Crafts

Andy Warhol inspired chair pop art

10/29/2012 11:48 pm by Allison 11 Comments

{I have been glued to the TV all evening watching the hurricane coverage. It’s heart wrenching to watch. Ben and I (and our chicklets) lived in Long Branch, New Jersey for a year in 2008 so I have a special place in my heart for Jersey and its shore. Watching it get slammed with this terrible storm is just awful. And poor New York City. I cry every time I see more footage of Battery Park. I feel like Jersey and New York are my homes away from home. I hope everyone affected by this awful storm stays safe, dry, and warm. Please know I am thinking about you guys and crying for you.}

A long time ago I made four canvas art pieces as a nod to Andy Warhol. I love his abstract and quirky art.

I’ve wanted to frame the art for a long time, but frames aren’t cheap, and I always had other places I wanted to spend my limited funds. Fortunately I lucked out and found the perfect frames for less than $3 each at Michael’s. I didn’t know you could buy frames that cheap – especially frames that are 11×14.

I laid out my canvas art pieces on top of each frame to test how they would look. They fit perfectly.

I really like the look of them on top of the glass (as opposed to behind the glass).

I opened each frame and removed the little strip of paper with the info and upc code on it. Turns out the mats had been badly faded and were whiter where the little strip of paper was. It was an easy fix though, I just tured the mat around.

Once the mats were put back in the frame I decided to attach the canvases on top of the glass. To do so I just used box tape on the back of each mat and then stuck them directly to the glass.

You can see how they pop off the glass a little giving a more 3-dimensional look. Also, I was afraid the glass might put a glare on each chair, so by adding the canvas to the top of the glass I minimized any glare.

I really love how the art looks on my shelves in our dining room.

I gave you guys a sneak peek of my Andy Warhol inspired art when I showed you my new cow painting:

I like the chair art because I feel like it’s kind of funky and weird and quirky. I like to add a splash of weirdness to each room in my home just to infuse more of my personality into it. And the chair part of the art itself just works because chairs and dining rooms seem to go together.

Now I can check Project #5 off that to-do list I made last year (and still haven’t finished). Baby steps.

What specific things have you done to your home to infuse your own personality into it? It doesn’t have to be weird or quirky, just something that is very uniquely you.

Filed Under: Crafts, Painting Tagged With: Andy Warhol, chair pop art, Dining Room

Turn gift bags into {cheap} art

09/03/2012 9:31 pm by Allison 9 Comments

Every summer during my childhood my mom would pack up her daughters, and her best friend would pack up her two girls and we would hit the road for our annual “no boys allowed” beach vacation (they both have only daughters. No sons were left out). The moms we’re dubbed (and still to this day are called) “Beach Barbara” and “Beach Lynda”. We would stay at a condo for a week, eat all the fresh boiled shrimp we could, and play in the sand and surf from sun up to sun down. Of course, there were plenty of shenanigans going on as well. With 5 girls all within a few years of each other we reeked plenty of havoc and made a few too many boys cry.

Though all the girls are grown and mostly married, and there are lots of grand-babies added to the mix, my mom and sisters still try to have our annual beach trip. Some years we’ve missed, and it’s been far too many years since I’ve sat on the beach with my mom’s bestie Lynda, but because of our yearly tradition I have very fond memories of the beach.

My mother thinks that there are beaches in heaven. And she thinks her veins bleed salt water. She is happiest during our beach trips and if she could live among the seagulls and sand crabs I think she would.

So when I saw this gift bag that read “Life is good at the beach” I just had to buy it for her.

Of course, there really isn’t much you can do with a gift bag except maybe put a gift in it. But the coloring is pretty, and the letters are nice, and the overall look would be fabulous as art.

This really is quite a simple tutorial. I headed over to the dollar store and bought an 8×10 dollar frame.

Make sure to get a frame that is roughly the same size as your gift bag.

To frame the bag, cut it up one side and lay it out flat. Then just trace it around the glass in the frame and cut the bag to size. So easy.

Such an easy way to make pretty art. I’ve already given it to my mom and she loves it. I keep telling her she can tuck it away on a bathroom counter, but she insists on keeping it on her mantle so she can see it ever day. Even though I’m 32, she still keeps my art around to appease me.

The frame with the girls in it I’ve had for years and years. It’s a framed picture of me with two of my sisters during one of our beach vacations. I think it was taken in about 1996 when I was 16, Lindsey was 14, and Merideth was 12. Even after all these years the picture still makes me smile with fond memories.

Here’s a pinterest-ready picture if you feel so inclined to pin it. Your friends that don’t read my blog (gasp!) will thank you for sharing this simple idea with them.

Do you have any life-long traditions? I would really love to hear them! I love traditions and think they are so important. Spill your guts and tell us yours.

Filed Under: Crafts, Holiday, Summer Tagged With: artwork, beach, Dollar Store, Target Dollar Spot

Dangle Earring Frame – A Blogging2Better Challenge

06/12/2012 4:00 am by Allison 9 Comments

For the past 6 weeks I’ve been part of a collaboration group called Blogging 2 Better. Every week we met up via conference call to discuss all things blog. It was really nice to be able to bounce ideas off other bloggers and also learn so much more about blogging! Our group consisted of:

House of Hepworths
East Coast Creative
Sand and Sisal
Being Brook
SAS Interiors

We decided for our last and final week we would end our 6-week crash course with a bang by doing a project and blogging about it. Without further adieu, welcome to

Here are the list of supplies we had to incorporate into our project. We had to use ALL of them in one project. Not so easy!

Are you curious to see what I made?

I made a Dangle Earring Frame for my daughter.

I’ve racked my brain for months to come up with a solution for her earrings and welcomed this challenge to create something.

I almost pulled my hair out trying to incorporate all the items on our list, but I pulled through in the end.

Okay, so here’s how I made this Dangle Earring Frame. I started with a barn wood picture frame. Yes, I’m a cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater because I bought a pre-made frame. The challenge said barn wood. It didn’t say in what form!

* Barn Wood – Check.

The frame is from Hob Lob and I got it during a half-off sale.

I grabbed some burlap from my stash to attach to the inside of the frame. I used Burlap because the weave is loose and wide. It’s really easy to hang and remove dangle earrings on burlap.

* Fabric – Check.

The barn wood frame didn’t like having the burlap stapled to the back of it a million times and I kinda accidentally broke the frame. That’s why there are like 20 staples on the front of the frame – I was too impatient to fix it properly.

You can see here how I used my staple gun to attach the fabric to the inside of the back of the frame. The tape is there just to prevent the edges of the burlap from fraying.

Next up – ribbon. I had this ribbon in my stash and it’s primarily pink, orange, and yellow – the perfect colors for my daughter’s room. This is as close to coral as I will get. I fundamentally disagree with decorating with the color coral.

Let’s just say the light pink is coral. Just go with it, people.

* Coral color – Check.

So anyway I glued the ribbon around the frame to cover up the plethora of staples I put on the frame. Worked great.

Next on the list – Mod Podge. I used Mod Podge to help affix the ribbon to the frame.

* Mod Podge – Check.

To finish off the Dangle Earring Holder and the challenge I needed to use a stencil. Thankfully I have a Silhouette so I just found a cute Monogram K in the Silhouette store and cut it out the right size for the frame.

* Stencil – Check.

While the paint was still wet I carefully pulled all the vinyl off leaving a beautiful monogram.

My daughter chose this teal color, which I was apprensive about at first but quickly realized that she is smarter than I am, because that teal looks fabulous!

And the finished result – the perfect Dangle Earring Holder!

I actually like it so much and it works so fabulously that I’m considering making myself one as well!

I hung it low so that my daughter can reach it.

I’ll admit, this challenge was exactly that – a challenge for me. I was so stumped. But I really love the end result.

I had such a great time collaborating with these amazing ladies. Even though our official 6-week commitment is over, we find ourselves still texting, calling, and emailing each other with blogging and life questions. I definitely call these ladies my friends now. They are all awesome and so are their blogs!

Want to see a sneak-peek of the other amazing Blogging 2 Better Challenge projects?

Each of these are so unique! It’s amazing how different each of our projects are even though we all had the same materials to work with. Check out each of their projects below and don’t forget to add their blogs to your favorites list!

East Coast Creative – Rustic Industrial Storage Bins
Sand and Sisal – Pallet Art Surfboard
Being Brook – Fabric Wall Map
SAS Interiors – Monogram Chevron Pallet Tray
House of Hepworths – Dangle Earring Frame