California Love
I have no artistic skills. I do, however, have an appreciation for art and for the talents of the artists. My appreciation for art, though, only goes as far as my short attention span will allow. I don't usually go to art museums because I get bored looking at all the paintings, even if they are done by renowned artists. While I can appreciate a piece of art, I am usually bored of it and onto the next piece within about a minute. This is probably why when I was in Paris many years ago I was in and out of the Louvre in record time! Then of course there is modern art. I always say, "if I can create it, then it's not art!" To which my brother-in-law would ask "yes, but would you have THOUGHT of it?" Of course not! I'm not an artist!
This may be one of the reasons that I have such a hard time with picking out wall art. The walls in our house are mostly bare, except for a few mirrors, prints, and things that I've picked up while traveling. I find that I have the hardest time committing to a piece of art or wall decor. Even though I know I can take it down or switch it out at any time, the requirement to committ, even for a short period of time, makes me nervous. This fear of committment really only pertains to wall decor, which is odd, I know. This doesn't stop me from perusing the "wall art" section of stores like Home Goods, Michaels, World Market, Target, etc. But even when I find something I like, I stare at it and think to myself, "I can do that!" I take a picture of it and walk away with grand plans to create something like it on my own, because, you know, I'm so artistic. Of course this never happens and I am still left with empty walls.
Of course when I saw this, I thought to myself "I can do that!" Luckily the blogger also included instructions for how to DIY this cute little piece of art, which was inspired by this item for sale at etsy. When I saw the price tag on the etsy buy, ($25 + $6.50 shipping) for a 8 x 8" sized canvas, I knew I just had to DIY it!! Plus the instructions on the blog looked easy enough, and best of all--- no artistic skills required!!!
After a fun trip to the dentist on Tuesday afternoon where I paid them a lot of money to inflict pain on me...I stopped by Michaels to pick up the necessary supplies. Their Artist's Loft canvas were 50% off, but they were all out of the ones that were on sale! I asked someone if they had any more in stock and unfortunately they were all sold out! To my surprise the person that I had asked was actually the store manager, Michael! (Yes, the store at Michaels is named Michael -- I laughed on the inside for a few minutes while in the store) Michael, store manager at Michaels, was super nice and he said he could give me any of the non-sale canvases at 50% off if I wanted. So I snatched up three (3) 12 x 12 canvases and got them for $3.99 each, instead of the original price of $7.99! Thank you Michael, store manager at Michaels!
I wasn't sure what color acrylic paints I had already, so I swung by the paint aisle and picked out two small blue bottles that I liked on their own but could mix if it wasn't exactly what I looking for for my "State Love" art project. Plus at 29 cents a bottle, I really didn't feel guilty getting more even if I had blue paint at home already! I also got a big bottle of "snow white" paint for 89 cents, also a steal!
The whole project took maybe a few hours, mostly because of waiting for coats of paint to dry and I was also cooking dinner and doing some other things in between. It took a few minutes to google and print out the State outline, a few more minutes to trace it onto the canvas, paint the outline blue and fillthe state in with white, and adding the very essential *heart* and VOILA! My very own California Love art project was complete!
Isn't it just the cutest thing you've ever seen? I couldn't believe how nice it actually turned out! After I was done, I thought about what other States I could do... Maryland is a little too hard because of all the little inlets and the details of the bay and it's a little borring since we're already IN Maryland. I lived in Massachusetts for a year for grad school but I wouldn't have ever called that "home" really. Then Dave suggested that I do "Country Love" instead with an outline of Taiwan, where I was born and where I lived the first 7 years of my life! And since I had purchased 3 canvases, I thought it would be fun to also do one of Germany, where Dave was born and where his family lived for many years. Stay tuned for pictures of those two "Country Love" projects when I'm done!
