Friday, July 6, 2012

Colorful Wall Art

Easy and inexpensive way to make your own personalized wall art!
You'll Need:
any size of canvas
old magazines
scissors
a template of letters or a shape
mod podge
foam brush
small paint

Start by cutting out colorful pieces from magazines.  Arrange them to cover the entire canvas.


Glue each piece of paper to the canvas with mod podge (using your foam brush) and then cover over the top with a coat of mod podge.  Let dry. 
 Then you need to choose a template (the template will be colorful, everything around it will be 1 color of paint).  I chose a rooster, because my sister Jordan did her kitchen in roosters.  I printed this from the internet and blew it up to the size I wanted, then cut it out.

I placed the template on top of the colorful canvas and started painting (using white or ivory colored paint gives a great contrast) with my foam brush.  After painting the entire canvas, I peeled up the template and the colorful shape of the rooster was underneath!  One option you can choose to give it an aged or hen-scratched look you can sandpaper a few areas of the painted canvas.

Easy Vase Update

Do you have a plain glass vase that you would like to update?  This is an EASY and INEXPENSIVE way to give your vase a new look! 

You'll need:
a vase (or even an old mason jar)
twine
glue gun/glue sticks
colorful buttons
flowers

Take your glass vase and wrap twine around it.  Glue the end down with your hot glue gun.

Also using your hot glue gun, glue buttons of various sizes and colors to the twine.

The last step is to add flowers and enjoy your updated vase!

Easy DIY Headboard

I recently redecorated my bedroom in gray and white. I decided to use barn wood as the headboard, to bring in color and texture and to add an architectural element to a plain apartment. But I saw one problem with that plan - I didn't want to lean against rough barn wood. So I decided to make a headboard that would coordinate in color, but would be a fantastic textural contrast to the barn wood. I started with a foam core board and cut it to the size I wanted.
Then I needed several yards of batting.
I chose a shimmery gray fabric for the textural contrast. (This is actually an inexpensive curtain panel from Walmart)
Then I laid everything out on the floor, fabric face down, then the batting, then the foam core board.
Then I got out my staple gun and went to work stapling the edges.
The result of adding this easy DIY headboard is an expensive-looking, layered look!