Earthy Art

Happy Thanksgiving Shire Family! I am grateful for each of you. <3

Our mother moved into a new townhouse this past summer. She desired some art for her guest bathroom. I told her to let me think about it and I'd come up with something. Our family does love a Home Goods run or TJMaxx/Marshalls. However the gratification of making something uniquely your own is so fulfilling and rewarding.

These are the steps I took to get to her earthy unique art pieces.

Step 1: Take an inventory of what currently is in there for décor you are able to play off of. For example; She had small river rock, white walls, clear glass vase, steel gray and blue towels and tree metal art - very industrial/spa like feel.

Step 2: Think about what you have around your crafty crap workstations. It occurred to me that I had these two framed teddy bear pictures and noted to be from Paw Paw, Michigan found at our local Salvation Army. My mom's sister had just passed away so it made sense to repurpose those into something she could hang and it held some sentimental value. My heart was in it and it was time to get designing. Without heart in a project you may never be truly satisfied with the end result.

Step 3: Recall the elements in the bathroom and how you can frame something of those components from Step 1 for a good price. Let your imagination go wild and bust out of that box!

Step 4: Create!

a. Take the pictures apart.

b. Paint the back of the teddy bear images black. Spray paint or acrylic works well (Dries fast also). This allows you to keep the original images intact.

c. Take river rocks (décor/pet aquarium rocks) and twigs (from the yard) and lay them out as desired for a tree feel/effect.

d. Hot glue them into place.

e. We kept the glass (since the twigs and rocks didn't need it) and the picture as is and just placed those back when putting the tree/black image on the front of the frame.

f. Clean up the glue strings and wipe it down.

g. Present it and hang it.

This can be applied to any project. In a sense, art is a math equation with different variables each time.

Happy Creating!