Inspired by Art

I having the fun and fantastic opportunity to join a group of fabulous DIY bloggers on a Rock your Knockoff Blog Tour.  This tour started on Monday and continues through Thursday.

So check out the amazing knock~offs from this talented group of bloggers below.

Now on to my inspired by art knock~off. I love home decorating catalogs more than magazines.  I flip through not looking for something to buy, but to make. I have a file box full of ideas torn from magazines, divided into about 60 categories.

The photo above was a torn idea from Grandin Road.  It’s metal artwork of four 24 inch square flowers for $299 plus shipping. We live in a cabin and the metal artwork, while lovely, would not fit in our house.

But for some reason, I was drawn to this piece. I think it reminded me of a lamp that sits in my grandma’s living room of their old farmhouse.  The lamp is pictured above on the right.  It looked like rusty red and gray pillows.

Funny how inspiration hits.

I wanted something like the art but in a Country Design Style that would fit our cabin. So, I grabbed some burlap, when in doubt, grab burlap! I measured out four 24 inch squares and pulled the burlap string at the 24-inch mark. This gives an easy straight {for burlap} line to cut. Just remember, when you pull a thread of burlap, there’s no putting it back!!! 😀 Then I frayed the edges.  Don’t toss the burlap string.  You might find yourself making a birds nest in the next couple of weeks!

More on that later!

I painted very quickly all four squares with gesso almost to the edges.  Gesso is a thick heavy paint that is used to prepare the canvas for painting.  You can find it at any craft store. Next, I ran upstairs okay I walked, to grab some craft paints and paintbrushes.  Foam brushes will not work as well as regular brushes on the burlap. I found a turquoise, a seafoam green, a light gray and …. a way too bright light green.  So I mixed it with a strange beige.  This made the color on the bottom right square. Now using my trusty rusty square, I painted a line down and one across in the middle of each square. My trusty rusty square is not to0 trusty…I can barely see the measurements through all the rust!

I cut a large petal shape from paper and used it as a guide for the flowers. I could have fussed with this and made sure the lines were perfect thickness and exact, but I didn’t want a perfect look.  🙂Those sticky strips were perfect for hanging my “inspired by art” project.

Tip:  when hanging something lightweight like these burlap squares, I cut the sticky strips in half lengthwise.  They still have the tab to remove with damaging the paint.

I hung my inspired by art over our faux mantel I made using scrap wood.  By the way, I didn’t spend anything!

Here are a few other popular knock~offs I’ve done.

     

Now on to the other knock~offs!

If you’re new to reading blogs and not sure what a blog tour is, let me tell you.  A group of bloggers will pick a theme.  It could be anything from whole home tours to simply the color red.  The group will pick dates to share with our readers.  Usually, a blog tour is 3 to 5 days with 3 to 5 bloggers each day.  On our scheduled day our post will be published with links at the bottom of each post to all themed posts.  This way our reader have the opportunity to explore new bloggers and the many different ideas on a theme.

How fun is that???

Here’s the schedule.

Monday – http://girlinthegarage.net/

http://www.virginiasweetpea.com/

http://freshideastudio.com/

Tuesday –

http://www.confessionsofaserialdiyer.com/

http://diohomeimprovements.com

Wednesday –

http://justagirlandherblog.com/

http://www.curbalertblog.com/

https://countrydesignstyle.com/

Thursday –

http://meeganmakes.com/

http://www.mommyiscoocoo.com/