Barn Wood and Branches Wall Art

I had an incredibly lucky moment a few months ago, when some friends asked me to make a few signs for their house. They wanted to pull apart a beautiful old chest that was in their home and use that wood for the project, and offered me the rest of the wood to use as I wished. They added, "the chest is made from some old barn wood from our farm." I couldn't get my yes out fast enough!! The wood is beautiful, rich, warm and weathered, and I was thrilled.

I knew I had to come up with something special for this wood, no typical sign would do, so I turned to Keri at Cutting Edge Wall Stencils and got this incredible stencil.

I lined up the boards and enlisted a few cute handymen to secure them to one another on the back with metal braces. Then, with a flat base I started on my stencil.

I wanted some depth to the design, so I picked out light, medium and dark shades of acrylic paint to stencil with.

I started off with a shimmery bronze paint that was a very similar shade as the wood. I lightly sprayed the stencil with a tacky stencil adhesive, and placed it a bit off-center on top of the wood. I then grabbed a stiff stencil brush and started to layer on the bronze.

I let the bronze paint dry, repositioned the stencil, and painted a shimmery gold color on the corners of the board, overlapping a bit of the bronze branches.

When this was dry I centered the stencil, and started in on my lightest color, a creamy white. I pulled away the stencil and was done!! I attached wire hanging gear across the back and put it right up on the wall.

One of my favorite things about this piece is how different it looks depending on where you're standing in the room. When the light is hitting it just right, all of the shimmery colors just pop out.

If the light is not directly on the picture, the creamy colored branch stands out the most,

but if you're looking at it face-on, there is a nice blend of the three colors. I wanted this painting to have the sense of depth that you'd have if you were standing under a tree looking up at the branches.

I also was so happy with the contrast between the old and battered wood, and the elegance of the branches in the shimmery tones. I love it!

I practiced the design on two smaller sections of the same wood. I included this sweet little bird, who didn't make it onto the big piece, but I think is a fun element.

I am so pleased with this project! It has really given me a new appreciation for wall stencils, something I had previously shied away from since I am such a commitment phobe with decor. But being able to stencil onto something that could then be moved around is fabulous!!

Also, I'm so excited to say that this project made it into the Top 12 over at the The DIY Club!

and

Erin

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Pearl Adorned Paper Blossoms

I made these little paper blossoms a few months ago and have been toying around with them ever since, trying to decide which wreath, box or other item to attach them to.  I finally decided that they were cute enough to make a simple little display of their own.  What do you think?

 

I started off by taking one of the books that I use for all of my book page crafts and cutting out a bunch of circles in various sizes.  I made sure that the circles were very rough so that piling them on top of one another would be more interesting-looking, meaning that some that were more oval than circular, and several had straight edges or points.  Once I had a good stack of circles, I grabbed my brown stamp pad and inked the edges.

I then stacked a pile from largest to smallest, trimming up a few circles and sliding some of the “petals" out of the center a bit to make them stand out more.  I poked a hole through the center of the flower and twisted the different circles around until I liked the arrangement.

I then removed the push pin and replaced it with a brad to secure the blossom.  I also added a little pearl embellishment to the brad to dress it up a bit.

 

I wanted to blossom to have a little bit of a 3-dimensional aspect to it, so I took a few of the blossoms, cut a tiny slit from the edge to the center, pulled the two pieces together until they overlapped slightly, and glued them together with a glue stick.  This gave that layer of the flower the slightest “cone” look and made the whole blossom pop.

 

I used the same technique with the blue blossom, I just cut out circles of a scrapbook paper that I love in addition to the book pages.  Since the scrapbook paper was sturdier than the book pages, I crinkled the edges of the biggest blossom between my fingers just to give it a little bit more of a ruffled look.

I then pulled out an old round frame that I had picked up at a yard sale, covered some cardboard in linen and popped it into the frame.  I hot glued the blossoms and little pearl embellishments on for stems. 

 

Ta da!  Very easy and very cute, I wish I had thought of this earlier, these have been sitting unused in my craft room forever!!

 

I am linking this project to these fantastic blogs.  Please take a moment to scroll around and see all of the talent and great ideas that are willingly shared by these ladies!

 

Also, be sure to stop back by next week as we’ll each be revealing some of our best home solutions.

 

Have a great week!

 

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Paint Can Gifts

Working in the schools, I was once given a very creative gift: a paint can. Not just any old paint can, this one was festively decorated with incredibly yummy treats inside. This paint can was my inspiration for a new cute, different, and economical signature gift from our family.

I realized that I could use this idea for children's birthday gifts.

I've done various versions. I started with an empty paint can found at Home Depot (for around $5).

Then I decided to cover the can with brown wrapping paper, adding ribbon around the top and bottom. You could easily use any form of paper or fabric covering. This step was the most tedious tracing the exact shape and cutting out the holes for the handles (I first removed the handle so I could cover the paper around the holes). I also covered the top of the lid in coordinating paper. For other kids, I kept the metal paint can plain and made magnetic letters from chipboard letters. That way, the kids can take off their letters and use them around their house.

I filled the cans with various art supplies. I tried to gather a variety of art such as paint, brushes, smock, paint pens, glue, scissors, crayons, small coloring books, stickers, pom poms, squiggly eyes...the list could go on! You could also fill the can with just about anything-felt food as Tiffany shared with us a few weeks ago, bean bags, small dress-up clothes, plastic magnetic alphabet letters and numbers, blocks, Easter eggs with shredded Easter grass/paper, school supplies, scrapbooking supplies. You could then decorate the outside with any coordinating colors using scrapbook paper, fabric, wrapping paper, ribbon, stickers, spray paint, and even a brown paper grocery bag to be more green.

Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to check out these link parties!

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