Where art thou: The Artist in You

The de-rigeur style of the moment are graphic designs.  But like anything, trends come and go.  With so many frames to fill, I thought i'd create my own art that echo some of these trends, and when trends evolve, so can the art on my wall.  Two big trends right now are...


The Chevron pattern

Schumacher's High Voltage Fabric in "Smoke"

Circle art.

Lourdez Sanchez Wall Art from West Elm

Here's my artistic interpretation.

The Chevron

I bought an 8x10 artist canvas cardboard and measured (and measured again!) the page in half, then half again. I created "v"'s, and it ended looking like this.

You can get 8x10 cardboard backed canvas at the dollar
store or Michaels craft stores.

Using painters tape, I covered what I wanted white.  With help from the little hands of my associates, painted the main chevron in grey.

The craft paint was purchased at the
dollar store too, called "Silver Mist"

Waited an hour (I did the Circle art, below during the wait time), then painted the rest in white (you could leave it the canvas colour, but I thought painting it white made the painting look more complete)

The Circle Art

Using the same grey paint from the above art, using another 8x10 canvas board, lightly penciled where I wanted the circles to be on the page, using plastic drinking cups.

Placing the cup on the each of the circles, my associate's little hands then lightly painted around the cups with the paint.  

The faintness of the paint (I used very little paint, mostly whatever was remaining in the paint pot) made this more interesting, and I love the result.

Here’s the new completed picture gallery.

So fun to do, like I doing arts and crafts back in school.  A work of art.  (maybe more work than art, but easy enough for a child to participate).  

Where art thou: Map it out

Samuel Lewis The Traveller's Guide circa 1819

I've always loved antique architectural prints or maps.  There is something so beautiful about the story behind them, and the sepia toned paper feels so rich with history. Unfortunately finding antique maps is not an easy task (nor is it easy on the wallet...the one above is $9500!). 

I found a "faux" antique map above, found at Homesense (Cdn)/Homegoods (US) for about $180. Better than $9500! However, I can still do better...and I dug through my collection of old local maps from my travels.  Some of them are free (all you have to do is contact the local travel guides created by the municipality you're visiting, and one would be sent to you!).  

Using this lovely paint (Folk Art's "Metallic Taupe", found at Michaels or your local craft store), I carefully "antiqued" one of my maps.

First I found a map that had light colours.

Diluted some paint (so it's the same consistency as watercolour paint)

Make sure you add water, to give it a watery
consistency.  This is important, so the map
can show through the paint.

Gently paint the map

Starting from the outside and working your way in allows the paint
to thin itself out, so all the paint doesn't accumulate on at one spot.

And a "new" old map is created

Similar in tone to the antique...but by using a map that had significance (using our local town map, showing the towns of our parents, cottage, etc.), this has more special meaning.  

And that is priceless.

Where art thou: Reusing old frames

To fill a blank wall, I was thinking of doing an art gallery style display.  As our tastes have evolved, so has our collection of picture frames (for home and office).  I was tempted to purchase 6 Ribba frames from Ikea (only $20 each), but we had a bin FULL of various sized old frames.

Without all those old frames going to waste, I arranged them on the floor to give me an idea of what it would look like on the wall. As long as there is something similar amongst the group (either all the frames are the same colour, size, shape), it would make a unified and cohesive look on the wall.

Although all the frames are different shapes and frame sizes, I spray painted 5 of them with the left over paint I had from a previous project (Krylon's “Champagne Nouveau"), and the remaining 3 frames in white (Krylon's "Satin White" in semi-gloss).

It's amazing what a $5 spray paint can do. However, now that I have “new” old frames, I have to find or create some art to fill them.  

To start, I found lovely scrapbook paper from Michaels that fit the colour scheme of the room. I will use these either on their own (I found a damask one that is quite pretty)...

...or use them as a backdrop for a treasured object, like this shell from our travels.

More art to find...*sigh*, my work is never done...

summer begins

Photographed in Prince Edward Island

Now that the hustle and bustle of school schedules are done...I'm looking forward to the hot summer days ahead...with cool drinks, sprinkler drops on tanned skin, sticky ice cream trails on forearms, and enjoying the beautiful sounds and scents of nature.

Of course, we'll do memory-making activities, keeping busy spending endless days at the park, the pool, at the golf course (the husband), biking at the cottage, and spending time with friends and family.

Hopefully the kids will enjoy simple pleasures, like...

Looking at the world with a different view...

Discovering the world on the road...

Or briefly closing their eyes to the world, 
and simply enjoying quiet moments like this...

May the sun shine brightly this summer!

{Editor's Note:  All artwork above, courtesy of SBN contributing associates, a.k.a "the offspring"}

Beautiful Barbie "Art"

My daughter is a real girly girl.  She loves her dolls, and loves to dress them up.  So when I was looking for art to put in her room, I scoured the internet and stores to find old fashioned "barbie" doll art.  Old sketches of barbie fashions from days gone by.


Unfortunately that is not an easy task to find.  Nor is it something I wanted to heavily invest in (read: spend a lot of money) for something that was possibly a fleeting interest.

So, I found these old shadow boxes...

Found scrap book paper that coordinated with her room...

Pinned some unused "barbie" dresses...

And voila!  

My pint sized client was thrilled!  Beautiful.