Fun, Easy, Affordable Art... That doesn't look like it

This story is pretty typical for the way things go around here.  

It's not necessarily how i WANT them to go but it's just how it works.  

I start a project.

It's super cool in my head.

I get mostly finished.

Life happens.

1-7 years later I finish the project.

This particular project is special because when I was painting the bathroom that this art is in, I got a phone call about a baby girl that needed a foster home.  I was literally holding a paintbrush talking to my foster agency and thinking "We aren't ready for a baby, when would I ever finish this bathroom?"

Well, baby Z came to live with us a few days later and she's never leaving.  Which means I may never finish the bathroom, but she's worth it!

So here's the project.  

I had this canvas that I believe my sister painted for her college apartment.  it's super cute but I needed it hanging the other direction and I was hanging it on a dark wall so I always imagined that it would be light in color.  I had this idea for a project in my head when I was working on the bathroom.

In March.

March 2013.

To start I pulled some colorful pages out of magazines and cut them into strips- about 1/4" in width.

I cut approx. 1,459 more than I needed- but I didn't know that.

I had printed a pattern that I wanted on 11x17 paper so I knew the size that I needed to create.

My plan was to use mod podge to take the strips and glue them to the canvas then cover the mod podge over it for a thick clear coat.  

I was out of mod podge and instead of waiting to buy more I just used some glitter glue I had laying around.  But it was lumpy.  So that wasn't a great idea. 

 

I traced the pattern I printed onto contact paper and cut it out- then I applied the contact paper on top of the magazine strips.  The glue over them kept the stickey from ripping the magazine paper when I pulled it off.

You can kind of see the clear contact paper on top.  

 

Then I took it outside and sprayed the entire thing white.  I used the whole can of spray paint.  I wanted it really white!

See how it's rough where the design is... well, I didn't count on that... and I'm not sure how to fix it yet.  But I will work on fixing that sometime.  

When it was all dry I pulled off the contact paper to reveal the beautiful design below!

Here it is hanging in the bathroom.  You can't really tell from here but some of the edges are not as crisp as I would like so I'm going to try and touch them up somehow. 

But, given my history, I went ahead and hung it in the bathroom and I'll get to finishing it in the next 2-5 years.  

I have 37 other projects to work on!

Painting Tips for Painting Your Own Artwork

Don't get your hopes up.  If you have ever taken art before, even if it was in jr. high, you probably know more about painting than me.  I do a lot of creative things but I'm not a great artist.  However, I believe anyone can make their own artwork and can paint beautiful things if they want to.  So here are a few easy tips to help.

 1) Pick your paints.  They don't have to be expensive or even from a special art store.  I usually use the apple barrel paints from Hobby Lobby that are like .50 a jar.  Today, I'm using some paint from Target that I got for Cason but I love it so much (because it shimmers) that I wanted to use it for this project.

 2) Pick your colors.  Paint your whole background.  

Don't try and paint detail and background at the same time.  

I choose 2 colors of blue for the background with a hint of green.

So that's part of tip 2.  Pick up more than one color of paint with your brush and use big strokes.  Solid even color- not good... at least not for this!

3) Once that dries.  Use chalk to draw your main image.  It doesn't have to be this simple but simple is easy!  Also, off center is better.  It is easier because you don't have to be perfect- plus it looks like you put extra thought into it.  You thought so much about it that you made it off center to make other people think more.  Awesome.

 4) Paint your main image- again using 2 different colors on your paintbrush at a time.  It really helps make the art look dimensional.  When it's dry you can wipe the chalk off as if it never existed.

 

5) I wanted to add another layer to the painting- text.  Text is hard because it's hard to get a smooth line with paint.  I wrote the words in chalk and used a tiny paintbrush and carefully wrote everything in.  It's not perfect but it's real.

And here's the finished piece.  It's personal and it's homemade and you can do it too!  

So if you make awesome things please pass on this tutorial.  Hopefully, it will inspire you just a little to start making your own artwork and saving a little $$ in the process.