)

I absolutely love the statement they make in that formerly boring corner.

I love getting four "new" pieces of art for next to nothing!  

Anyone else swap out and recycle their art?

I Heart Art.

I really do.  I may not be the best at it, but I have a blast creating swap-able, inexpensive pieces to hang around our home.  I've dabbled in super amateur art before. Here, here, here, here, here and here.

Then last spring I created a few more pieces on some scrap wood I had stashed in our hall closet.

This past winter, I painted another scrap piece to help make a statement next to our Christmas tree.

After we took all of our Christmas decor down I was craving a bit of spring.  It's been very chilly, and once the holiday season ends, I am NOT a fan of the colder, darker months.  To combat the current season, I added pops of coral and citron to our great room.  An inexpensive way to get these colors into our living space was to update some of the art I previously painted above.  I can't wait to share it all soon!!

Anyone else ready for winter to end?!?!

Radiant Orchid Art.

Lately I've been on a bit of a painting kick.  Something about spring's arrival has compelled me to bust out my paint brushes and some fresh new colors to liven up our home.

I was inspired to create my latest abstract piece when a good blog friend challenged a few of us to tackle a DIY project using Pantone's Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid.  I have seen mixed reviews regarding this color, but I have to admit, I'm a fan.  I think it adds a nice pop when I pair it with my favorite tried and true blue hue.

I did a little research to see which colors were deemed orchid-y enough and came across several awesome options in this post. The winner for me, though, was Behr's Orchid Kiss.  After seeing it in Alex's home tour, I was sold.  

I headed to Home Depot to pick up a sample, and while I was there, I fell in love with a combo of three colors....Behr's Pale Orchid, Behr's Orchid Kiss and Behr's Balmy Seas {the same color as the accent wall in our master bedroom.}

Once I had my colors home, it was time to get to work.  

I found a scrap piece of birch wood laying around in my craft stash and I painted it white for a base. Then I pretended I had painting skills and started adding color to my "canvas".  I kept a separate brush for each color and just added a few lines of the first color, then the second color and then the third.  I repeated that process over and over until the coverage felt right.  After that, it was time for some shine.  Lord knows I can't finish a project without involving gold in some way, shape or form. ;) So I pulled out a fourth paint brush and layered in some metallic on top of a few already painted areas.

Now, clearly I am no artist...but for just a few bucks {seriously....the paint samples were about $3 a piece} and a small amount of time, I was able to hop on board with a major trend of the year.  Plus, it may have inspired a possible room refresh in the near future! ;) 

Now head over to check out the crazy talented ladies who took on the Radiant Orchid challenge with me!

From top left moving clockwise: 

1. Flower Pots from Dimples and Tangles  2. Secretary Desk from Cuckoo4Design  3. Abstract Art from Retro Ranch Renovation  4. Wallpapered Powder Room from The Chronicles of Home  5. Painted Tray from Dwellings by Devore  6. Cross Stitched Jewelry Organizer from Primitive and Proper

How do you guys feel about Radiant Orchid?  Do you give it the thumbs up or thumbs down?!

Canvas Art...Again. For the Last Time. Promise.

A couple weeks ago, I was on a major art kick.  I painted a couple canvases for our bedroom, a wooden sign...also for our bedroom and then some ombre art for the hallway.  Clearly, I was on a mission to fill all of our blank walls.  One art project that I completed and never shared with you guys {I didn't want my beloved readers to OD on my silly art projects} was a set of canvases that call our living room home.  They help to temporarily fill in a blank hole left by the removal of our Christmas tree.  I have more permanent plans to fill the space in the future, but I haven't been able to pick up what I need yet.

So I took the easy route and grabbed some canvases, brushes and paint from the basement and got to work.

I used my favorite colors {blue-greens and greys, obviously}, and mixed in some water as I went along.  It helped me to blend the colors and achieve the look I was going for.

Like my ombre art, I used vinyl letters to put a simple phrase on the piece that is a wonderful reminder to read every day...have faith.

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And so you can see where some of my latest projects have landed {striped curtains, gold mirror, DIY shelves, wintery mantle}, here is how our living/dining room has looked since we de-Christmas-ified after the holidays.  I love how cozy it's been, but I certainly can't wait to bring back our other curtains and some pops of yellow for the spring!

 Do any of you switch out your curtains for the different seasons?  Am I the only weirdo?  My mom promises me that it used to be a "thing" back in the day. ;)

Lyric Art...Cheap, But NOT Easy.

I'm sure some of you have romance on the brain since Valentine's Day isn't too far away.  And because of this, I figure my sappy lyric art would be a fitting post for today.

A while back I made some cheap and easy art to hang on the walls of our master bedroom.  It looked great, but it didn't last long since I decided to go and re-arrange things.  That meant I neeed to get my butt moving to fill up my walls again...leading me to my cheap and easy, part 2 post.  There was supposed to be another piece of art I revealed during that post, but I just never finished it.  Part of the delay was due to my apprehension of screwing it up, and the other part was me dreading the tedious time it'd take to complete the project.

Well, finallyyyyyy I am done with it.  So it's time for me to spill all the deets of how I made some lovey, dovey art for our bedroom.

I started out with a piece of wood from Home Depot that I had them cut to size for me {basically I asked them to cut the board into two equal pieces}.

Then it was time to get my stain on.  I used Minwax's Dark Walnut stain, because it's pretty and was leftover in my basement. ;)

I reallyyy wish I had some sort of machine that enabled me to make stencils, but I'm just not that fancy. :-/  So instead, I played around with some fonts on the computer and printed out the lyrics I wanted in a large font, on some 12 x 18 paper.

Then I cut out each line and taped it onto the board.  {I used my iPhone level app to make sure things were pretty straight.}

And thennnnnn, the "fun" began.  I used a ballpoint pen and pressed firmly into the paper while tracing the outline of each letter.  It left a faint line and imprint of each letter.  I tried to photograph it, but you probably cannot tell via pictures.  Sometimes I had to hold the board a certain way so the light just hit perfectly, and then I could see.

After all that was done, it was time to use a tiny paint brush and fill in all the letters.  I found the best technique was to dab a short, stiff paint brush around the outline of the letters, and then go back and fill things in.  Of course, it wasn't alway the easiest thing to do {especially on letters that didn't have straight edges, or ones where the outline couldn't be seen 100%}, but I made it work the best I could.

For the final word "sweetheart", I turned to a gold sharpie.  I knew I wanted that word in a different color, and we all know I'm obsessed with gold lately...so instead of torturing myself with gold paint, I just traced with a marker.  It was easier than a paint brush, but it still wasn't "easy".

Okay, so maybe "easy" isn't the right word to be using.  It was pretty "easy", but man, it was a major-pain-in-the-bootay to do.  I'm all about little, tedious jobs, but this one takes the cake.  You need patience up the wazoo to finish something with this many letters.

But I am super thankful I stuck to this project because the words ring so true for me and hubby, and it's a wonderful reminder to have on our bedroom wall. :)

Wild Weekend.

How is Christmas only a week away?!?!?  I feel like December flew by in a flash.  And because time is just slipping away, I knew I had to take on a few nagging projects this past weekend, otherwise they wouldn’t be done until at least mid-January {but probably February if I’m being honest ;)}.

So I put my productive pants on Saturday morning and got to work.  The first thing I tackled was painting a sign for a dear bloggy friend who kindly asked for one after I posted about my cheap art for our bedroom.

Then I was determined to get some frames hung up in our hallway.  From the get-go, our hallway lacked a bit of appeal.  It was just b-o-r-i-n-g, and due to our open floor plan, you could see quite a bit of it from many areas of the house.  I tried to amp it up a bit by adding a stencil, and while it worked, I felt like it still lacked a lil' something...especially since our thermostat stuck our like a sore thumb in that space.

My solution?  Add a couple frames to the walls...and since it's Christmas time, add some free, festive printables.  I found some cute ones online, uploaded them to CVS, sized them to fit my 5 x 7 frames and picked them up the very same day.  I even had them in their frames weeks ago, I just never got around to hanging all of them.

Some were quick and easy...because I was putting them in frames already on the walls.  They went up when the rest of our Christmas decor went up.

All of the others just sat in our living room for quite some time. 

What can I say…I absolutely DESPISE hanging things.  I’m actually surprised I hung them before Christmas passed us by.  Especially since it took me months just to hang this tiny gallery wall.

Using 3M command strips and my iPhone level definitely helped to make the process much easier...on both me and my walls.

I’m super pleased with the outcome!  Now you barely notice the camouflaged thermostat.

Okay, so that’s a complete lie…but I’m going to pretend that it helps to take away from how it was all in-yo’-face before.

So after all that fun, I decided to take my efforts to South Beach our master bedroom.  I have been dying to re-arrange our bedroom for a while.  We started out here, with old furniture and not the right paint color.  Then I brought in our Craigslisted makeovers, painted the walls for the 2^nd time and switched up the layout.  Well, it was time to change things again….because I was never 100% sold on how we set things up. 

Needless to say, this went down on Saturday night…

  

What?  Making over a room isn’t your idea of a wild Saturday night???  Well it is in this house! ;) {Kidding.  Sort of.}

Stay tuned for our bedroom changes, and even some master bath stenciling!  Woot woot!!