Vitamin C... A Daily Dose of Creativity: wall art

Showing posts with label wall art. Show all posts

Trendy Kid's Art

by Kim

So, you know that I am working on the team to makeover a lot of kid's bedrooms, and that we do not have a money tree. That means we make some things ourselves. Of course, I love that.

So, this morning, I went to Hobby Lobby and HomeGoods to see what is currently trendy in wall art for kid's rooms. Why re-invent the wheel? And I got some good ideas!

The background is newspaper or book pages. I think you could draw over the top with paint, markers, or even crayons.

Encouraging words.

This is a framed piece of paper. The words are on the top of the glass. It gives it depth.

Felt flowers are added to the painting. It could be any element done in felt, fabric, paper, burlap, newspaper, anything.

Another with book pages background and design on the glass.

An open wood frame, no backing, with wood shapes filling the space. You see through to the wall color.

Background on square canvas is painted or is a piece of scrapbook paper. The design is wood, but it could be paper or canvas, attached with pop dots.

Background is a patchwork of scrapbook paper. The fire engine is painted.

Song lyrics. This would be really meaningful to give to a child with the words to the song her Mother sings to her.

I thought this was a canvas until I got close enough to touch it. It is a double layer of window screen. Painted. It is really lightweight, and inexpensive. It made me very excited because I have a roll of window screen in the garage!

Even better, it can be cut into shapes. Love this!

Now, I have some basic ideas, and it is time to use my Vitamin C!

How about you?

Light Up Wall Art

by Kim

When I was small, my parents had a trendy piece of wall art that lit up. It was a kind of light box with a photo over the front. When it was dark and it was lit, it made a neat glow in the room.

Here is my own version of light up wall art. It also makes a neat glow in the dark. It looks good in the daylight too.

Here is what you need to make one (of course, change colors and design to make it your own):

a framed artist canvas 15" x 30"
fabric: white, black, floral (1/2 yard each will do the trick)
white posterboard 20" x 30"
Fiskars Everywhere Punch: square
staple gun
scissors
yardstick
pencil
white craft glue
duct tape
string of white lights (mine had 50 lights)

Try this:

1. I recycled a canvas that I didn't like. If you have one to recycle, take the canvas off the frame. Also remove the center bar. If you have a new canvas, use as is with the canvas clean and white. You probably still want to remove the center bar.

2. Measure and cut the posterboard 15" x 30". Measure and draw lines 4" apart across posterboard. Use the square punch to punch squares in the second and fourth sections.

Make a pattern or punch randomly like I did.

3. Glue posterboard to front of frame or front of canvas.

Design Tip: I did not think ahead, and punched too close to the edges. The frame shows through. It does not look horrible when finished, but if you are a perfectionist, you will want to start in farther when you punch. This would not have been a problem had I been working with a white canvas instead of just the frame.

4. Lay white fabric on work surface. Lay frame on top of fabric. Trim fabric about 1 1/2" wider than frame on all sides.

5. Wrap the edges of fabric up around the frame. Staple in place. Stretch fabric a bit as you staple.

6. Measure and cut four 4" x 18" strips of black fabric. Wrap around frame, 4" apart and staple to back of frame. Don't cover up the punches you made.

Design Tip: If you can find striped fabric, it will cut out one step and one expense. I bought some this summer at IKEA. Look there.

7. Cut flowers out of floral fabric. I considered applying a solid piece of fabric and just cutting out the flowers on the left side, but I did not like the brown background with my black stripes.

8. Glue to side of canvas that does not have the punches. Think about spraying with Scotchguard to make it easier to dust later on.

9. Fill the back of the canvas with string of lights. Tape them to the frame to hold them in place.

Design Tip: If you use a thicker framed canvas, the lights will fit better, and the canvas will hang flatter against the wall.

Daytime. A nice contemporary piece of art.

Nighttime. Glowy! The square punchouts add a layer of visual texture, and are kind of a surprise when the lights come on.

Use your glowy Vitamin C!

Daisy Canvas Collage Tutorial

by Kim

I find it important to make time to create, just for fun...or therapy...or creative exercise. It's good for me and good for you too! So, last night, I had nothing pressing, a gentle rain was falling, the windows were open, and I sat at my table to create. It was relaxing.

You know I really like to collage. It combines some of the things that I love about designing and crafting: color, painting, layering, doodling, and tearing paper.

Here is what you need to make this project. But, you know you should substitute materials and colors if you want, to make it your own.

four 6"x6" canvases
acrylic paint: sky blue, turquoise blue, turquoise green, white, lime green
seasponge
Fiskars punches: XL oopsie daisy, XL cloud
Fiskars deckle Tear edger
Scrapbook paper: assorted green prints, 2 deep pink prints, brown print, aqua print
small piece of bubble wrap, about 4" x 6"
Mod Podge for paper
paintbrushes: large flat, small round
scraps of 140 lb watercolor paper
6 Pop Dots
white craft glue
small buttons: 6 turquoise, 1 lime green
fine point marker: black
tape
palette

I started with my favorite color palette, 3 shades of turquoise. Pour out a little puddle of each. Dip the flat brush into 2 or 3 colors at once.

Brush on to the canvas. Try to just apply the paint, not brush back and forth on it. This will give you visible striations of color.

Do all four canvases and let them dry. Arrange them in the way you want them to be in your design.

I love layered backgrounds on my collage. Clouds will be one layer. Using the cloud punch, make two strips of punched out clouds. Tape them together. Use this as a stencil. Save the punched out clouds for another project.

On your palette, pour out white and sky blue. I did not want the clouds to stand out too much, so I added blue to the white. Dip your damp (not wet) sponge into both colors. Dab on the palette to mix the colors on the sponge.

Dap the sponge over the stencil to print clouds wherever you want them.

Tear strips of green paper about 1" wide. I had three greens. Tear the strips into 1" square pieces.

Brush Mod Podge on canvas at bottom, Place paper squares over wet glue. Smooth with fingers.

Draw a vase shape on the back of brown paper. Cut out and Mod Podge on lower right canvas.

Brush turquoise blue paint on bubbles of bubble wrap.

Print randomly on left and right sides of canvases. The dots are another layer.

Also tear one 12" x 1" strip of aqua paper. Cut it in half and Mod Podge it to the left sides of canvases....about an inch from the left edge.

Put a dot of lime green paint where you want to build your three flowers. Brush lime green paint on the very edge of the tearing tool. Print a starburst of 12 spokes.

Make a starburst around each dot.

Using the daisy punch, punch out a total of 11 daisies, using both pink papers.

Wrap each petal around the skinny end of round brush. This makes the daisies dimensional.

Assemble daisies in vase with pop dots between layers. Use white glue to attach buttons as centers. Use the round bush and lime green paint to make stems on daisies that go down into the vase.

Mod Podge 5 remaining punched daisies on strip of aqua paper on left side. Glue on button centers.

Use marker to doodle a bit on your canvases. Small spirals at ends of starbursts.....