Do-it-yourself artwork!
If you’ve read my (Kids’ rooms makeover by…Mommy!) entry, you’d know that we love nice things but at reasonable prices (if you have 3 kids under 5, you’d know how expensive things can get). And using a little creativity…we can almost achieve what we want without breaking the bank.
Accessories are very important to complete any room, be it your children’s bedrooms or your own. But the little knick knacks can cost alot of money AND there’s a chance that you’ll get tired of it quickly. Same thing goes for artwork.
I’ve seen the artwork at Pottery Barn kids and they cost around $80-$150 (regular prices) per picture, these are simple drawings on canvases that you’d think they are so easy to do…AND THEY ARE!
Here’s my disclaimer “I am NOT an artist.” I can’t even draw a nice stick figure…go figure! *head shaking* But with a little of patience and sprinkled in some creativity…anyone can do this!!
I’d like to share some easy tips of do-it-yourself artwork. You will be amazed at what you can do, I promise!! *wink wink*
Supplies required, you can purchase these at AC Moore (one of my favorite stores), if there isn’t one around your area, a discounted arts & crafts store will do…
- Canvas, I’ve been using the 16×20 size. It’s the right size for my children’s bedrooms. But you can use whatever size you want depending on the artwork you’re doing and the room size.
- Different sizes of paint brushes, I bought an assorted pack and a few foam flat brushes about 1-2 inches (to paint big area like the background), nothing too expensive (again, not a professional so don’t want to spend too much!). See picture below.
- Parchment paper (the bigger the size the better)…no, we’re not cooking here. Hey, that’s another subject for later, I hope.
- I’ve been using “Anita’s all purpose Acrylic” paints, they come in a small bottle (2 oz) and very forgiving paints. If you make a mistake…you can actually wipe it off (depending on the thickness of the paint on your canvas and how wet the paint is).
- Good old pencil and eraser (lots of this going on until you’re getting the hang of it).
- Painter’s blue tape.
- Plastic plate (my version of a palette or mixing tray).
- Lots of paper towels.
- Some imagination and creativity!!
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON DOING ARTWORK:
1) The first thing to do is to lay out the parchment paper on the canvas to make sure it fits the canvas where your artwork will be (if it requires more parchment paper, just use the scoth tape to adhere the two together).
2) Once you have the parchment paper measured the same size as the canvas, use the blue painter’s tape to hold down the paper to the canvas. This way you know exactly where and how the artwork will look on the canvas.
3) Use your pencil and start drawing. If you make a mistake, just erase it and start again. That’s the beauty of drawing on the parchment paper as opposed to the canvas itself.
4) When you’re satisfied with the artwork, remove the parchment paper from the canvas, turning the paper over and trace the artwork on the back of the parchment paper (make sure you use something else besides the canvas as a surface to trace, otherwise it will “bleed” through to the canvas). Go over it heavily with your pencil. This is how you’re going to transfer the artwork to the canvas.
I can’t take credit for this idea, I saw this trick on “The Debbis Travis” show on HGTV. She was trying to do stenciling on a tricky corner of a wall, and she used parchment paper to transfer the artwork onto the wall.
5) Turn the parchment paper over to the “right” side, or the side where you drew your artwork. Retape the parchment paper to the canvas with the blue tape and start tracing. You can check to make sure the artwork is transfered by lifting the paper lightly without moving the paper itself.
6) Once you are done with the transfering, pick out your paints. If you don’t find the shade of color you want, you can always mix it. But make sure you mix enough for the desire area so that the paint won’t be a different shade when you mix it again later.
7) Start painting. For me, I’d paint the artwork first and then the background afterward. This way, I can gingerly go around the artwork (when I’m too impatient to wait for the paint to dry to continue) without getting my hands wet.
Depending on the color you choose, you might have to do two coats if it’s pastel, so that the white canvas and the pencil mark don’t show up.
9) Once you’re done painting the artwork, paint the background. See the drawing and the final artwork below:
I was too anal with Sophia’s artwork, I didn’t like the brush stroke look so I did 3 coats. In retrospect, I think it looks better with the brush strokes. Live and learn right?
That’s the beauty of this do-it-yourself artwork, it only costs you time and labor. The whole picture cost me around $8, that’s for the supplies, as opposed to $90+ in the store. And you can say that you did it yourself. In addition to that, you won’t feel bad if it lands in the toy landfill (aka basement) when you or your child becomes bored with the picture.
Sophia’s picture in her room above. Yeah, the pink color is darker than what I wanted. As I mentioned in (Kids’ rooms makeover by…Mommy!) the paint dries darker than what it appears on the paint swatches. So I had to break up too much pink in the room by painting the artwork’s background green. I love that combination, green and pink.
Here are some examples of the finished products, they were mostly for family members. I’m not brave to give these do-it-yourselfer as a present yet. 
I know, I know…the insecure artist wannabe in me.
For my oldest nephew, I did one with the Red Sox shirt. I found a drawing of the Red Sox shirt on the Net for guideline. And Xeroxed the Red Sox emblem to the size desired, you have to play around with the “percent desired” on the copier. I don’t know if there’s any logo impringement or anything. I figured I’m not selling the artwork, the Red Sox has better thing to do than go after this stay-at-home mom artist wannabe…I hope *wink wink*!
I didn’t paint the background of the picture below until…
A friend who’s a graphic designer, Ms. TM, suggested the blue color background (see below) to make the Red Sox shirt stands out better. Now that I looked at it, I shouldn’t have painted 3 coats for the background, maybe the “brush stroke” look would have been better. And since I already have the drawing on parchment paper, I can edit the picture any way I like and use different paints if I choose, without having to redraw the picture!! *awesome!*
And for our youngest nephew, I did a Patriots shirt (his Dad is THE number 1 Patriots fan) with the number 10, that was the month he was SUPPOSED to be born. But the little rascal decided to stay in his Mommy’s tummy a bit longer. So he made his entrance in November. Well, can’t change it now! So I told them that it was for the time that he was born. And it was, 10:10 AM!! 
Do you see the NFL emblem on the shirt? Well, I couldn’t duplicate that so I cut it out of a magazine and hot glued it on. My family couldn’t really tell that it wasn’t drawn on unless I pointed it out to them.
This was my first artwork for my nieces’ room (I didn’t use parchment paper to draw on it first and it took me a long time to perfect it). It took me a while to get the final colors that I liked. That’s what you need to do, play around with the paint colors and try it out on a small surface as a test to make sure it’s really what you want before painting it on the actual picture.
The beauty of these kids’ artworks is that you’re not showing it off in some museums or art galleries. So have fun with it! I know, I know…the real artists probably cringing by now with my amateur tips but hey, if you can draw for me…I’d love it! But I have yet to find an artist who’s willing to draw me something without asking for alot of money, unless you’re unKle K, let me show off his painting that he did and I managed to finagle it away from him !!
Pretty nice huh? So, I’m hoping since we’re related…maybe some of that talent will rub off, if only I have 1/10 of his tatent. All the rooms in our house will adorn with artwork, and everyone will get my artwork for Christmas!!
Happy creating!!
If you’ve read my (Kids’ rooms makeover by…Mommy!) entry, you’d know that we love nice things but at reasonable prices (if you have 3 kids under 5, you’d know how expensive things can get). And using a little creativity…we can almost achieve what we want without breaking the bank.
Accessories are very important to complete any room, be it your children’s bedrooms or your own. But the little knick knacks can cost alot of money AND there’s a chance that you’ll get tired of it quickly. Same thing goes for artwork.
I’ve seen the artwork at Pottery Barn kids and they cost around $80-$150 (regular prices) per picture, these are simple drawings on canvases that you’d think they are so easy to do…AND THEY ARE!
Here’s my disclaimer “I am NOT an artist.” I can’t even draw a nice stick figure…go figure! *head shaking* But with a little of patience and sprinkled in some creativity…anyone can do this!!
I’d like to share some easy tips of do-it-yourself artwork. You will be amazed at what you can do, I promise!! *wink wink*
Supplies required, you can purchase these at AC Moore (one of my favorite stores), if there isn’t one around your area, a discounted arts & crafts store will do…
- Canvas, I’ve been using the 16×20 size. It’s the right size for my children’s bedrooms. But you can use whatever size you want depending on the artwork you’re doing and the room size.
- Different sizes of paint brushes, I bought an assorted pack and a few foam flat brushes about 1-2 inches (to paint big area like the background), nothing too expensive (again, not a professional so don’t want to spend too much!). See picture below.
- Parchment paper (the bigger the size the better)…no, we’re not cooking here. Hey, that’s another subject for later, I hope.
- I’ve been using “Anita’s all purpose Acrylic” paints, they come in a small bottle (2 oz) and very forgiving paints. If you make a mistake…you can actually wipe it off (depending on the thickness of the paint on your canvas and how wet the paint is).
- Good old pencil and eraser (lots of this going on until you’re getting the hang of it).
- Painter’s blue tape.
- Plastic plate (my version of a palette or mixing tray).
- Lots of paper towels.
- Some imagination and creativity!!
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS ON DOING ARTWORK:
1) The first thing to do is to lay out the parchment paper on the canvas to make sure it fits the canvas where your artwork will be (if it requires more parchment paper, just use the scoth tape to adhere the two together).
2) Once you have the parchment paper measured the same size as the canvas, use the blue painter’s tape to hold down the paper to the canvas. This way you know exactly where and how the artwork will look on the canvas.
3) Use your pencil and start drawing. If you make a mistake, just erase it and start again. That’s the beauty of drawing on the parchment paper as opposed to the canvas itself.
4) When you’re satisfied with the artwork, remove the parchment paper from the canvas, turning the paper over and trace the artwork on the back of the parchment paper (make sure you use something else besides the canvas as a surface to trace, otherwise it will “bleed” through to the canvas). Go over it heavily with your pencil. This is how you’re going to transfer the artwork to the canvas.
I can’t take credit for this idea, I saw this trick on “The Debbis Travis” show on HGTV. She was trying to do stenciling on a tricky corner of a wall, and she used parchment paper to transfer the artwork onto the wall.
5) Turn the parchment paper over to the “right” side, or the side where you drew your artwork. Retape the parchment paper to the canvas with the blue tape and start tracing. You can check to make sure the artwork is transfered by lifting the paper lightly without moving the paper itself.
6) Once you are done with the transfering, pick out your paints. If you don’t find the shade of color you want, you can always mix it. But make sure you mix enough for the desire area so that the paint won’t be a different shade when you mix it again later.
7) Start painting. For me, I’d paint the artwork first and then the background afterward. This way, I can gingerly go around the artwork (when I’m too impatient to wait for the paint to dry to continue) without getting my hands wet.
Depending on the color you choose, you might have to do two coats if it’s pastel, so that the white canvas and the pencil mark don’t show up.
9) Once you’re done painting the artwork, paint the background. See the drawing and the final artwork below:
I was too anal with Sophia’s artwork, I didn’t like the brush stroke look so I did 3 coats. In retrospect, I think it looks better with the brush strokes. Live and learn right?
That’s the beauty of this do-it-yourself artwork, it only costs you time and labor. The whole picture cost me around $8, that’s for the supplies, as opposed to $90+ in the store. And you can say that you did it yourself. In addition to that, you won’t feel bad if it lands in the toy landfill (aka basement) when you or your child becomes bored with the picture.
Sophia’s picture in her room above. Yeah, the pink color is darker than what I wanted. As I mentioned in (Kids’ rooms makeover by…Mommy!) the paint dries darker than what it appears on the paint swatches. So I had to break up too much pink in the room by painting the artwork’s background green. I love that combination, green and pink.
Here are some examples of the finished products, they were mostly for family members. I’m not brave to give these do-it-yourselfer as a present yet. I know, I know…the insecure artist wannabe in me.
For my oldest nephew, I did one with the Red Sox shirt. I found a drawing of the Red Sox shirt on the Net for guideline. And Xeroxed the Red Sox emblem to the size desired, you have to play around with the “percent desired” on the copier. I don’t know if there’s any logo impringement or anything. I figured I’m not selling the artwork, the Red Sox has better thing to do than go after this stay-at-home mom artist wannabe…I hope *wink wink*!
I didn’t paint the background of the picture below until…
A friend who’s a graphic designer, Ms. TM, suggested the blue color background (see below) to make the Red Sox shirt stands out better. Now that I looked at it, I shouldn’t have painted 3 coats for the background, maybe the “brush stroke” look would have been better. And since I already have the drawing on parchment paper, I can edit the picture any way I like and use different paints if I choose, without having to redraw the picture!! *awesome!*
And for our youngest nephew, I did a Patriots shirt (his Dad is THE number 1 Patriots fan) with the number 10, that was the month he was SUPPOSED to be born. But the little rascal decided to stay in his Mommy’s tummy a bit longer. So he made his entrance in November. Well, can’t change it now! So I told them that it was for the time that he was born. And it was, 10:10 AM!!
Do you see the NFL emblem on the shirt? Well, I couldn’t duplicate that so I cut it out of a magazine and hot glued it on. My family couldn’t really tell that it wasn’t drawn on unless I pointed it out to them.
This was my first artwork for my nieces’ room (I didn’t use parchment paper to draw on it first and it took me a long time to perfect it). It took me a while to get the final colors that I liked. That’s what you need to do, play around with the paint colors and try it out on a small surface as a test to make sure it’s really what you want before painting it on the actual picture.
The beauty of these kids’ artworks is that you’re not showing it off in some museums or art galleries. So have fun with it! I know, I know…the real artists probably cringing by now with my amateur tips but hey, if you can draw for me…I’d love it! But I have yet to find an artist who’s willing to draw me something without asking for alot of money, unless you’re unKle K, let me show off his painting that he did and I managed to finagle it away from him !!
Pretty nice huh? So, I’m hoping since we’re related…maybe some of that talent will rub off, if only I have 1/10 of his tatent. All the rooms in our house will adorn with artwork, and everyone will get my artwork for Christmas!!
Happy creating!!
Wow !!! You did a good job on the art work !!
That is awesome! I am at a crossroads myself with decorating my son’s room. Everything “cute” is expensive and I keep thinking how he’s going to grow out of it in a couple years. A friend of mine actually used the same idea with painting characters on the wall - only I think she used a projector to project the image directly on the wall and then traced, then painted. It looked professional and a LOT cheaper! Great ideas. Thanks for sharing!
Jen
http://homeschooling.youngparentsmagazine.com