Bathroom Silhouette Art

Does your all white apartment bathroom need a little pop o' something?  Yeah?  So did ours.  If you have an old frame or a piece of unoriginal store-made art (these things always make me think of the "show" apartment that complex like to show of to their potential lessees...they just feel so generic) lying around, feel free to convert it to a 'poppy' piece of bathroom silhouette art.

Here's how:

Blow this up to your preferred size & print it out.  Then, tape the printout to a black sheet of construction or heavy stock paper (or you can just hold it if you like a challenge like me).  Next, cut out each shape.

Fun, right? (Ha.)  You may noticed I omitted the particularly tricky shapes, plus some (they just wouldn't all fit in my frame).  Sorry, Comb.

Then, simply arrange the shapes and glue them to a heavy piece of white paper (which you've already cut to fit the frame, of course).  I went ahead a spray painted the frame a glossy black, too.  Frame it and Voilà!  New art!  

It's a meticulous project, but well worth the final (and FREE) result, if I might say so myself.

I think it gets along nicely with my Nigerian profile carvings. :)

Valentine's Yarn Wreath

The creativity of people is so inspiring to me and echoes so clearing (albeit, imperfectly) the character of the One that made us, doesn't it?  I think I love crafting so much because it brings me to a place of joy and worship.  I'm so thankful God's made it that way.

Today, I'd like to share with you a yarn wreath I made a couple weeks ago, as the Christmas decorations were going into storage, and the front door was left bare and lonely.  

There is plenty of inspiration for such wreaths on the interwebs if you want to try your own (as many a blogger has done)... just head on over to Knock Knocking for some absolutely artful creations.

That said, without further ado, may I present.....

my Valentine's wreath.

To make your own, just take a styrofoam (or straw, packaged) wreath and a ball of yarn and get to wrapping.  I wasn't especially neat and tidy about my wrapping- just cut some yard-ish long pieces, wrapped and tied.

Be forewarned, it takes forever.  But, once you have the "background," so to speak, your can get on to the fun part!  Making flowers!  I didn't snap any pics of the flower-making (prolly, because I was having too much fun and forgot... and because there was hot glue everywhere); however, you can find tons of tutorials on youtube.  Here's the tutorial I followed most closely.

I made mostly felt ones, and a few out of fabric I had leftover from recovering our dining nook chairs.  The tutorial above shows how to make the felt ones.  The fabric ones aren't too hard either.  See?

Just stitch around the edge and pull it tight.  I used this tutorial from Maize in Montana, which has great pics and is very clear.

Then, just hot glue them in clusters to your wreath.  I actually had a pretty tricky time getting them clustered in a way I liked.  I probably drove Andrew crazy with my "Hey, what do you think of this?  Do you like it better this way?  Or like this?"  I'm glad he humors me. :)

Wanna know the funny part?  The front door is still bare.  When I finished her, this wreath was just begging to be hung inside.  So inside she hangs.... on the door to our bedroom, which I think is appropriate, being that she's a Valentine's wreath and all...

Do What You Love

I've been inspired and blessed by Kara Paslay's "Do What You Love" art for quite some time now, and finally decided it was time for that phrase to be up on the wall where it could continually serve as a reminder to my musician husband (and to me) to make time for the things that we love.  It's a call to live with purpose in our vocations, trusting all the while that Our Father will take care of our every need.  I am challenged and inspired by it an hope you are too. :)


My version goes a little something like this.


You'll need:
4 canvas stretcher bars, assemble to form a frame (courtesy of the Hobby Lobby giftcard from my wonderful mother and father-in-law)
Leftover burlap large enough to stretch around your stretcher bar frame (mine came from a similar project, I'll have to post at a later date)
Staple gun (I have a Stanley Light Duty Sharpshooter that was probably like $10 from Home Depot a few years ago)
Black acrylic paint
Fine tip paintbrush

This is really quite easy and could be done a number of different ways.  Since burlap is pretty see through, you'll probably want to stretch 2 layers of the burlap over the stretcher bar frame, tacking each in place with staples.  Since burlap likes to unravel, be sure to fold the raw edge under before you staple, like this:

Pull it tight!  When you get to the corners, you'll probably have to do a little creative cutting and tucking to get the fabric to lay flat.  Then, just flip her over and you're done!

jk.

The next part you can do a number of different ways.  In the past, I've printed my letters out on computer paper, cut them out and then traced them onto the burlap.  While this had great results, it was a bit tedious, and not really something I was up for with this project.  Since that time, Andrew and I have acquired an overhead projector (since we're school teachers and all.  ..not.  Long story.)  So, I printed my (well, Kara's) phrase on overhead paper (using "Roadway" font on dafont.com), and then shown (shined?) the phrase up on my new canvas, traced it (with my black paint and paintbrush), and then filled in the letters in to my taste.

It's sort of a reverse bus roll kind of thing.  But way more personal and inspiring.  ...at least in my book.

Watcha think?  Have you found some fun ways to display inspiring quotes too?  Or use up leftover burlap?