My Five Favorite DIY ART Projects

Jennifer is an amazing builder (seriously – check out this table she just debuted on her porch) as well as decorator. Here’s a glimpse of Jen’s style including the water photo she took herself and made into a piece of framed art for her family room. I couldn’t love it more (and guess what, it’s free to download and print out yourself!)

Thanks for chatting about art with us today Jennifer!

Okay let’s talk! This is one of my favorite subjects – what to put on the walls! You know I love a good artsy craftsy project. I am a total wannabe artist and adore how you can completely change up a space, create a feeling AND make a room personal and meaningful to the occupants with art. Here are a few of my favorite art projects in my own home.

OVERSIZED BLOCK ART 

Huge impact, small investment. For last fall’s One Room Challenge, I gave my teenage son’s room a much needed makeover . I needed a large piece of statement art on the cheap and came up with this cost effective way to fill a wall – grid-style block art – by enlarging a high resolution photo which I then uploaded and had printed at Staples (you can do it at home too, but the printers at copy centers create a more saturated and high quality print than home printers).

Imagine a landscape photo installed with frameless glass clip frames? That’s what I have in mind for a big wall in my basement.

Check out the full tutorial of how to make a photo into framed block art.

WOOD MOUNTED PHOTO ART

Here is a great way to mix up all the framed, glassed wall art in your home – decoupage a photo poster onto wood or MDF. I love seeing this photo (from a special family trip to Hawaii) every single day, and mounting it onto wood adds a little more interest to the space.

My wood mounted photo art tutorial can be found here.

QUICK TIP:  I’ve mounted several photos for myself and others this way and over the years have come to really prefer Alene’s Collage Pauge (I like the matte finish). It is not as common as Mod Podge in craft stores so I just buy it online now to save myself the headache of tracking it down (and it’s cheaper than MP too!). I find it has better adhesion and creates less bubbles to work out for some reason, which if you’ve decoupaged before you know can make a good project go south awfully quick :). Just wanted to share my go-to in case you tackle this project!

LEO REYNOLDS LETTER COLLAGES

Oh my gosh, letter posters! I can’t tell you how many of these I have made for friends and family through the years since I posted the tutorial here on the blog years ago, probably 30 or 40! They are made using free images from the very generous photographer Leo Reynolds, who shares his work with the world for free, as long as you don’t use them to make a profit.

The one in my house was part of a gallery wall in our kitchen until this summer when I transferred all these photos to the stairwell to our basement. Still not over it after six years!

I love that you can bring in certain colors in to compliment your home (black and white is really cool too), and mix up modern, vintage and quirky. One of my besties has this one below matted and framed, and hanging in her mudroom.

My kids all have either their names or initials and birthdays like this one that is on the picture ledge in Peter’s room (and yes, in one week I will have a child that is a legal adult! What?????!!!!! How can that be?)

 

ARTSY IPHONE APPS 

A couple years ago iPhone apps came on the market that could transform a photo into a painting, and everyone went nuts for them. They’re really fun to play around with and although they are not quite like the real deal, they’re a great way to create a personal and special piece. Both the ones above and this one below were made using the Brushstroke app (read more about making art with this app here)…..

and these below were done with the Waterlogue app.

{The house my husband grew up in and my parents-in-law lived in for 40 years, the day they moved out.}

I made this wood mounted triptych with the Waterlogue app to make our powder room/laundry room a little less dreary  (you can see the tutorial for this project right here).

 

WOOD SIGNS

I don’t have a vinyl cutting machine like a Cricut so I transfer the outline of text onto wood by printing the text to the desired size, coloring the back of the paper with chalk, and then tracing over the words from the front. The letters can then be filled in with a paint Sharpie or regular old Sharpie if you prefer.

Creating your own signs is fun and an inexpensive way to add some character to your home! You can read about how to make a vintage looking sign here or the “destinations” sign over here.