Tiny Art Made by Tiny Hands

A friend and new client of mine sent me this image today and I thought it was the most absolutely adorable idea. 

Created by designer Jan Eleni, it's a collage of dozens of little drawings made by tiny little hands. Design Mom noted that she plans on having one created every year for each of her children. I think I'll do the same. 

Graphically, it kind of reminds me of the sticker walls that are making their way 

all over the blogesphere this week.

In regard to things, I am not a terribly sentimental person. Because we've moved so often in our marriage, we tend to keep things pretty light. We have one little shoe box we labeled "memories" and if it doesn't fit, we usually don't keep it. But I'm sure once our little man starts making works of art for his mama and daddy, we will miraculously become the sentimental pack rats we said we would never be. The collage art is a great idea for those who can't bear to throw things away. Just yesterday I was cleaning out the 0-3 month clothes from his closet (because he can already wear 6-9 months) and I had a hard time parting with anything, even white onesies with big yellow poop stains all over the back. What have I become??

In other news, Rems discovered grass this week. I cannot believe in a week I am going to have a 5 month old. Where is the slow down button?

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Nesting for Newbies

I had the fun opportunity several months ago to come up with an inexpensive, DIY art project 

for the latest issue of Nesting for Newbies.

 I thought it would also work well in a nursery, and instead of love, spell out the baby's name.



Big thanks to Nesting for Newbies for inviting me to participate!

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Flexible Art Display

I like this idea of using wooden hangers to keep flexibility within your art display.

Ironically, as we were putting some finishing touches on the baby's room last weekend, my husband turned to me and said "do you think one day we could hang band posters in Remi's room?" Which I think translates to "one day can I have a room with band posters on the wall." After seeing these little vignettes, I really like the idea. But with the baby's room almost complete, we may have to save it for Mr. Sabbe's future man cave.

And when that day comes, I know exactly where I will go. Mr. Sabbe has a friend from childhood/ high school, Justin Helton, who designs band posters for some pretty cool people....

Pretty awesome right!? Bryan always gets excited when we go to a concert and see his work.

Justin is also an alumni of the magnificent University of Tennessee. We churn out some good ones:)

images
1.2.3

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The Nursery: Chapter 6 {DIY art}

Last week I tackled some DIY art I had planned for the baby's nursery.  My very, very talented and creative friend Laura was the originator of this DIY. She posted pics of her baby's nursery on Facebook several months ago and I immediately emailed her to see if I could commission her to paint me the same painting she had hanging over her changing table. Laura is beyond a crafter like myself, she is an artist. One time after Mr. Sabbe and I had visited with she and her husband at their house, Mr. Sabbe made the comment "I think she might be better at this design on a budget stuff than you are." We almost divorced that day:)

When I found out that Laura's art was not a painting, but a manipulation of free online clip art paired with a bottle of decoupage, I decided I would give it a go. First I purchased a 24x36 canvas at our local art store for $8. Second, because I knew that the orange that I was trying to pull from in my rug would not come in an acrylic tube, and I am not a professional paint mixer, I matched the orange in the rug with a color in a paint deck. Then I took it to Home Depot and had them make one of the $3 sample paint jars in that color. Then I painted the canvas.

For the tricycle I took the same image Laura used into Illustrator and ran the live trace tool. Then I flipped it because I wanted my tricycle facing the opposite way on the canvas. I took the image to Kinkos and had them run a 20x30 black and white plot for around $3.50. HERE is the image if you are interested in giving this DIY a try.

I cut out the tricycle, covered the back in decoupage, and laid it on my dry canvas. Then I painted all around the edges of the image with more decoupage. You have to be pretty aggressive about smoothing out all of the bubbles during this stage. And because I wanted the tricycle to look as integrated as possible on the canvas, and the fact that decoupauge dries a little shiny, I then covered the entire canvas with a coat of gloss varnish (which I already had). And whaalaaa, DIY nursery art, for less than $20.

 See how well it goes with his rug.

I really like it. Our little guy does not have a window in his nursery, so I really wanted to do something bright. For a little girl I thought it would be cute to use the same image and have colorful ribbons, that looked like streamers, coming off the handle bars. Let me know if you give it a try!

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Free Idea

I have loved M.C. Esher ever since the fifth grade when I used to spend hours (when I was probably supposed to be studying something) staring at this piece in the Bellevue Library.

I have always wanted to do some sort of M.C. Esher inspired design and today I thought of a fun idea, again utilizing the ever available, always affordable, contact paper.

It would be SO easy! and for those of you who are not big on measuring, I think you could eyeball this one.

White contact paper on a chalkboard painted wall {bonus: you could write funny things the birds might be saying}

White walls could work with colored contact paper.

Or you could mix it up. If I hadn't just finished the chevron, I would totally be giving this one a shot. I think the whole wall behind my sofa would be cool.

Burt Reynolds thinks it's cool.
Burt Reynolds, I don't care if you have a mustache, you should not be smoking in my living room.

Here is a template. If you give it a shot, email me, I want to see!

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Mustache Art Tutorial + WonderUnder

Some of you asked for a little how to with the WonderUnder. It actually comes with some really great directions on the package, but just to get you to go out and buy some, I am going to show you some kitschy art I made this afternoon. Have I mentioned...ever...my fascination...with the mustache come back? Does this paparazzi style photo I snapped of this stranger clue you in? I don't know why, I love the mustache. It makes me laugh every time, and Mr. Sabbe and I were thinking we needed some sort of mustache related art in our apartment.

So I started with four of these hoops. Very cheap, $1 a piece.

I cut a piece of WonderUnder and ironed it to a solid fabric. Then I traced a mustache on the paper and cut it out.

  

If you rip the paper it makes it easy to pull off the fabric. The fabric will now have a sticky "iron on" backing.

After you have ironed it to your main fabric, do a zig zag or straight stitch around the applique. Zig zag is better for making sure it never frays, but straight stitch will work and make sure it never falls off in the laundry. I didn't stitch my mustaches, because I will never wash them.

  

They do make us laugh. What is your favorite 'stache style? I don't think I'll keep them up forever. Luckily these little hoops lend themselves nicely to rotating art.

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Chevron Tutorial Recall + the deer

First things first. Thank you to whoever commented about the contact paper ruining their walls. I forgot to mention a very important detail. Both walls I have applied this technique to have been lath and plaster, NOT drywall. I am understanding from a few comments that this may not work so well on drywall. I would believe them and steer clear. Damaged drywall is a waaaay bigger deal than painting where you were not supposed to. PLEASE don't ruin your walls by doing this tutorial. I will feel SO terrible.

I will say that the birds I did in my last house were up for two years and were easy to peel off when we were ready to move. So if you do have lath and plasters walls, you should be good to go.

Secondly, some people have asked about the deer head. Along with chevron, I was very big on the animal heads this past summer. I love, love, love this Etsy shop, but they were all out of my price range. So after looking everywhere, and even pricing a form and antlers for a major DIY attempt, I found this guy on Ebay for $25...

He is made of resin and the best part is, his antlers are detachable. So spray painting just the head was super easy.

For about $30 total, I think he's just as good as, if not better, than the Z Gallery version and almost 1/8th the price. I wish I could find the Ebay dealer, but I didn't see them when I looked. If you like it, I would check Ebay every now and then and see if they re-post them. My search was "deer head"

And to wrap this very wordy blog post up, please do not put contact paper on your drywall!

Can my conscious be clear now?

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Tutorial: Contact Paper Chevron Wall

Like many city dwellers, we live in an apartment where we are not allowed to paint. At first, I was a little thrown off about what I could do to make the apartment unique and fun without painting. During that same time I had been searching high and low (unsuccessfully) for a navy blue chevron fabric to use for pillows on my sofa. This past fall I was on a big chevron kick. Then the idea came to me... I'll do a chevron on the wall with contact paper! The entire process was very easy, 1 hour start to finish.

Materials:

1 roll of contact paper

ruler

measuring tape

scissors

pencil

painters tape

exacto blade

optional: architectural triangle

Steps:

1. Measure the width of your wall.

2. Roll out contact paper to that length, add 2 inches.

3. Contact paper is gridded on the back, so if even if you do not have a triangle, you can figure it out. The triangle made it VERY easy. I aligned it with the bottom of the paper and drew one triangle. Then I took my quilting ruler (you could use a regular ruler) and drew a parallel triangle.

4. Cut out your first chevron and tape, centered, on your wall. Leave the extra inch in the crack of the wall on each side.

 5. To apply to the wall, peel one triangle at a time, ripping the paper off of the backside and smoothing to wall. This is the part that takes a little patience. Once you get it smooth, take your exacto blade, score both ends in the corner, and peel off excess contact paper.

6. Once you get your first one on the wall, measure from the bottom points to where you would like your next row to start. Measure every point and mark with a pencil. This is how you will align your next row.

7. Do the same for the rest of the wall.

 Two people would have made this project easier.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that in both houses I have tried this in (I did birds in my last house), the walls are lath and plaster, not drywall. Some people have commented that this does not do so well on drywall, so please proceed with caution!! The birds were up for two years and peeled off no problem when we sold the house.

Also, BIG thanks to Design*Sponge for featuring this tutorial! That made my day.

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Paper Birds

I made these paper birds for our living room wall a couple of weekends ago and I'm really enjoying them. The shadows they make are my favorite. I needed something on this wall, but I just wasn't feeling anything in a frame. I asked Mr. Sabbe what he thought. He said it looks very masculine, ha, ha. I told him one day, when we are not living in 700 sf, I will design him a man cave....one day.

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Uncle Buck

Hello handsome.

I was catching up on some AT reading over the weekend and discovered there are people that were "so over" the deer chic look in 2008! Now I knew there were people who were never into it in the first place, but we've been there and we're over it!? Come on people, slow down. It took me months to find one that I could afford.

And how about that chevron! I decided to go tonal instead of searching the world for the perfect shade of navy blue contact paper, and it worked out better than I could have ever imagined. I love it. It goes on my top 3 list of favorite DIYs.

I've decided to name him Uncle Buck after the 1980's blockbuster and because most of my life I have associated deer heads on walls with my very own uncles.

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Wood You Like to Live Over My Sofa...

This week I am crushing on some sliced tree stumps. I think a creative arrangement of these rings over my sofa would be the most awesome DIY artwork ever.

Will someone who lives in the country {where there are fallen trees and chainsaws} please cut me off a few slices and stick them in the mail? thanks!

Imagery

tree stump

suntree

treepath

abstract tree art

treerings

petrified wood

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Mini Bunting

What better way to celebrate a Friday!

Does bunting make anyone else as happy as it makes me? I could stream it through my whole apartment.

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Contact Paper Wall Graphics

I made these little birdies out of white contact paper last week before my turkey day crowd arrived. I Googled "flock of birds" and enlarged the photo in Photoshop. Then I cut each bird out, traced them onto my contact paper, and here you have some very, very affordable art!

The real secret is I made the birdies to cover up some holes in my wall I made from some frames I had hung and didn't like. So here you have cheap art and a lazy woman's answer to damaged walls.

My favorite part is that they are flying out of Zoe's food bowls:)

I think next I'm going to try a chandelier out of black contact paper and hang it in my closet. If you like super easy, super fast crafts...this one is for you.

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Wine, Cheese, and Crafts...My favorite combination!

My friend Jennifer hosted a painting party last night. It is not a big secret that I love crafts of all sorts and being in the design field I do no think people are too surprised to hear that. But the great thing about last night was bringing together accountants, nurses, interior designers, and hospital administration types (hope that's right Tiff) all in the name of crafts!


So Bryan happened to stroll by when I was looking on one of my favorite inspiration websites and see these medical art images. So if you are straining to see what in the world did Stephanie paint....behold...Heart and Lungs. It will temporarily be on display in our home office, in the future look for it at the MOMA.

Stay tuned for Brain, coming Spring 08

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