Gallery Wall

Galleries have a very warm and cozy feeling to me and I'm excited to share my work in progress.  Although I've taken inspiration from the blog world and Pinterest to spark my creativity (please check them out below), my biggest influence has been my Grandmother (I'll include a picture of her wall as soon as I make it back to Ohio).  She has maintained an ever growing gallery wall housing 6 generations of family and collected accessories.   A creative and beautiful way to show off her most loved and collected pictures and things!

My Web-spiration

Anatomy of (my) Gallery Wall

After painting my living room I realized the walls were far too long to get away with hanging a few pictures.  This was going to take an eclectic army.  Everything needed to have meaning and feel "collected" so here are the first few versions of The Wall.

1.  Photo collage (of me as a chubby baby) that hung on my Grandmother's wall for some 20 years.  I recently inherited it with open arms.
2.  Blank canvas wearing the wall color
3.  Hand painted art piece by my talented Cousin - in need of a frame.
4.  Canvas (painted in the wall color) Ohio = Home / Arizona = New Home
5.  You Are My Sunshine sheet music = My Grandma would rock us to sleep singing this song.
6.  Another hand painted piece of art by my Cousin.
7.  I found this guy and #9 at Target a few years back for $2.95 each.  They hung in my bathroom for the longest time.  They were given a bit of a make-over.  

 8.  The talented Cousin strikes again.      

9.  See # 7
10.  Framed picture of me and one of my best friends.  Circa 1999 - it flooded so bad that summer  the water was reaching car hoods and people were canoeing down the street.  

11.  Wood frame I found on sale at Target.
12.  My family and I took an annual vacation to the memory filled Twilight isle located on Manitoulin Island In Ontario, Canada.  My Cousin hand painted the island landscape and sent it to me as a birthday card!  I had to frame it.  Amazing. 

13.  This collage was created by another best friend and given to me as a birthday present!  Thanks Tara!
14.  A Sister is worth a thousand friends.  My sister sent me this plaque a few years ago :)

15.  Blank canvas wearing the wall color.
16.  Our wedding photo in a frame I found at Savers. Scrapbook paper was used to matte the photo.
17.  Photo of my Sister and her kiddos on her wedding day.  The frame began life plain and black.  I wanted to give it a more aged look so I took a dry brush and very little paint - lightly stippled the color on. 

18.  Photo of my nieces in a frame I purchased at Savers.  Scrapbook paper was used to matte the photo.
19.  A photo from my wedding - my bridesmaids.  See #17 for the frame make-over.
20.  Not only is Tara one of my besties but she holds a few other useful talents.  She's an inspirational Health Coach and a pretty kick ass Photographer.  Thanks for bringing a little bit of the Ohio country into my living room :)  

21.  A picture of my Husband and his Sister when they were younger.
22.  A photo of me and my Sister on vacation in Canada.  See #17 for the picture frame make-over.

A few changes were made after this picture was taken.  Added turquoise to the burlap canvas art, changed out matte color in two of the framed photos.  Removed the barn wood picture frame.

Adjacent wall and other accessories

I found this beast at Goodwill for $1.99!   You can't find a picture frame this large for $1.99 and it was already painted the color I wanted!

I said goodbye to the embroidered flower art and used the orange frame to outline a turquoise dragonfly art piece found at Hobby Lobby.  I sure love a deal - It was originally $69.99 - I got it 1/2 off!

The XL sized frame below (middle) was also found at Hobby Lobby in the damaged sale section - $29.99.  I thought it to be a pretty good deal considering its massive size.

New Lamp

New Rug

Link parties
my uncommon slice of suburbia 
mad in crafts
alderberry hill

Round Sponge Brush Canvas Art

2 white canvases stared me in the face for months.  A Christmas gift miracle needed to happen but the inspiration wouldn't come.  I painted and re painted these suckers three times.

Thank you round sponge brush!  

You made my canvas look like I know how to paint!

Skill level: Easy

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Supplies: Canvas, round sponge brush, 

acrylic paint and spray paint.

Technique: dip the magic round sponge brush in paint and swirl.  I dipped the same brush into several different colors to get the highlighted look (until it became a brown mess)

***I lightly skimmed over the painted canvas with spray paint (white primer and light green) which muted the bright warm colors giving it a more antiqued look.

DIY Wall Art

There was a huge sale on canvases {at Hobby Lobby}. Of course I took advantage!  They sat naked until a recent idea came to me.  

Skill level: Moderate to Easy...

...if you can use a glue gun

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Supplies: Yarn, book pages, hot glue, acrylic paint 

(I used 3-4 colors), spray paint and Mod Podge.

 Step 1:  

Wrap yarn around the blank canvas in a grid like pattern - random and uneven (I thought I would glue the yarn down with paint dyed Mod Podge, however, it did not adhere to the canvas at all.  Hot glue did the trick!)

 

Step 2:

  Glue (Mod Podge) book pages atop the yarn and canvas to build a sturdy base.

Step 3:

 I don't have a picture of the next step - I used green spray paint to cover the book page covered canvas.

Step 4:

 Again, no picture - I strung hot glue vertically and horizontally...for what seemed like a lifetime.  
Layers and layers of hot glue.

Step 5: 

 I squeezed acrylic paint (color # 1) down the front of the canvas. I let the paint drip freely and dry outside.

Step 6:  

I dripped more acrylic paint down the front.

 Step 7:  

I goofed up a bit as the paint squirted out more then I would have liked (above).  Fix mistakes with the original spray paint color :)

I dripped white acrylic down the front - I ended up hating this layer and later toned it down with the original spray paint base color.

 

 

Step 8:  

I started to like what I was seeing but felt it was lacking.  Using book pages, I created a few different flower shaped templates ... 

...using the templates, I made several book page cut outs. 

 

Alternating the shapes, i layered the pages and stapled the middle to create these recycled flowers...

...then outlined the petals with blue paint. 

 Step 9:

I completed three paper flowers and glued them 

to the middle of the canvas.  

The End.

  

 

Canvas Makeover

Several months ago I wanted to create wall art using recycled magazines and an old canvas. The final product didn't turn out exactly as I anticipated (I thought by gluing yarn across the canvas would give it an added dimension however, the cute little owls are now in jail) Ugh.

Instead of throwing my efforts away I thought I'd give it a second chance.



I started by mixing Mod Podge with several drops of black paint and covered the canvas with old book pages to create a smoother base.

It's not easily seen in this picture but I dripped hot glue up and down the canvas. Trying to create the look of dripping blood.

Cover the hot glue and canvas with black spray paint.

Starting from the top I dripped red paint down the canvas - the messier the better (I've found some paints are thicker then others - the runnier the better in this case so you may need to thin the paint out slightly with a few drops of water)


Repeat the step with black paint (this is quite messy so make sure you have cardboard or a drop cloth below the canvas)

Glue plastic spiders to the front of the canvas and voilà!

An inexpensive Halloween piece of art!

A little known fact ~ I'm terribly arachnophobic so I had a very hard time handling these plastic spiders...


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