GRANDMA'S HAND CROCHETED DOILY

This is a hand crocheted doily made by my grandmother.  It’s one of my favorite pieces of art in our home.  Years ago, I found a photo in a magazine that had a similar piece of art and showed it to my mom.  We both thought this would be a great way to display my grandmother’s creations.  We chose four to have professionally framed for myself, my mom, sister and aunt.  Mine originally had a more formal brown wood frame, but later I had it re-framed in this rustic black frame.  I really like this classic combination of black, tan and white.  I think the key is a higher contrast mat in the background, and the suede-like mat adds some interesting texture.   A special thanks to grandma for creating something so beautiful.

I think this is a good reminder that just about anything can be art.  It is especially appealing if it is something that has sentimental value.  Consider a frame or a shadow box for something special and you have a completely unique piece of art!

ABSTRACT BIRCH FOREST

The material on these panels is cork wallpaper.  This is a Candice Olsen wallpaper featuring white cork with a silver foil backing.  (She also has a design with natural cork with a copper backing – very cool looking as well.)  I fell in love with the wallpaper after seeing it featured on one of her shows on HGTV and liked the fact that it resembled birch bark.  It’s pricey stuff, so I was happy to come up with the wall panel idea. 

After some research and tests, I decided to go with stretcher-bars for the base.  (These are used by artists to stretch canvas.)  I ordered them from www.frenchcanvas.com. These are ideal because they can be ordered in any size, are relatively inexpensive, are put together with a rubber mallet (no hardware), are made for the purpose of attaching fabric, and are lightweight and easy to hang.  All you need is a staple gun.  Just be careful with the corners.  Neat corners will make or break the final look of these types of projects.

The panels vary in width from 6-8-10" and each are 6 feet tall.   Since creating these panels I have used stretcher bars from the same source for a number of other projects.

See NAPKIN WALL ART and POTATOE SACK WALL ART for similar projects.

PLACEMAT WALL ART

Wall art made from placemats and fabric.  I put this together for staging my husband’s home before we were married.   We needed a large piece of art (that didn’t break the bank) for a family room with a vaulted ceiling.  The base is a painter’s canvas I had not yet made use of.  I would not recommend this as these can be expensive (it’s just we had it on hand).  Rather, make your own frame, or buy stretcher-bars.  The fabric pieces were purchased as remnants from a local fabric store (cheap!).  The placemats were purchased at Marshall’s so they were also an economical choice.  They were not in the best shape – I used a black marker to cover up the scratches and you would never know!  Total investment was around $20 in materials.

The fabric was stapled onto the back of the frame, and the placemats were adhered with a hot glue gun.  This was supposed to be a temporary thing, but we got several compliments on it, so it now hangs in our new home!

MOSAIC MIRROR

This was my first big mosaic project.  The design is my own, and I used 1” vitreous glass tiles.  The base of the mosaic is a round of MDF with a hole cut out of the middle.  I had a local glass place cut and mount the mirror for me when the mosaic was finished.  In hindsight, I wish I would have made sure there was more contrast between the flowers and the background (and used only the lighter tiles in the background), but for the most part I’m happy with it.

POTATOE SACK WALL ART

We had a wall in our dinette area with a large mirror.  The mirror reflected light from the window on the opposite wall, but I always thought the area looked a little plain.  These small pieces of art seemed to be just what the space needed to add some character.

These are made from used potatoe sacks stretched over frames. I purchased stretcher bars to make the frames (the same kind artists buy to stretch canvas so they are made for the purpose of attaching fabric). I purchased them from www.frenchcanvas.com. These are put together with a rubber mallet (no hardware required). First I covered the stretcher bar frame in brown craft paper and attached with a staple gun. This was because the burlap from the sacks has such an open weave. Then I stretched the fabric over the craft paper, also adhering with a staple gun. Just be careful with the corners. Neat corners will make or break the final look of these types of projects.

About the stretcher-bars: these are ideal because they can be ordered in any size, are relatively inexpensive, are put together with a rubber mallet (no hardware), are made for the purpose of attaching fabric, and are lightweight and easy to hang. I have used stretcher bars from this same source for a number of other types of projects.

See NAPKIN WALL ART and ABSTRACT BIRCH FOREST for similar projects.

SHADOW BOX - COPPER JEWELRY

Copper Jewelry in shadow boxes. This idea came from wall art my Mom and I saw while on a tour of homes.  They had framed a vintage beaded purse in a shadow box.  It made me realize you can put anything in a shadow box and make it art.  I went home and started to play around with the idea.  I love all things copper, and found lots of options after doing a simple search for ‘copper’ on ebay.  I came across the copper jewelry and bid on a few pieces for my project.

These shadow boxes are barn-wood purchased from a local craft store.  The mats were purchased white, then painted with a dark green acrylic paint and just a wisp of metallic copper spray paint.  The backing came with the shadow boxes and were covered with pieces of faux suede fabric.  I used stacked triangles of foam board (behind the mat boards in the corners) to make the mat the height (depth) that I wanted.