Fabric Covered Photo Mat
Today is an exciting day! It is reveal day of the Summer Pinterest Challenge! If you aren’t in the loop about it — it is a challenge dreamed up by two pretty amazing bloggers, Sherry of Young House Love, and Katie of Bower Power (two of my favorite blogs!) to get people to start creating amazing things based on all the million things we are always pinning on Pinterest. It isn’t sponsored by Pinterest or anything, but it is a pretty cool idea to make yourself get to working on some actual projects from all the inspiration you can find on Pinterest.
Each season, Sherry and Katie host a Pinterest Challenge and team up with a couple other big bloggers to do so. If you want to check out what each of the challenge team created this time around, you can check out Sherry’s project here, Katie’s project here, Michelle from Ten June’s project here, and Kate from Centsational Girl’s project here.
Now on to mine! I decided to play along with the challenge as well! I had the perfect project already in mind. I originally saw this idea on one of the blogs I read, pinned it from there, and it has been sitting open in a tab on my computer waiting for the day when I would actually complete a project like it. Here was my inspiration — a tutorial on fabric covered photo mats from the blog, A Bit of Sunshine.
I had the perfect frame mat in need of a little help:
Please excuse the awkwardness of the current state of this frame gallery. I told you it needed some help! This is in the hallway that runs down almost the entire side of our apartment and we are trying to brighten it up with some of our art in bright white frames. (the rectangle painting on the left side is a painting I did in one of my painting classes in school, the streetcar art is a framed cross-stitch my mother-in-law made, the small square painting on top is a country barn scene painting that was done by my 8th grade math teacher, who is also one of my mother-in-law’s best friends, and the last two frames on the right hold prints by Katie Daisy of The Wheatfield on Etsy.) We still have a few spots that we haven’t filled in yet and a couple of the frames fell down when we were hammering into the other side of this wall to hang things and we haven’t quite gotten them back up yet. Sorry that the lighting is also bad here — this hallway doesn’t receive much natural light!
Anyway, this is the art that I really wanted to address. This print is the only piece of artwork that Drew has shown his own interest in. He bought it online and the day it came in, he was so excited to have picked out something for our house. I like the subject matter of the print, but I wish they had used a brighter color ink for the outline of Louisiana. It is too light, in my opinion. We placed it in this frame (leftover from the frame gallery in the living room) because it was the right size, but I didn’t like how the mat was more of a cream color that didn’t look great with the crisp whites of the frame and the print. It also didn’t help the print to pop any more either. I had tried looking at Michael’s for a pre-cut mat in this size in a brighter color, but I had no luck finding any that I liked or that were this size (it is a 10×13 frame matted to an 8×10).
Then came in this fabric to save the day. I have a huge collection of fabric, so making anything with fabric is a project that I love. This particular fabric I had leftover from an apron I made years ago and it seemed to have the right colors in it to go along with other art in the hallway and it had some greens in it to hopefully pull the green outline out of the Louisiana print a little more. This fabric is by Amy Butler and you can still buy it here.
This project is really easy! These are all the supplies you need — frame mat, fabric, fabric cutting scissors, spray glue adhesive, an iron and ironing board.
I started by laying out my fabric, ironing it, and setting my mat on there to make sure that the fabric scrap would be big enough. You only need an overhang of an inch or so outside the mat.
Once I had made sure that the pattern on my fabric was lined up straight, I trimmed the fabric to about an inch all the way around the outside of the mat.
Then make sure to turn your fabric over, so that the wrong side is facing up. (I forgot this step and totally did it backwards at first! Luckily the spray adhesive wasn’t set yet and it peeled off!) You will spray the spray adhesive on the right side of the mat and place in face down on the wrong side of the fabric and smooth it down. Once you’ve smoothed the mat to the fabric, cut out the center part of the fabric inside the mat like shown above. make a cut into the corners of the mat. Also trim off the outside corners of the fabric like shown above.
Then spray the adhesive on the back side of the mat and neatly fold over and press down the fabric overhang. Be careful when you are working with the spray adhesive, it is super sticky and will get all over your hands and on whatever else is around where you are spraying it. You might want to spray it outside and even use rubber gloves to keep your hands from getting sticky.
Cutting the outside corner of your fabric off and making the cut towards the mat inside the fabric should make your fabric fold over and lay really neatly.
Then you are left with a finished fabric covered mat! Make sure to let the rest of the exposed mat with spray adhesive on the back dry completely before you reassemble it back into your frame.
It makes the print look so much better! Fabric covered mats can really add a lot of interest to a frame. It also helps to showcase some of your favorite fabrics.
All framed back up!
Here it is back in the hallway. Although this frame gallery is far from finished, I think this does really add a lot of interest to the collection of art here.
I love the pretty pop of color this adds! I think it would be great paired with a black and white photo or another colorful print. This would also be great in a kids room. I will definitely be doing this again to show off more of my fabric stash!
To save you from having to scroll up again to see the before and then the after, here is the before again:
And the after:
So that was my first Pinterest Challenge Project! (although I’ve made quite a few recipes and other things inspired from Pinterest pins before). Be sure to check out the original inspiration post this was inspired from, here. You should also make sure to check out the other Pinterest projects going on! It is a big link party so there are lots of projects to check out. See Sherry’s project here, Katie’s project here, Michelle from Ten June’s project here, and Kate from Centsational Girl’s project here. :)
Painting for my Office
After being so inspired by these abstract paintings and our TNASA (Tulane Newcomb Art Student Association) painting workshop, I finally decided it was time I quit telling myself that I didn’t have the time to paint and just get out my paints and get to it. I already had a canvas that I had ready for a painting for my office, so I didn’t have to do any prep work. I just sat down and started painting. I had a good idea of what I wanted to do and the final product went in almost a totally different direction, but I really like the way it turned out. Here is what my office looks like now with the addition of my painting:
I figured this was also a good time to share more updates about my office. I think the last time I shared anything about it was when I shared staining my desk, here. It has definitely changed since then! I love this room and it is such a great place for me to be able to work in. I still love my desk. It is the perfect size to spread out my papers and books on to study, to clear off and be able to work on drawings or art projects for school, and it functions wonderfully as a sewing table as well. I love the way it looks and I haven’t had any problems with it or complaints. I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a great (and inexpensive) desk. You can find it at IKEA, here.
I love, love, love my tufted linen office chair. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it and knew it would one day be mine. Unfortunately, World Market happened to be out of stock with them all across this half of the country and I had to wait over 3 months for them to get any more in. I stalked them rather frequently just to see if maybe more had arrived. They did finally come in and I brought mine home (with some discounts too for using a coupon that they had e-mailed out). I absolutely love the look of it, the fabric, the tufting, everything. It is also so much more comfortable than my old wooden office chair as well. You can find it online, here. (Although online you can only buy them in sets of two, in the store you can buy them individually)
Last, but not least, I am really pleased with my white shelving unit from IKEA as well. It was inexpensive, easy to put together, and is well made and looks really nice. It is the perfect size for what I needed and it is great for holding all my office supplies and other crafty stuff. I originally wanted some kind of a wooden dresser for storage in here, but I am so happy with this instead. I love that it is lightweight and will be so much more practical to move out of this second story apartment whenever we move. A big wooden dresser would not be so much fun to move. Plus with a wooden desk, I’m happy with the white shelves. You can find it at IKEA, here. The baskets are from Target and I really like that they carry over the wood tones from my desk and I love that they came with linen fabric liners already in them.
We also put up some wall shelves on the other wall for additional storage, although you can’t see them in the pictures above. We also added a longer curtain rod. It bothers me that the curtains I have in here are too short, they were from my dorm room, but they work for now. We added the shelves to the closet in here, and we also put up a towel rod on the back of the door for me to hang my scarves on. We’ve still got a few more things to do, but so far I love this space! :)
Painting Workshop
This weekend, I was in charge of organizing T/NASA’s first painting workshop. (Tulane/Newcomb Art Student Association) It was for abstract acrylic painting and one of Tulane’s grad students taught us many different tips and techniques for achieving different looks and textures in our artwork. It was a great day spent painting with friends.
Everyone seemed to have a really great time and lots of inspiring artwork was produced. It was so nice to be painting again! Especially after being so inspired by abstract art lately!
A big thanks to Tim for bringing his camera and taking pictures and for letting me use it to take a million pictures as well.
Lately I’ve been so inspired by colorful abstract art.
I love the work of Michelle Armas. Aren’t these pieces gorgeous? Look at the amazing use of color and movement!
I also really like the work of Sally Benedict as well.
I could stare at these paintings all day! I really want one for my office. Maybe sometime soon I’ll have time to break out my paints again and get to work on one. :)
Anyone else feeling particularly inspired by art? or nature? the fall weather?
For our final in my painting class, we did a painting completely different than any others that we had done in the class thus far. This one wasn’t strictly from life, we could use photographs and it was up to us to morph multiple things/images into one final image. We were to pick two things, one 2D object and one 3D object, with one being reminiscent of our past and one being related to our lives now. This is what I ended up with:
So what does it represent about me? Well, the background is a fabric pattern. I liked this pattern- a quatrefoil pattern reminiscent of Gothic Architecture and I love art and art history. It is also very graphic and I love graphic design. It is also fabric, which I love and want to design my own collection of one day. Fabric represents a lot in my life. Learning to sew when I was young, my mom sewing all kinds of things, my love of the home and home decorating. I’ve been looking for fabric for curtains for our new apartment and I was drawn to lots of pretty graphic patterns like this one. It just seemed fitting.
The watering can and flowers represents my childhood, home, growing up, my parents. I was always outside in our backyard as a kid, so obviously something related to nature would be perfect for relating to my past. My dad is an avid collector of various old/antique things and I guess my mom mentioned to him sometime how she liked watering cans and that began a period of him collecting all kinds of them for her. Most of them looked really similar to this one. I remember as a kid, filling them up with water from the hose and dragging them around the yard to water all the flower beds. The flowers inside this watering can are the same flowers that my mom would let us pick out at the feed store every summer in little cartons to plant in the yard and help her do the gardening.
Tying the two together in a cohesive way represents the meshing of my past with my present and how they are ever intertwined, but separate in a way as well. But then again, that is kind of obvious.
I’m so thankful for all that I learned in my painting class and I’m kind-of sad to see it end! Although I am happy that I’m done with school for the semester! I’m so ready for this summer! I can’t believe that I’m halfway done with college though. It has gone by so fast!
Rose Windows
Today was my last day of my art history class. I’m really going to miss it. I’ve really developed a love for ancient art history, especially the architecture. I’m fascinated by the amazing things that people were able to build without any kind of fancy modern technology or huge machinery to aid them. The intricacy and detail is astounding. I particularly like the patterns and little embellishments that they use. I could go on and on about art history and all that amazes me for days, so I’ll stop here.
The last time period that we discussed in this class was Gothic Art and Architecture. Lately I have really been in love with the Gothic rose window patterns that adorn almost every Gothic cathedral. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here is an example of the Notre Dame in Paris (with my 17 year old self in front of it):
See the really pretty round window in the middle? I’m in love with these. They are on all kinds of ancient buildings, but this is just one that I happen to already have pictures of. They are even prettier on the inside, because they are completely filled in with stained glass:
Sorry, I had a crappy camera at the time, so these pictures aren’t the best. Here is another one on the other side of the Notre Dame:
In one of my inspiration posts a while back, I wrote about an Etsy Shop that sold these rose window prints. I really, really want one, but there aren’t any in their shop. I e-mailed to ask if I could get one, but I still haven’t heard back from them. This is what I’m talking about:
The other day Drew and I were in Restoration Hardware and I saw this matelasse/quilt/coverlet in AMAZING Belgian Linen in the most perfect brownish grey color with a rose window pattern on it:
I fell in love. Immediately. I pondered and looked and touched and had the salesman get out the packages and almost went to the sales counter with them. They were even on sale. But they were still WAY expensive for my budget. :(
I can’t get them out of my head though. I know I can find other, less expensive bedding for the bedroom in the new house, but I really, really love the rose window pattern on this! (and the color and the texture and the grain lines of the linen…Ahhh!)
So there you have it. My obsession with rose window patterns.
Today I turned in my 5th project in my painting class. This assignment was different from the others, in that we didn’t spend weeks working on one larger painting, but instead we completed 8 smaller paintings. These were done in the impressionist style, painted only in natural lighting, we were only allowed to spend 4 hours on each painting and each needed to be done all in one sitting. We completed 4 indoor paintings and 4 outdoor paintings. “En plein air” painting is the term used for outdoor painting, generally in the impressionist style.
I’m really glad we did this project. It was refreshing and didn’t get boring because we could paint outside the studio and the paintings were quick enough that you didn’t get bored with the subject. It also required that you make quick decisions and determine what aspects of your set-up you could relate in the painting in the time frame and which aspects were left to be handled economically. It was really enjoyable, is something that I would totally do often outside of painting for a class, and I really feel like I improved significantly throughout the project. Just compare my first ones to my last ones!
These are in the order that I did them by category. I definitely think the last one of each is way better than previous ones! I actually did both of the last ones yesterday. Way to go procrastination.
I definitely need to still keep improving. I’m happy with my progress, but I still need lots of practice with painting glass! It’s been hard to try to master so far.
I could improve a lot on my outdoor ones as well. I definitely like the last outdoor one best out of all of them. :)
I thought it was really nice and relaxing to paint in Audubon Park. It is peaceful and is nice just to get to enjoy the wonderful weather. It was also really interesting to sit there and observe everything going on around the park and hear random bits of everyone’s conversations. I would definitely recommend you do it sometime.
Here are all of our paintings spread out in class for critique, pretty, huh?
Click to see painting project #1, #2, #3, & #4.
Yesterday I turned in my 4th painting in my painting class! This one was my favorite so far! I love Impressionism! Although, it was a little of a challenge for me, because I have a hard time making such deliberate and distinct brushstrokes. I want to blend everything nice and neatly together with clean lines. I love the way it looks, it is just so hard for me to do it myself! However, on this project and the next, I’m trying my best to step outside my comfort zone. I’m pleased with the result! The painting that I copied was “My Garden” by Gari Melchers.
Sorry for the poor quality image, I took this picture with my phone really quick before I turned it in. Hence the art studio floor for a backdrop. As promised in the post about my last project, I took pictures throughout the process to show how I came about getting an image that looked like this one.
First off, I taped my paper to my board and applied 3 coats of gesso. Then I drew the image onto my paper. After getting a rough sketch of where everything was at, I started the painting process.
I started with a complementary underpainting of sorts. This helps neutralize the color above it slightly and allows some of the compliment to show through in places where it should (especially on the sky in this particular painting).
Then on top of that, I started to lay in the blended undertones of the next layers.
And on top of those, I start to add the more distinct marks and brushstrokes. Slowly layering on top of the previous layers of paint.
In the last few pictures you can especially see the bottom part taking shape.
More layers of colored brushstrokes. :)
The paint is applied in different techniques. The bottom layer was a wash, then on top of that you use drybrushing, glazing, and normal painting, depending on the look you are going for, or in this case, the look that you are trying to replicate.
Keep in mind that for this painting I only used 7 paints. Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Hansa Yellow, Cerulean Blue, and White. Therefore, every color of paint you see here all has to be mixed to match the color. There is rarely ever any application of a paint color directly out of a tube. You can see some of that in action, here.
Getting closer!
Feel like you’ve been staring at the same picture over and over again the last few minutes? Well that is sort-of what it feels like when you are painting. It looks easy, but it is oh so time consuming. You can spend hours painting and it barely looks like you made any progress! Ahh frustration.
Plus, even when you are finally done, you see about a million little changes you could make and the process continues… But anyhow, that is basically how I arrived at completion of this painting. Minus all the late night hours of work, color matching, paint mixing, brush cleaning, etc. etc. etc… I think you get the idea.
This is the first painting that I’ve done in a while that I’m thinking of framing and hanging on the wall. I’ll let you know what it looks like when it is up. :)
How many of you all like to paint yourselves? I’m sure if you are taking the time to read this then you are crafty or creative in some area. What is your artsy medium of choice?
2 Comments