Inspiration Wednesdays… DIY inspirational art

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I’ve got a great little DIY tutorial for you today for this lovely Inspiration Wednesday.

This one is sooooo easy and yet looks so fabulous, you can do it this afternoon and have it hanging up in your home by tomorrow!

The best part is you can customize exactly what you want it to say… do you have an affirmation you would like to greet you each morning as you start your day?

Do you have a favorite quote that makes your heart sing?

Invite positivity and love right into your own home… and by creating it yourself you will bring that fabulous energy of creativity right up through your own being, and bring with it health and healing too.

As I wrote in a guest blog post for Art Snark herethe healthiest thing you can do is to create and allow your life force to flow through you. Creativity and energy flow and health are all related, and you can read more about my thoughts on this here!

All you need for this project are those little alphabet stickers you can find at most hardware stores or mega-marts and craft supply/art stores… and paint and a surface to paint. That’s it!

Using the alphabet stickers you just stick on the message you’d like to see and then you paint right on top of the stickers. When it is dry, you peel them off. Easy peasy, right?

You can’t mess this up, you simply can’t. So no worries about what you are painting or your technique. You just choose a color that speaks to you, one you love, and go for it. You can use your fingers and fingerpaint it right on… you can use a brush… you can go in circles or zigzags… you can not not not mess this up.

You could literally smear on a blog of paint and not even touch it, just let it flow all over the canvas from the bottle and walk out of the room and the art will create itself. Even easier and more hands off is you can spray paint a single color (or layers of color) right on top of the stickers without even touching the paint at all.

Ready to start? Let’s go!

 

 

1. Start with a blank canvas or canvas board or simply a square of poster board or recycled cardboard or even a sheet of wood would be nice.

Keep in mind the color of the words will be the raw color of the material you start with, so wood would have wood grain peeking out in the words and cardboard would be brown.

You could pre-paint the starting material if you’d like your words to be a certain color as well, if you like.

 

 

2. Place your stickers how you like them. I happened to have a bunch of quotes custom cut for me in vinyl sitting around (the perks of being an artist who didn’t follow through on her initial venture!!!) so I used them.

Stick them down nice and firmly and make sure they are completely adhered.

 

 

3. Drop blobs of paint all over your surface, right on top of the stickers. Be a bit careful when painting on top of the stickers, you do not want them to lift as you paint on top of them.

I found if you use a very thick amount of paint it worked better, or if you are using a thin layer of paint, dab gently on top of and around the letters instead of wiping back and forth across them. I had several letters lift completely off when I was caught up in sloshing the paint all around and not careful.

If you want to take the easy route and not have to worry about accidentally disturbing the stickers… just spray paint your favorite color right on top of the stickers and you are done!

 

 

Take care to paint the sides as well if you are using a canvas… this way you do not even need to frame them!

 

 

4. Wait for it to dry! I waited overnight because I put on the paint very thickly… if you spray painted your artwork, you will only need to wait 15 or 20 minutes!

 

 

5. Peel the stickers off gently… I used the tip of a thick embroidery needle to help get each sticker started… or my fingernail.

Voila! Instant inspirational artwork for your home!

 

Want some more ideas?

 

 

Two more examples. That…

 

 

… became this.

 

 

And that….

 

 

… became this!

 

To show you how simple but how powerful this can be, I want to share with you the art my 8 and 10 year old kids did using this technique… I just love them. My daughter’s:

 

 

… and my son’s:

 

I wouldn’t sell my children’s fabbo artwork for a million dollars, but I’ve got my wall inspiration in my art shop right now if you still prefer not to do it yourself!

All the affirmation canvases in my shop are gallery wrapped and painted, so they are ready to hang up with no need to frame.

I went an extra step and painted the words with white for extra contrast and vibrancy. Each are then sealed with an archival varnish finish so that they can brighten up your home for 200+ years without losing color. My original canvas affirmation art is found right here, check them out!

Because it is such a simple technique with profound results, they are a very inexpensive way to have original works of art in your home that are uplifting and fun… whether you make them or I do! 🙂

xoxo, Laura

 

PS — My daughter drew the numbers and the winners of Monday’s giveaway of four different wall vases are:

natural wood with cobalt bottle: Vicki M.

natural wood with amber bottle: Lyndi G.

green wood with cobalt bottle: Kelly M.

light blue wood with amber bottle: Christi G.

Yay you guys! Thanks so much for entering! Congrats on winning… I’ll email you for your shipping address tomorrow and have them in the mail for you by this weekend! xoxo