I Am Loved - Tissue Paper Wall Art

Hello friends!

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been SO busy. Creating, playing and enjoying my family. I have so many exciting things to share with you and can't wait to get to it. I'll be guest blogging a few places in early July. I'll let you know more about that later, but be ready to visit some great blogs!

For now, I wanted to show you some artwork I created recently for my daughter's room. I've seen some great typography posters lately - with great lines and simple text.  Here's a link to one I like by Persimmon & Pink.I wanted to create the same effect, for a little less mulah, and had the perfect message to share with my littlest one.

It's not perfect, but I kind of love that about it. I did, however learn some lessons (for next time).  I'll share these with you, of course, so that your creations can be a little closer to perfect than mine is.  Please let me know if you attempt something similar. I'd love to see pics!

This was a  REALLY easy project, and took about 20 minutes total. Fabulous!  Better yet, I was able to salvage a piece art board that I had purchased, painted and contemplated tossing.  

Seriously...I just flipped over my artwork, cut it in 1/2 and started again. See the clouds  - Oops!

 Aahh  <--- Much better

I used a frame from some artwork that was in our our garage sale pile. These reused items along with acrylic paint, mod podge and tissue paper brought this project to a grand total less than $1.00. That's a price I can handle!

So....are you ready to make your own? Here we go!

1. Use some kind of paper/board that will accept watercolor or acrylic paint. I used some matting board that I found on sale at Hobby Lobby. It was textured & resembled thick watercolor paper.  As I mentioned before, this was from a previous painting project gone wrong.You can see some of the imperfections around the corners of the "canvas" from my previous project.  Be resourceful! Use what you've got!

I diluted my acrylic paint with water and painted, graduating the color as I went from one side to the other. I did one layer than let it dry & repeated it again - making sure the color was concentrated on one side.

2. Gather your supplies. I used tissue paper that I had on hand for wrapping. Just figure out how big you want your letters to be and cut the paper into squares. I held mine together in a stack so that every square was the same size.

If I were doing this project again, I'd cut double or triple layers of each color, so that while I was making each letter I could layer it onto the paper. A few of mine ripped while I was mod-podging and this would have solved that problem.

Figure out what you want your picture to say & count the letters in your words. Make sure you have enough paper for each letter.

3. Lay out the paper on the board the way you think you would like for it to appear. It took me a while to choose which colors to place next to one-another. This might be easier if you purchased tissue paper specifically for the project, but if you're using what you have, please don't skip this step!

4. Trace the letters in pencil onto your tissue squares, keeping the dimensions of the square to make letter-size consistent.

5. Cut out your letters and lay them on the board where you want to place them.

6. Mod podge the canvas, CAREFULLY place the letter down (use layers if possible). Gently apply mod-podge over each letter, smoothing out as you go.

I used a glossy mod-podge because it's what I had, but I think a matte would look much cleaner.

7.  Let it dry, then stand back & admire! Impatient as always, I helped mine dry with a hair-dryer. ;)

You can frame it, or not. I did, and now it is a cheery (slightly imperfect) and wonderful addition to my little one's room.

Fly Away With Me Mobile (Part 2of 3)

Even though I only recently posted the butterfly mobile idea on my blog here, I have actually been working on it since this past winter, in anticipation of my little girl.

After typing up a tutorial, my post was somehow deleted. Much like a sock gets lost in the dryer, my post disappeared from my blog. I was so disappointed that it vanished after putting so much time into it. Has anyone else ever had this happen?  Oh well, so goes life. Enough of my pity party...on with the new tutorial!

I have no idea if this is the "best" method, this is simply the method I used. If you know how to make it easier on yourself or others, please feel free to leave your wisdom in my comments. ;)

I started with a wooden embroidery hoop. I found a spool of metal twine in the bargain bin at Michael's for about .79. It very closely resembles twisty tie line. (Thin gauge wire encased in plastic), but any small wire or possibly even string would probably work. I tied my twine on in pie formation as seen below.

Next I spray painted the whole thing white (wires and all), but I don't have a picture of this step.

I purchased a butterfly punch tool by Martha Stewart, also at Michael's, and created what felt like 100's of butterflies, out of scrapbook paper.

 Then, using a needle and clear fishing line, I createed 2 rows on each line of wire, evenly spaced, one center line and an additional 8 lines on the outer ring, centered between the wires, for a total of 25 strands of butterflies. 

I secured the bottom of each line with a seed bead, both for weight and stability, and tied knots where I wanted the butterflies to "rest" on their lines. So, each butterfly has a knot just below it, holding it in place on its line.

I added one additional butterfly to each row going inward, so the longest row of butterflies, is the center line. Giving it a tiered effect. And, voila! The mobile is complete.  Sorry for the shaky picture, but believe me, the finished result was beautiful! 

 My original plan was to secure this with some decorative ribbon to a hook in the ceiling of my daughter's room. The colors served as the inspiration for the quilt I had my Nana make for her.

When I showed my husband, I held it up under a lamp, and he commented about how it would be  really interesting if I could somehow make it into a lamp. ....I loved the idea, but I will save that for another post!

Fly Away With Me Mobile

What I'm working on next........Something similar to this:

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! ;) This mobile is available from PB Kids for $79.00. I am punching out my own colorful butterflies & making my own. I started today, but will post things as I get closer to finishing.

I was even more excited when I saw some recent posts about butterfly projects on Homemade by Jill. Check out her paper punch art project -it's fantastic! Maybe I'll do that next!

Pictures & tutorial coming soon!