From Blank Canvas to a Piece of Art

Now lets be honest. Art today is pricey. But if you want to spruce up your apartment/house on a budget all you need is a blank canvas. Well, and some paint and inspiration!

Like i've mentioned in previous posts all you need is a idea and you can turn it into anything. One day while shopping at my favorite local arts and craft store (Ben Franklin) i noticed canvas was on sale. Ask any art student and they will tell you this is the pricey fundamental piece for a work of art so when its on sale might as well stock up. So thats what i did. I purchased 4 8x10 pieces and 1 2 1/2"x 3 1/2 " piece. Mind you i bought them over a year ago and it wasnt until i moved again that i finally did something with them. Originally i was going to use them as art for a head board since my bed doesnt have one but when i moved something more crafty came to mind (that will come in a later post).

Back on topic. The small pieces were an early project. For some odd reason i had bought some foam stamps but never used them or gifted them for anything. I thought...these would be cute for decoration..only if it was more apartment friendly. So what did i do....I traced the words on to those handy pieces of canvas and made them cute! With a little puff paint and cute hand writing you can accomplish a lot. Here is the final Project with the inspiration below.

With a little change in color and decorative background swirls, dots, and hearts, i think they turned out adorable. Now i just need to figure out where to put them. Im thinking my room but i already have lots of stuff there so maybe kitchen. Who knows. By the way, theres only three because i messed up on the Dream one on the first try..got a little to artsy fartsy for my own good and it went over board. Always nice to have a back up!

Now for the larger piece. My best friend and I were moving in together and i thought this was perfect to decorate our bare white walls with. First i had spent about 3 hours outlining a beautiful script of our names, filling it in with paint, and fixing the edges. Then when the blackboard project came along, i forgot to move it and some paint spilled on it :( Thats my fault of course...you should always use a drop cloth!!

Anyways...seeing how the blackboard paint was black i threw some black paint on it and painted it all black. Seeing as our living room colors are black, white, and yellow, this was the first place to start. Now it sat like that for at least 2 weeks until i was bored and picked it up. Took some white puff paint and went to town. For some reason i really enjoy painting swirls. They are fun and can look really elegant. I offset the drawings to give it a more art perspective. Let dry and then time to figure out the final piece. We wanted to write a cute saying on one of our walls but could never come up with something. I goggled "home quote" and found one i instantly fell in love with. Find it and the final project below:

"A house is made with walls and beams; A home is made with love and dreams" - Unknown

Another Tip! I didnt have yellow puff paint that matched what i had been using for other projects around the house so i took the exact color i had been using and mixed in with a white puff paint. Came out the same if not better and gets the job done!

I showed dana and she loved it. Simple way to take a blank canvas and turn it into a piece of art!