Oh, FREE things, how I love thee...

So, one morning, about a month or two ago, I was bored.
I thought, why not spend 5 min searching the free section of craigslist before breakfast?
This is what I found:

This Pottery Barn Spherical Votive Candle Wall...thing.

For free. Including the glass cups, and 16 fake (all working) tea candles.

I googled it, and though it is no longer for sale, it was...for 130$.

So, it just goes to show, craigslist is one of the best inventions on the face of the Earth. It is hanging right above the IKEA Expedit bookshelf in our living room, and I absolutely love it. I even dressed it up for Halloween:

If you need decorations, search craigslist!! Go garage sale-ing, you can find amazing things for near nothing! (In this case, for actually nothing)

DIY Dandelion Canvas Art

Cost: under 4$, Time: 40min

Yes, you read that correctly. If there ever was a quick craft, this is it.
This project came about from my sheer impatience. I has one canvas left over from that 5-pack that I bought at Micheals, and it was just sitting there in the living room, staring at me.
The entry to our apartment was also boring...the wall was just...staring at me.
So I combined the two.

This really is as easy as it looks. I painted the canvas green using my favorite paint, cheap-o acrylic (the kind that costs like 30c) and then when it was almost all the way dry, I scratched at it with my fingernail and rubbed at it a bit. This thinned the paint in areas, giving it a distressed, more dimensional feel that if it were just flat green and white. Wait for it to dry (a few minutes for me), then apply another coat and distress.

Then, I painted some long blades of grass and thin branches. To add the dandelion 'puffs' on top, I just stabbed my paintbrush (literally, stab it) into some paint, then I jabbed it some more against the paper plate until the bristles were separated and there was barely any paint on it. Then, I pushed it onto the canvas.

This entire project was really easy, and just what I wanted to use up that last canvas with. It took under an hour, including drying time.

Simple, thrifty, beautiful.

DIY Bird Branch Canvas Painting

Cost: 12$, Time: 2 hours
WELL worth it! One of my favorite pieces I have ever made!

I was searching Pinterest for some canvas art ideas, as I recently found some HUGE canvases at Micheals during their buy one get one FREE sale. I bought 2 in the largest sizes they had, and this is what I did with one of them. I love it, it's hanging right above our bed.
Justin loves it too, how could you not?

My inspiration came from this lovely painting {{http://www.cornerhouseblog.com}}



Isn't her version lovely? She labeled it a "New Family portrait" because the birds symbolized her family, and I think that is extremely sweet.

Now, you may ask me, what on earth are those butterflies doing on your painting, if it represents family?
Those adorable butterflies are my two lovely cats, added in at Justin's request.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DIY Bird Branch Canvas Painting

Step 1: Paint the background whatever color you want, I chose Suede. (optional) You can distress it by letting it dry almost 100% and rubbing your fingernail against parts of it and scratching/thinning some of the paint off. I chose not to do this, but I may go back at a later time and see if I can distress it, if inspiration strikes me to do so.

Step 2: Find your birds (or whatever you choose to use) to trace. I found these darling lovebirds, and simply put a piece of paper on my computer screen and traced them. I scaled them to the right size so that I could simply cut out the birds and place them on my canvas to trace. I made one bigger to be the boy bird, as I am literally half the size of Justin.

Step 3: (optional) If you want to use just birds, skip this step. I wanted to include my cats, some may want to include their dogs or perhaps other pets. I didn't want to add my kitties in as birds, as I wanted to save the little birds for my future children. I settled on using butterflies for the cats, though you could use anything. Dragonflies were a close second, as I advise using something with a recognizable silhouette. (ie not a caterpillar or smaller bug)

Step 4: Place the cutouts on the canvas first. I found where I wanted them to be, and traced them before I even thought about tracing the branch. It is much easier to work the branch around these figures than to try and stuff a bird where it can't fit, or much too off to the side.

Step 5: Free hand the branch with a pencil. You can do it, trust me. It's literally a stick, with some thick bits and some skinny bits. I looked at a picture, but you could just imagine it or look out the window. I don't think it's even possible to draw a branch wrong, but if you can manage to do it, please send it to me for some laughs!

Step 6: Just fill in your tracing with paint. I chose white, you could chose any color you want. My brush is one of those cheap ones that come in a huge pack for like 99c.

Let it dry, and you're done! Now choose a place to hang it, and enjoy! We chose just over our bed, so it is the first thing anyone sees when walking into our room. It has already gotten tons of compliments, and I just love to tell people that I painted it myself, and explain the symbolism. It feels much more personal, knowing that the two love birds represent Justin and myself.

So there you have it! A simple, conversational art piece that is symbolic and cheap, all in one!

DIY Paint Chip Canvas Art

* PLEASE READ:

Before I show this DIY tutorial, I'd like to talk first about the ethics of doing this with free paint chips. I got these leaf-shaped paint chips from Home Depot (bless you, Home Depot!) and I took 28 of them. I felt horrid in the store, hoarding all 28 of my paint chip leaves, so I asked the cashier in the paint section if there was a limit. Before I could even finish my question he laughed and said "You can take as much as you want, no limit, they are completely free."
I was stunned, and so I smiled back and walked out. On my way out, I again asked another cashier if I could take to many even though I didn't intend to purchase paint, she again smiled and said they hand them out free for a reason, we can do what we want with them.
So when I came home with my 28 leaves, I did a search to see if anyone else felt a bit..off about walking out of a store with a handful of paint chips without paying a dime for them.
This is what I found: {{from http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com }}

BEHR~
"We’ve been tickled pink to see all the creative ways BEHR fans use leftover paint chips!  From our mobile application to our new blog all about color, we offer innovative and interactive tools that help consumers build confidence in their color choices.  Certainly the in-store experience at The Home Depot is essential to that.  Our comprehensive color palette lets customers find a way to bring beautiful color into their home –  once they’ve tackled a painting project, we encourage do-it-yourselfers to use and recycle paint chips in interesting ways.  Mostly, we hope the paint chips inspire our customers – whether in a 8 oz. sample or gallon size, we love seeing how colors come to life on the wall!” 

So, because I am using BEHR Paint Chip Leaves, I felt much better about taking some now that I know BEHR is 'tickled pink' at my creations. However, I do advise that if you do this craft, ask for older/out of print paint chips, or buy some paint while you are there! I did buy paint with this purchase, for my old house's living room, and if I had simply walked in and out with no purchase, I would have felt weird and wrong.

In conclusion: in my opinion, as long as you are in fact making a purchase (or will make future paint purchases at the store b/c of this craft) then I say go for it, take some paint chips. But if you are for some reason making lets say a roof out of these babies, you might want to ask for out of print paint chips, or see if you can buy a box straight from the manufacturer. Do not resell your creations unless you have paid for the paint chips, in my opinion.



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DIY Paint Chip Canvas Art

Cost: 3$ {{Yes, really}}

This took a lot longer than my normal paintings, probably 4-5 hours. The bulk of the time was spent cutting/tracing, then gluing. But, for 3$,I won't dare complain.

Seriously, for 3$, this is pretty much as good as it gets. Now, before I go into the step-by-step, I'll start with what colors I used to make this, how many, etc. 

Colors: 

Basketry

Sliced Cucumber

Pencil Point

Macchiato

Elephant Skin

Ivy Topiary

Dusty Olive

Now that's 7 colors in all, and I got 4 of each color (28 leaves total). It turned out to be just enough, as you will need 80 "petals" (I'll get into this later) and this will make you 84, so you have a little wiggle room in case you rip one, or you want to play with the colors a bit.

 Where did I get them? These are the BEHR Paint Chip Leaves from Home Depot. I love Home Depot, let me just get that out right now. This is what the paint chip leaves look like:

 Aren't they lovely? So much prettier that those boring old paint chips, these leaves have character! This is "Elephant Skin", and probably one of my favorite colors in this bunch.

Now, I initially wanted to do something like this, using the actual shape of the leaf:

But I found that it was just too plain for me. Too much white was showing, and I didn't like how feminine it looked. I live with two guys, so a flower in the living room - really?

Then I tried this, but it still wasn't working for me.

I was just blindly moving around leaves at this point, not gluing anything, until I stumbled across this beauty online:

On clearance sale for only....drum role please...105$!!!! Down from 130$!!!!!! 

Yeah, no. 100$ for a piece of canvas?!?!

So, I decided to make it myself, with my color palette of grey/green/tan. To get the "petal", I measured my canvas. Mine was 16" x 20", so I was able to fill it with 20 circles, each one with a 4" diameter.

The hard part now was finding out how to make that darn petal. I just cut 2 circles, and on one I drew 2 lines bisecting the circle. Then, I overlapped the other in the bottom 'corner' of the first, and traced. I drew this lovely paint sketch to show you, as it was hard to take a picture of.

 So, that little green bit is the petal, and you just cut it out! I cut mine out on a manilla folder, so I had something on thicker paper to use as a stencil. Now comes the fun part, stencil out 84 of these babies. I managed to fit 3 petals on one BEHR Paint Chip Leaf, here is how:

Now, each leaf has a little, tinier leaf perforated into the end, so I just pushed those out and, personally, I think it adds so much character and uniqueness to the piece.

Just trace all the petals and then cut them out, and, if your fingers haven't fallen out by then, we're ready to move onto placing and gluing.

Just start placing and try not to let any of the same colors touch each other, and to try and keep the leaf cutouts from all being in the same corner, touching each other. If you followed my color palette, you should have 7 colors to choose from, and keeping the same color/same color tones from touching each other shouldn't be too difficult. Here is a close up, as an example:

Now, when you get to this stage (below), it becomes a bit difficult. Almost done, very few petals left, and it becomes hard to get the colors in without touching the same color. Here, play around a bit until you can put all 80 petals in place, and you'll be grateful for the 4 extra petals you have to play around with.

Now, just glue them on. Any way you can. Elmer's glue did not work for this part, the edges began to curl up. Since I just moved and things are still in boxes, the only other things I had that were remotely sticky were tape and a glue-stick. Lo and behold, the glue-stick worked fabulously to stick them down without the edges curling up! Then, once I had a section pasted down with the glue stick, I painted over that with glue. You could use Modge Podge if you wish, but I just used Elmer's glue to brush over. I then set a thin book under the canvas, to prevent it sagging in under the weight, and put a cutting board loaded with some books over the wet area to press it into place. Leave it on each spot for about 3 min, then take it off and brush the glue in the direction you want it to dry.

Here is the finished piece! Easy, not so fast as the others, but it makes up for it by being so cheap! I found the canvas in a 5-pack at Micheals for a low price, which I then got 40% off of thanks to a coupon. So, each canvas ended up being only about 3$!

You can put the little leaf cut outs in the circles if you want, and experiment with different configurations like this, but I personally didn't like them as much and didn't end up gluing any on. But, just throwing the idea out there, in case anyone likes it!

 Variation #1

Variation #2

To Start Things Off...

This will be a blog about me.
About Crafting.
About DIYing it til you die. (Okay, maybe not that far)
About refusing to give into that OBSCENELY expensive Department Store purchase that is almost maybe justifiable...
I am a college kid on a budget, with a love of all things Pottery Barn.
Unfortunate, I know.

I have just moved out, boyfriend in tow, and we are trying to make it work living on our own. (Ok, with a roommate, we couldn't afford to live 100% on our own just yet!)

So, I guess let's get started!

Here is my journey of making it on my own, saving oodles of money, and still managing to make our apartment look fabulous in the process.