Yeah, so you know how on all those HGTV shows, the designers are always showing people how to make their own easy and cheap artwork? And you know how I mentioned at the end of last week’s blog post that I was looking to redecorate my house cheaply and chicly? Upon returning home from my December vacay, it struck me that my living room walls were altogether too white and bare. Writers, you know how you feel after reading a manuscript after being away from it–suddenly all the problem areas come clear? That’s how I felt. Art, I realized! I needed art! The catch: as a freelance editor and YA writer, I couldn’t afford any, unless a publishing miracle in the HP/Twilight vein suddenly occured…

It didn’t (though I may have some sale news for you soon–stay tuned!). So, yeah. I attempted to make my own artwork. This, despite the fact that my brief elementary art career was a joke. I still remember a teacher asking us to draw snowflakes. Mine were asterisk-type jobs when everyone else had graduated (unbeknownst to moi) to fancy freehand Spirograph-like thingies. Oh, the shame! Apparently, my creative gift with words did not automatically translate to visual art…

So it was no surprise that this weekend’s first attempts at DIY art-making were epic fails, as my teens would (and did) say. About halfway through the weekend, I realized I needed to, well, cheat. Instead of painting a picture from scratch, why not make use of stampers and such? So it was off to my local art supply store where I picked up a couple of stampers with elegant but modern home dec type patterns. (Would have liked to buy some of those great new wall sticker things, but they were all a tad *too* modern for the space…) I rushed home to paint over a couple of the canvases and stamp away. Instant gorgeousness! It was then I was inspired to cut some gorgeous flowers off of a roll of wrapping paper I’d bought at holiday time. They had a hand-painted look, and when I glued them onto a repainted canvas, the result was stunning!

Okay, so the reviews are mixed on one original canvas I left hanging. It’s basically a red-painted canvas with some black magic marker scribbling on it. I was inspired by a picture of a painting I saw in Vogue. (Why is it that when something’s in Vogue, it looks great, but when it’s on your wall, people just shake their heads and say, “Why?”)

But I like it. And hey, that’s what art’s all about, right? At least, that’s gonna be my line until that publishing miracle comes through…

Tags: art, cheap chic, DIY, HGTV

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