Friday Inspiration

Every Friday, I'm going to share with you something cool that I've found online that I'm going to try to make.  This week it is DIY coasters!

Very exciting, I know.  :)  I'm going to try to make a set or 2 of these this weekend and I'll update you on how it looks on Monday.

What are some things that you're wanting to try to make?  Are you like me and you scour Pinterest for inspiration?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

More hearts in Africa

Another lady asked me to make an Africa painting for her, but this time with a few more hearts on it for different countries.  She wanted hearts over Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan.  She also wanted the background color to be a tan color.

So, the only thing I had to do differently was paint the entire canvas in the tan color first and let it dry before I put my stencil on. 

I'm trying to take some more 'in progress' pictures for you as I make new things.  I'm getting better!  This was has 2 as opposed to none! 

P.S. I had to laugh once I took this picture and saw that the random piece of magazine paper I put underneath it said 'Sorry, no returns' on it. 

So, once the base color dried, I just rolled up a few pieces of Scotch tape, put them on the back of the stencil and placed it on the canvas.

I made sure I waited even longer than usual just to make double sure that the base color was dry since I was securing my stencil with tape.  I didn't want the tape to pull off any color.

With the stencil on, I was ready to begin!  And here's where my 'in progress' pictures stop.  I just got into a groove and forgot to take any pictures.  Plus I didn't want to risk getting paint from my fingers on my phone.  :)

But through the magic of blogging, here's the finished product!

The tan color looks a little different because I put it under a different light and used the flash on my camera.  The picture with just the tan color on it was a bit warmer than in actuality as well.

I really hope my friend likes it.  I wasn't sure how it would look with multiple hearts on it, especially since those 4 countries are all in the same area of Africa.  But I think it turned out well. 

Hopefully I can post a few varied things in the next few days since the past 2 have been these Africa paintings.  :)  Give you guys something different to look at.

Africa

Once I started putting up pictures of my paintings on Facebook, I had one of my friends contact me and ask me about making them one for Kenya.  She had seen a picture when she was there that she really liked and wanted to see if I could make one similar. 

So last night, while hanging out with my good friend Lauren, I whipped something up.  Ok, saying 'whipping something up' implies it didn't take that long.  This took a while.  With what I decided to do with the background colors, it took a few hours!  But I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I hope that my friend is, too. 

Here's the final product:

And here's a little sneak peek of the next craft project I'm going to try....

The Pinterest Challenge!

I recently started making a few things that I got inspiration from Pinterest and what do you know, but Young House Love issued a Summer Pinterest challenge today! I have been wanting to make a blog anyway to showcase the things I make for people to purchase, so this will make it a lot more fun to link it up with this Challenge!

So, first of all, here is the picture I found on Pinterest that inspired me to make something of my own:

The description for this tag said, "Such a cute idea to mark where you got married, met, honeymooned, etc."  And I agree.  Cute idea.  And super easy to make!  Especially since I already have some spare canvases and paint.  All I need is the outline of whatever state I'd want to use. 

So, since my lovely hubby and I got married in Louisville, KY, off I went to the great Internet to find me an outline to print off.  I finally found a good resource for all things stencils at Spray Paint Stencils - where you can find things from state outlines to cassette tape and George W. Bush outlines.  No joke. 

So I found Kentucky, printed it and cut it out and placed it on my canvas.  (Sorry, no in progress pictures for this one...it's already done!)  I picked my color and carefully painted out from outline onto the canvas...all the way around.  Then I painted the rest of the canvas and removed my outline so everything could dry (and not dry the outline onto the canvas making it hard to get off). 

Once it dried, I whipped out my red paint and painted a little heart where Louisville is.  And, just to fill out the empty space around the state, I added our anniversary date. 

Oh, and I posed it next to our wedding picture for a really professional looking photograph (haha). 

I really love how customizable it is and I look forward to making these for other people.  I think they'll look nice even without the wording...just the picture, like the Texas one.

So here's my first post ever!  I hope I can keep up with the lady bloggers and continue to make some awesome things over the summer.  Thanks for the challenge, ladies! :)

And for those who are interested in commissioning me to make one for you (aka Mom), my pricing while I'm starting out is $8 for a painting with just the state and heart and $10 for one with any writing on it.