Make your own Wooden Pallet Art

I'm pretty picky about what artwork goes up on the walls in our home. Call it a lesson learned from my first year of marriage. While living in Mauritius, Clint and I bought our first picture in a rush. I cannot even tell you how much we loathed that canvas from the day after we bought it, until the day we happily gave it away! Another art roadblock is that we are often working within a tiny decor budget and tend to focus on more functional / practical items.

Well, the re-covering of our lounge suite (I'm in love love love with it!) prompted me to get creative and make something special to mount above our new three-seater. Clint found a beautiful pallet and we got to work. 

Pretty neat, don't you think! Why this particular verse you might be asking? If you read my story here, you will know that God has brought me through situations where I lacked the strength to cope with life on my own. Even in the smaller day to day struggles as a mom, business owner and wife, this is the hope that I have. He is my help and my strength. 

Supplies:

x Pallet

x Electric Sander / Sandpaper (optional)

x Primer (optional)

x Wood filler (optional)
x Any old interior/exterior paint you have lying around

x Acrylic paint for painting words / art

x Large + small paintbrush
x Stencil (optional)

x Your hardware of choice to hang your pallet art 

Instructions:

 

1) We love the shabby chic look, but didn't want our pallet to look too shabby, rather more chic. We sanded it down using an electric sander, then filled any holes with wood filler. If you do happen to have two sweet boys around, they will love helping / photo-bombing!

2) We chose to treat the wood to two coats of primer before starting to paint. Using a large brush, we then applied two coats of grey paint.

3) While that was drying, I created a paper stencil using a website called 'Free Stencil Maker'. I'm not going to lie, it did take forever to cut out each letter. I used an exacto knife and a wooden block to press on. I chose basic white acrylic paint for the lettering. I taped the first line of the stencil down, applied the paint, and then gasped at how much was leaking underneath the paper! I quickly switched to rather lightly brushing over each group of words, then removing the stencil right away and free-handing a few coats. I'm sure store-bought stencils won't have the same complications. Any touch-ups can be made using your background colour.

A little watercolour goes a long way....

I've toted a vanity case full of paints from one country to the next for years. There are many things I've been happy to let go of, but my art supplies are absolutely mine for keeps. I am not a painter by any stretch, but it really is fun to try.

A few Saturdays back, I sat down to try my hand at painting a vase of peonies using a never-been-used box of watercolour tubes. I cheated and printed a pretty picture to reference...so you here have it! - a fresh piece of artwork for our newly decorated bathroom. I used the same frame size and mounting mentioned in this post and will be sure to share a photo once it's hung.

By the way, if you want to see some REAL watercolour artwork, take a look at Heather Lee's gorgeous prints on her Lady Poppins blog. Beautiful right?

Make your own Fabric-Wrapped Letter Art

I came across this really fun idea for a fabric-wrapped 'HOME' sign to place on-top our dining room floating shelves. The idea was inspired by Jaime and you can see photos of her gorgeous home here. I am in love with the printed fabrics she worked with, but with our adjoining lounge suite already popping with colour, I chose a charcoal grey to wrap with instead.

 Supplies you will need:

x  Approximately 2m of fabric / scraps
x  Old cardboard box

x  Fabric glue

x  Pencil

x  Scissors

x  Four pieces of felt

x  White accrylic paint (optional)

x  Fine paintbrush (optional)

Instructions:

Rip four large rectangles off of your cardboard box. Pencil your letters onto the card and carefully cut out your large letters. Add a few dabs on glue onto the front of each letter to attach the felt and trim according to required shape. Next, cut your fabric into strips with a width of approx. 3cm. You are now ready to start wrapping. Strategically place a dot of fabric glue at back of the starting point of your letter and neatly wrap your way around each corner and curve, securing with glue as you go along. Don't worry if your backs look as scruffy as mine do - no one will be any the wiser!

Optional: I added a little more character to ours by painting on white 'tacking' detail.

Pretty Printables : Rise and Shine Poster

Raise your hand if you love a free printable! Particularly if it's a pretty one that you could frame and put up in your home.

This will be the first post of a series on this blog called 'Pretty Printables'. I am by no means a professional, but I do my best to put ideas that are in my head onto something I could print and call my art. The sizings may often be off, but that's what scissors are for. I kid. I will make sure all the files are high res so that you can happily print them according to your size of choice. I do hope you enjoy them!

This is a little poster I made this week to fill a lonely spot on our kitchen wall. It's called 'Rise & Shine'. Click directly on the picture below to download the image.