Super Simple DIY Art for the Walls

I finally finished up artwork for the walls in the dining area of the new house.  I wanted something that was individual and went along with our family, and after weeks of scouring the aisles of stores and online websites I knew I was going to have to suck it up and make something myself!

In the end I settled on a large canvas painted a deep red with hearts on it and 6 canvases in varying colors with our initials on them.

In retrospect, I really wish I had made a tutorial out of these.  It was REALLY simple, so I’ll try my best to walk through them!

The heart canvas is quite large – I picked it up at michaels with a coupon. Note that you can try this process before taking the plunge by using construction or craft paper and a bottle of paint that you have on hand!

Cookie Cutter Heart Artwork

Materials Needed:

• Canvas(es)
• Acrylic Paint(s)
• Paint Brush
• Paper Plate
• Cookie Cutter

Instructions:

1. Select a canvas that fits your wall space.
2. Paint canvas in one solid color using acrylic paints, you will likely need multiple coats and need to let it dry between coats.  This took three coats for us to get it solid.
3. Select a cookie cutter – preferably a plastic one that you already have a duplicate of so you can throw it away when you’re done.
4. Pour white (or other color) paint onto a paper plate.  You want it just to be enough to cover the bottom of the plate, it does not need to be deep.
5. Dip the cookie cutter into the paint and pull it straight up.  If a bubble forms within the cookie cutter, poke it with a paintbrush to pop it.  Make sure you let any excess paint drip off before approaching the canvas.
6. ‘Stamp’ the cookie cutter on the canvas.  I was able to get 3-4 stamps out of each ‘dip’ into the paint.

You could cover the whole canvas – I chose to stop and leave a curvy pattern and then put three hearts in the top corner – one for each of us!

Initial Canvases

The initial artwork took a little more work.  You will need a cricut for this, though you could potentially find other stencils in the craft area.  It’s VERY similar to this project  where I let Averie do the painting!

Materials Needed:

• Canvas(es)
• Acrylic Paint(s)
• Paint Brushes
• Cricut / Cricut Cartridges
• Adhesive Shelf Protectors (or Vinyl)

Instructions:

1. Determine what you want to put on the canvases, how many you want, what size you need and what color(s) you want.
2. Cut the shelf protector roll so that it will fit onto the cricut mat (alternatively you could use vinyl, but it is more expensive!)
3. Using the cricut, cut the letters or images out at the size you would like them to appear on the canvases.
4. Ensure that the canvas is clean and dry and stick the image onto it where you would like it to appear.
5. Using a paintbrush, paint over the entire canvas, including over top of the shelf protector.  (Note that you don’t have to paint over the whole thing if you don’t want to).  Be careful not to push paint underneath the shelf protector.
6. Allow to dry and apply additional coats until the desired color is achieved.
7. After the canvases are dry, remove the shelf protector from the canvas – the shapes that you cut out should remain white.

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