A New Hobby: Painting

I was invited for a "crafternoon" where we painted canvases. The hostess had various sizes of canvases and numerous colors. 

I literally haven't painted since elementary school and my art teacher did not think I was particularly artistic so it's not something I've ever really pursued or tried since then! But the more that I dabble in creative endeavors, the more I realize that I do have a creative side and I really, really love it! I've always loved looking at art. 

So anyways, I really enjoyed this! 

I wanted to create something that inspired peace, calm, and tranquility. I've always loved the hombre look, so I used that as inspiration. I think this turned out looking like you're looking out over the ocean with the sky above. Whatever it looks like, I find it peaceful to look at. Mission complete!

I was going to add a quote to it, but I decided that I like it just the way it is.

Now I want to go to Hobby Lobby and buy some paint and canvases to have some fun! I don't know that I would be good at intricate paintings, but I think I could pull off the abstract! 

DIY Owl Garden Edger

I have been having so much fun working on little projects. I have always loved artsy creative activities, but just didn’t really do any of them for lack of time and energy.

My goal is to beautify the yard this year. I’m tired of everything getting overgrown and otherwise looking unkept. I have some ideas for sprucing things up and I’ve been hitting Pinterest for inspiration!

I want to add a few garden decor items this year. I added a wind chime and I love to hear the soft music. We fenced in part of the yard and it’s fantastic to have a safe area for Little Miss Sunshine to run around in.

I found this idea on Pinterest of making an owl out of a garden edger. Little Miss Sunshine loves owls, so I thought this would be perfect to make!

It was really simple.

All you need are garden edgers, a pencil, small paint brushes for little details, and paint that will hold up outside. This includes your color choice for spray paint for the body of the owl, yellow, white, and black. The black and white can be mixed to make gray for the feathers.

First, you spray paint the edger block. I used Rustoleum. I did this the night before I planned to paint the owl so that the spray paint had plenty of time to dry.

After that has fully dried, you can use the pencil to draw the owl onto the edger. I used a picture I found on Pinterest as a reference. You can see my rough sketch below.

I started with painting the yellow on the eyes and the orange beak. From there I moved on to the gray in the feathers, the black in the eyes, the white on the feathers, and then the white on the eyes. Basically, just wait for the paint to dry a bit before adding colors right next to one another that could mix and look messy. You will see smudges on my owls—a result of attempting this project with two toddlers.

This was the final product!

I spent more time on the blue one and was hurrying through the pink one. I love how they turned out though—they’re not perfect, but they’re really cute anyways!

These are my friend’s owls—love the eyelashes!

What a fun project!

Do you have any cute projects like this that you’ve completed lately or hope to do soon?