Low-Cost Artwork for a Business

Artwork:

These paintings were completed this week for a local hairdresser. She has recently renovated her salon, and has used black, charcoal and an orange feature wall. These pictures are to hang directly behind the reception desk.

She wanted to keep the decorations as cheap as possible, so I found a way to do these large pictures for her for very little money! I thought it might be a good idea for small businesses who don’t want to spend lots of money on artwork, but want their premises to look funky!

So I used MDF! These sheets are each 90cm x 60cm, so three of them make the artwork quite large. Each of these panels only cost $3.50 each from Bunnings, which means that this whole artwork cost a total of $10.50!! I used paint that she already had (leftover) from re-painting the salon.

The most expensive part of this artwork was purchasing the Command adhesive picture hooks, which were $6.32 for a pack of 4. I purchased three packets of these.

Again, the designs are very simple, and are in a similar style to my Simple Orange Bottles Canvas and my Knife-Fork-Spoon Canvas for an Entertaining Area.

I had to do about 4 coats of the orange, as the MDF needs a few coats over it so that the colour is right.

Then I simply worked out what I was going to paint, I decided on scissors, a bottle of product and a comb. Perfect for a hairdresser!

Once the orange paint was dry, I just painted the designs on freehand. This style will always look funky – you really can’t go wrong with it, no matter what your items end up looking like!

I’m looking forward to delivering these to the hairdressing salon this week.

Happy creating!

Emma

Modern Sand, Sea and Sky Painting

Artwork:

This is my favourite new artwork I made this week for my home - it's going to hang in the hallway for the time being, but once I get my renovations done I think I might move it to the dining area.

This was really simple to make. I hope you have a try and show me how you go! 

Using a ruler I drew lines 3 - 4 inches apart horizontally across the card. Then just hand drew random scallops along each row and painted them white. 

Once I had the depth of colour coverage I was after I added the additional two colours.

Do this until you are all finished. Then just frame and hang.

Happy painting!

Caity x

Plywood Skyscraper-Design Panels

Artwork:

This project was really enjoyable to paint, and it was also very easy to do! I wanted this artwork’s design to be plain, geometric and modern. Once I’d completed the project, I thought they looked like the windows of skyscraper buildings, hence the name.

My plywood panels use a VERY simple concept of squares for the design, and they are based on my Black, White and Orange Canvas that I painted some time ago. My panels were cut ages ago by our builder (so I can’t claim any credit for using the saw to cut them up!), and they’re each 12.5cm x 30cm.

I simply drew on the squares with pencil.

Then I used a fine brush to paint around each square. The lovely charcoal colour I have used is Dulux Grid. I thought they looked better with the sides left unpainted.

I plan to hang them up using those Command sticky picture hangers.

This project is for a friend’s 40^th birthday – I hope she enjoys her Plywood Skyscraper-Design Panels!

Emma

Make a Quilt Canvas for Mother's Day

Artwork:

Lately I’ve been trying to use up some of my pieces of material, and I’m not letting myself buy anything new until I've used most of it up!

I’ve always liked Caity’s Children’s Paper Quilt Art Project, and wanted to build on that to make something similar for Mother’s Day using my fabric scraps. So I came up with this Quilt Canvas idea.
It really was a very simple and quick project. You also won’t need many materials.

I purchased a small-ish canvas (one with the larger sides), and used my scrap fabric, glue and paint that I already had on hand. The colour of the paint is Dulux Red Alert.

The whole project took about an hour to complete.

Firstly I cut up some small squares of all the fabric that I wanted to use.

Then I squeezed out heaps of glue and spread it out with my finger all over the area where I wanted to place my squares.

Then I simply stuck each one on! I was careful to ensure the design is balanced.

I finished the design by painting the sides of the canvas, which has added extra colour without being “too much”. The Quilt Picture is quite busy, so if you try something like this yourself, make sure that you leave enough space around the fabric for the picture to breathe.

Happy crafting for Mother’s Day!

Emma

Double-Sided Flag Paintings

Artwork:

Some flags are just so lovely and simple - especially the Danish and Swiss ones - and they look fantastic when used as part of a room’s design. 

I've seen loads of interior pictures using flag designs on soft furnishings and other items, so for this week's project, I thought I’d build on that and make something to be used as artwork in our home.

I wanted to do something a bit different this time, I thought I’d combine the two flags on the one piece of plywood. I painted one on the front, 

and one on the back. 

So when I get tired of looking at one side, I can flip the artwork over and have a completely new design! At the moment, I have them leaning up against the wall, so changing it around will be very easy.

This project was very simple and took no time at all. All you’ll need is a piece of plywood (I purchased mine from Bunnings), a ruler and pencil and some paint!

Firstly I printed out from the internet the flags that I wanted to paint. This way I could see exactly how to draw the flag.

Then I drew the design onto the plywood using a ruler. This was much easier that I thought it was going to be.

Then I painted in the red, then the white on the Danish flag. For the Swiss flag, I just left the ‘cross’ as it was – with the plywood colour showing through. The red colour that I used was Dulux Red Alert. The white was just a tin of something I already had in the cupboard. I only did one coat of each colour.

These paintings already look really good in our home!

Happy decorating!

Emma

Comic Book Art for a Boy's Room

Creative Ideas/Artwork:

I was recently browsing through my favourite Life Line shop and came across a pile of comics. Now if you remember Thom is totally loving super heroes at the moment - so when I saw these I just had to buy them. 

I got them for $2 each!!! Which almost made me buy more - but I managed to control myself somewhat!

I simply framed them in some white frames I already had from Ikea and have hung them above Thom's bookshelf.

Needless to say he is thrilled with them and the best thing is I can easily change them around with more comics or other images as he gets older!

Happy creating.

Caity x

Simple Fabric Covered Canvas Art

Artwork:

I'm redecorating the spare room at the moment. Just brightening it up a little. This artwork took me all of 5 minutes to make.  

All you need is:

• Cheap canvas (discount stores are the best place to get these)
• Fabric to cover the canvas (at least 5cm extra around the top of the canvas)
• Scissors
• Staple gun

Simply cut the fabric so you have an overhang of at least 5cm around all sides of the canvas. 

Start stapling the fabric at along one end - as close as you need to to ensure the fabric sits smoothly.

Then repeat on the opposite end, making sure you keep the fabric tight on the 'face' of the canvas.

Repeat for the other 2 sides, folding down each of the corners like you would wrap a present.

Then, hang and enjoy! This project is also great because, similar to the Wrapping Paper Art I made, when you get tired of the fabric you can simply replace it.

Happy creating!

Caity x

Paper Petal Artwork

Artwork:

This week I thought I'd make some new artwork for my bedroom. I was looking for something modern, yet relaxing in style.

I love this pattern - it's based on my Pretty Petals Quilt I made last year. 

This was a simple, and inexpensive way to make something new for my home.

I bought the card from Spotlight and cut out simple hand drawn petal shapes.

Next, just lay them out to fit a frame you have. Make sure you balance the colours out so no one colour dominates any part of the artwork.

Once you are happy with the layout you can secure each petal with a little bit of glue - you don't need to use anything too heavy duty as you don't want the glue to seep through. 

Then simply put it into your frame, hang and admire!

Happy crafting and a happy Easter to everyone.

Caity x

Framed Tissue Pictures

Artwork:

This project is SO simple and is very similar to Caity’s Wrapping Paper Art and my Tea Towel Pictures.

Recently I was looking for some fabric or paper to co-ordinate with a room in my spare cottage. I had purchased the fabric that I used for the curtains and cushions for $1 a metre from Spotlight, (what a bargain! - and it looks lovely), but I had lots of trouble finding another design in the right colour to work in with the coloured walls and the fabric.

Then one day I was standing in the line waiting at Lincraft… and I saw one of those little packets of trendy tissues in JUST the right colour!

So I bought three small-ish white frames, and popped a section of the tissue in each one. This is a quick summary of how to do it:
 

1. Cut out a piece of tissue that fits into the mount size in the frame
2. Use sticky tape to secure the tissue piece to the back of the mount
3. Put back some of the bits of paper that come with the frames behind the tissue and mount (flip them over so that they are white at the back of the tissue, not the 'photo' picture
4. Put the frame back together!

Talk about a cheap and easy DIY artwork solution!

Happy making!

Emma

Kaleidoscope Egg Design

Artwork:

This weekend (during the evenings), I painted this artwork for a friend’s birthday. He really likes colourful, African-inspired things, so I came up with my Kaleidoscope Egg Design to suit his house. 

The design was really very simple. I first drew in the shapes and lines for painting, so that each of my sections was going to be roughly the same width. And, of course, I painted it on plywood!

Then I started placing my colours. Really, you could use whatever colours you liked… you just need to make sure that the use of each colour is distributed evenly throughout the design. For example, here is the first colour I added (red). 

Don't worry about the lines being too perfect.

I used 7 colours in total. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Happy painting!

Emma