Finished Wall Art - FINALLY!!

Ok, so I FINALLY got around to finishing my wall art!! I needed a big piece of wood to make the top piece, and finally realized I could use something I already had!! I had a piece of wood that had 3 peg-hooks - - - didn't need the hooks, so I just sawed them off!! :) Added a coat of paint & then repeated the same lettering process as I did in step 1 & hung them all up!!! I made some cute Contact Paper flowers with the Cricut to fill in the emptiness around the words. No, the words on the top board didn't get centered perfectly, but all-in-all, I'm quite happy with it!! :) (Not exactly the "shabby" PB look, but still cute!!) ;)

I think the Contact flowers added a lot!!!

Pottery Barn-Inspired Art

A while ago, I found these boards at Home Depot in the scrap lumber:

For 50 cents each, I just knew that I could do something with them!! :) Well, a few weeks later, I was at Pottery Barn Kids, and got my inspiration!! I saw these hanging on the wall:

I immediately wanted them, (but didn't want to pay $19 - $34 EACH!!), so I came home & got to work!! ;)

Here's what you do:
* Cut the wood (or have it cut for you), to the sizes you want.

* Paint the edges & front sides of each piece (since I was covering it with paper, I only painted the edges & a tiny frame around the front side, just in case the paper didn't fit perfectly)

* Once the paint dries, you can hand paint details on the front sides, or add scrapbook paper, trimmed to fit. (To attach paper - apply a layer of Mod Podge, add your paper, and then add a top coat if desired. I used Elmer's glue & a flat edge (ruler) to smooth out the bumps - - Mod Podge will be much cleaner!) ;)

* After that dries, add lettering - you can use vinyl, paper, or hand-paint it yourself. (I printed out the words in the fonts I liked, cut them out, traced them on, then hand painted them with craft paint! A little time consuming, but wanted the painted look! I had hoped to sand the words, to give it a distressed look, but it just smeared the paint onto the paper & had to start over! Good thing I tried it out on the smallest word!!)

* Unless you care to add embellisments (I did), then you're done!!

So they don't look EXACTLY like PB's, but I love them!! I think the bolder colors will look cute with her room decor!! Since I only spent $1 on the wood & $1 on the green paint I only spent $2 total!! - - Not too shabby!! :) I'm not quite done though, I have one last one to finish & then I'll post pictures once they're all up!!

Pirate Art

Since my boys have a "Pirate" bedroom, I wanted a treasure map for their room. Well, after looking everywhere & online, the only ones I could find were way too pricey for me! So, I decided to make my own!! :)

First, you need brown Kraft paper, (found in the mailing section @ Target/Wal-Mart - only a few dollars a roll!!) Tear off a large piece & then tear the edges. Take the whole piece & crumple it up - that's the fun part!! :) Smooth it out & add your design! I just drew a map, free-hand, with pencil, then painted it using craft paint.
After the map was dried, I used a brown ink pad to distress the edges & then lightly went over the entire map.

It's not as fancy as the ones I saw online, but I thought it turned out cute!! ;)

Clearance Art Re-Do

I found some REALLY cheap "art" at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't too fond of it, however I saw some potential! :)

I came home, started thinking, and this is what I came up with (sorry, but I forgot to take pictures of each step, but I'm sure you get the idea!!):

Sanded the dark brown piece - (not too bad actually), then took apart the blue/pink pieces - only to find that they were made of 3 separate pieces . . . score!!! :) I had some scrapbook paper that I've been wanting to use, so I covered the outside frame, then trimmed the center. I took the yellow crown off the original center piece & covered that piece with paper as well. The original center piece actually fit perfectly on top of the outside frame!! Basically, I turned my once "introverted" art into "extroverted" art! :) They're nothing super fancy, but I think they turned out cute!! (And the price was great - - about $2 each, being that I already had the paper!!)