Artsy Fartsy

I recently started to repaint my living room/dining room area.  A few years of woodsmoke had done a number on the walls, and a couple of cracks from the house settling needed to be fixed, so we decided to repaint.  Or rather, we decided that I would repaint.  I started on Sunday and it’s looking great, but as with any other time I take everything off the walls to repaint, I want to buy all new things to hang back on the freshly painted walls.  Rather than buy new artwork, I decided to create some out of cheap stuff I found at the Salvation Army and a little junk mail.

Here’s a piece of art I found at the Salvation Army for $4.99.  It’s square, which I like, and it has a mat.  Two good things.  Also it was only $4.99, three good things.  The picture inside was a bit lame, (although love really IS all we need), and it looked like someone’s dog had been chewing on the frame.  Minor issues.  This frame and mat had a bigger destiny to fulfill.

Here’s a postcard I got in the mail at work.  Isn’t it lovely?  It’s announcing the opening of a show at the Danese Gallery of works by  Julian Stanczak.  We get mail every day from galleries announcing shows and they’re usually put right in the garbage, but this one I liked.  I thought I might be able to make something of it.  Amazingly, I measured the postcard and I measured the opening of the mat I bought at the Salvation Army and they matched perfectly!  The DIY gods were smiling down on me.

So let’s begin turning a trite piece of beat-up art from the thrift store, and a destined-for-the-trash piece of junk mail into a work of art, shall we?

First I had to cut the paper off the back of the frame (and think Happy Thoughts).  Depending on the frame you find, you may or may not have to do this.

Then pry up the staples all around so you can remove the mat and the glass inside.

Sand down the scratches and tooth marks (geeze, my hand looks enormous from this angle).

And then give it a few good coats of spray paint.  I used a white gloss enamel.  I like white frames with white mats.  It looks very clean, I think.

Now at this point, while the paint dries, I should be showing you a photo of me putting the postcard into the mat.  Unfortunately, I’m not very good at this step-by-step thing, and I completely forgot to take pictures.  It turned out that the heart picture was fused with the mat and I couldn’t remove it without ruining the mat.  Disappointing, but not the end of the world.  Instead of attaching the postcard to the back of the mat like I wanted to, I cut he postcard to size and attached it to the front of the heart picture just inside the opening of the mat.  No one will ever know the difference.  Except for you. but you won’t give away my secrets, right?

Next I gave the glass a good scrub, buffed the frame with some steel wool to remove a little of the gloss, (it was a bit too shiny for me), put the matted postcard in and sealed it back up.  And ta-da!  Fancy artwork for $4.99.

And yes, if you noticed, the postcard I framed isn’t the view you saw at the top of this post.  The card was two-sided and I ended up liking this side better.  Maybe I’ll go back to the Salvation Army and get another one of these frames and frame the other side.  Now everyone, go forth and make recycled art!

Looks peaceful, doesn’t it?  I painted this last weekend to hang in the now happy, bright, and art-filled guest bedroom.  Let’s just take a moment to bask in the peacefulness… aahhh.

OK, back to reality.  This week has been nonstop nuts with multiple appointments and jury duty, and one awesome yoga class that kicked my butt, and tonight I pack my jammies and my puppy and go to my sister’s house to watch her two boys as she and her husband take off for a tropical weekend of sunshine in Canada.  Wait, I got that wrong.  They wish it was tropical, and maybe it will be sunny, but it’s definitely Canada and it’s sure to be freezing cold.  Anyhow, I will be at home with the boys, and with the help of my mom who is tag-teaming the boy wrangling duties, hopefully neither of us will go crazy and we’ll have good weekends all around.  Tomorrow I get to pretend to be a mommy and take Cameron to kindergarten.  I’m nervous - I hope I do it right.  Cameron will surely tell me if I don’t.  I did find a magic weapon to help me through the weekend, thanks to my mom who told me that Cameron wants to come over her house every weekend to watch Star Wars on her digital cable.  I talked to Cameron on the phone on Tuesday and told him that I had all the Star Wars movies on DVD and I was going to bring them this weekend so we could watch them. He was so excited, he’s probably been asking my sister about that all week.  Sorry Andrea.  So wish me luck this weekend, and may the force be with me.

Sine it’s Valentine’s Day, I thought it might be the perfect day to declare my love - for Esty. Recently I’ve been buying artwork and other pretty things on Etsy and now everywhere I turn in my house, there’s something lovely and handmade.

These adorable valentine’s above are from Secret Agent Josephine’s Etsy shop: secretagentjo.etsy.com. They came in this cute packaging and are just so sweet! My intention was to hand them out just like I did in school, but so far I’ve only given one to Luke. That’s OK, I like looking at them, they make me happy.

This set of four postcards hanging in my pink studio are from Other Such Things. I added them to a Target frame and voila! Happy artwork for my wall.

This lovely little oil painting is from Art by Donna Rose and now hangs in my bathroom. You can even see the reflection of my shower curtain on the left of the glass. It was a beautiful little painting on board and I added this shadowbox frame to make it really pop. I think it looks perfect against the brick red walls.

I love this poster that I got from Luceee. Amazingly, I found a poster frame that fit it perfectly so I didn’t have to buy a mat for it. I think the colors look great against the green of the guest bedroom wall, and I love the quote from Ayn Rand.

This was my most recent Etsy purchase from Krista Peel’s Etsy shop, kristapeel.etsy.com. I’ve been shopping for frames but haven’t found just the right one yet. I do know exactly where it’s going once I do find a frame though. I also got these earrings from Krista, aren’t they gorgeous?

Seriously, if you’re looking for something to hang on your walls (or your ears), browse around on Etsy. Most of the artists selling their work also sell prints. Except for the oil painting, everything I’ve bought has been a print and I haven’t spent more than $19 each on any of them! I just did a quick search on Etsy of “Art + Print” to see what I could find - I got nearly 3,000 pages of results and I already saw two more prints I want to buy on the first page! You can narrow it down by adding “flower” or “landscape” to the search. Check it out: http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title&search_query=art+print

Soon you’ll be professing your love for Etsy, too!

An hour and a half of my life I’d like to get back.  What a waste.  But at least I got paper to doodle on.  Let’s consider this my drawing of the day for today.

I’m sorry. I’ve been feeling rather blah lately and haven’t been able to think of anything to write about today. I have no reason to be this crabby, but I feel like this little grumpy cloud has been following me around. Maybe it’s the weather. Or the lack of new TV programming. Or all of the irritating political commercials. Whatever it is, it has to stop. This cloud was my drawing of the day for Monday when I was feeling particularly ornery, but it seems to apply for today, too. Sorry about that, I’ll work on it.

Thursday I sewed. (You knew that already.)

Friday we repainted our bedroom.

Saturday we had friends over (I baked a cake).

Sunday we celebrated my brother-in-law’s birthday.

And here’s a bonus picture from my weekend. Sunday I was overcome with incredible willpower and did not slam the dryer door and turn it on high.

The set is up! Drawing 365 is official. There are a whole two drawings there, including this one you see above and yesterday’s wood stove drawing. Check back every day for new drawings.

I went back to Lotus Yoga with Andrea last night and it was HARD. We worked on all the tight areas of our bodies which means it was a good thing to do, but really tough, and I came home feeling like a limp noodle. I didn’t think I’d be able to hold a pencil (we even did hand and wrist stretches) but I grabbed my pad and made a quick sketch of myself in class. Well, maybe it’s someone based on myself. My feel aren’t really that small.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my year of drawings with Drawing 365.

Yes, I did draw last night. I drew for an hour or so, actually. I drew a cute picture of my wood stove, since I was huddled in front of it all night. But do I have a picture to show you? No, I don’t. I hastily threw my sketch pad on the scanner before I left the house and didn’t check the scan before I ran out the door. Now that I look at it, it’s so far beyond fixing, not even Photoshop could help it. I’ll scan it again tonight and start my Drawing 365 Flickr set.

In the meantime, if your eyeballs are yearning for something pretty, check out this blog that I love: Kris’s Color Stripes. She takes a photo and plucks out the individual colors that are in the photo, then shows the colors next to the photo. Sometimes the color swatches stacked up next to each other are more beautiful than the photo. You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you? Here, let me show you an example.

Pretty, huh? I could stare at these photos all day. They actually make me want to go make jewelry. The color combinations are so lovely and sometimes unexpected colors look so nice together. So in lieu of my drawings, go enjoy Kris’s Color Stripes today and come back here tomorrow for some sketchy loveliness.

The Christmas drawings have been erased and the black backsplash was calling to me last night so I drew this fat cardinal.  It was quick, it was fun, and I realized that I don’t spend enough time drawing.  With all of the sewing and jewelry-making and doing all of the other things I love to do, drawing gets pushed to the side and I go for weeks at a time without drawing anything, unless you count the doodled Post-Its all over my desk at work from the boring phone calls I’ve had to sit through.  That’s just sad.  I need to draw more.
So here’s my pledge.  I joined the Crafting 365 group on Flickr (see today’s craft here) but I think I’ll start my own Drawing 365 set.  I’ll draw something, anything, everyday and try to post them all to Flickr.  They may not be perfect or finished.  I’m thinking of just drawing something from my day.  Like yesterday I could have drawn the waffles that Luke made me for breakfast, or the computer which is where I spent most of the evening.  It should be fun.  I’ll let you know when the set is up and running.

Today I have to stop into work to deliver paychecks, then lock up my office and walk away for TWO. WEEKS. I can’t even believe that’s true.

The university closes for the week between Christmas and New Year’s so (shucks) I have to take those days off. Then I threw in three extra vacation days and made it a solid two weeks.

Of course the first week is already chock full of plans, but Luke will be working and I’ll be home most every evening, so I’ll be here to update you on my thrilling post-Christmas life.

The second week Luke will be home, and you may remember from our last vacation at home, it drives him nuts when I use the computer while he’s home, so I’ll have to sneak it and blog from my phone if I have to.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, a fantastic Christmas, and I’ll catch you all next week.

(Festive Christmas pictures, by the way, brought to you by my kitchen walls.)

Merry Christmas!!