I'm all about taking something plain and making it pop. These two lamps were cheap-o Dollar Tree finds {$5 each} originally with a black base and plain white shade.
The first got a total make-over to match my {then} brown and teal college comforter while the second was just for fun. The acrylic took really well to both surfaces, although the shade did suck the paint up pretty quickly. Thankfully I wasn't doing a full cover so the multiple coats weren't bad.
I liked the way the polka dots were imperfect. I think it gave the lamp more character and created some fun shadows when the light was on. On a side note... can you EVER go wrong with black and pink?
This next one was one of my favorite projects. I got the idea from a friend during my summer at The Lost Colony... the summer I met Z!
It was really perfect for college since I couldn't paint the walls of the house I was living in. All you need are two bold colors along with black paint, a plain white bed sheet, masking tape and a yard stick for blocking out your squares and some inspirational images. I cut the sheet in half and based the number of squares on the final length and width. From there, pick one item to fill each square. If you're doing this as a gift for someone, think of the things that they love. Sports, music, movies, fashion, food, anything! Do a little online browsing to find a photo that represents your favorite things and, once the squares are completed, add them to the center of the square. Some of my images were freehand and some were traced. To ensure that your image is large enough you can zoom in on the computer and trace directly to a sheet of paper from your monitor, OR find a big-ol' printer!
It was a lot of fun a great way to show my personality, remind me of the things that make me happiest {when times got stressful} and bring color what could have been a really boring room!
I took the other 1/2 of the bed sheet from the above project and made this hanging for the living room of my house senior year of college. At Lynchburg, we had specialty housing where clubs and sports teams could apply for and label their house after their chosen 'craft'. We were successful in having a DANCE HOUSE two years in a row and I thought a giant dancer painting was absolutely necessary for the living room
I mentioned this next painting in my tattoo post back in March but I thought it was worth mentioning again. When my sweet little asked me to do a few paintings for the scenery in a play she was directing I was really excited to help. She provided the canvas and asked that I do something with movement, people, emotion or all of the above. OBVIOUSLY I picked option 'D' and did a dancer! I wanted to do a lined image of a dancer's body and quickly found Laura Higgins Palmer's gallery online. This final image ended up being a mix between this and this but I liked the way it turned out. So much so, that I did similar paintings as gifts for my bridesmaids and went on to get this beauty tattooed on my back! It was a lot of fun to work with the colors and movement of the lines.
I won't go into too much detail about this one {you can find the full post on it here} but I will say that I never realized HOW different working with oil vs acrylic would be until I jumped right in. I loved doing this project and was really happy with the final result. I think I'll do a little more research ahead of time for the next oil painting project!
I actually haven't talked about this project yet but thought there was no better time than now! You may remember back around Christmas I did a few DIY gift ideas including some fun cigar band ornaments. Well I had a few ornaments left over and this is what one of them ended up becoming. I found this great metallic blue acrylic paint during one of my frequent browsing trips to JoAnn Fabrics and it reminded me of a lit night sky so I decided to do a cityscape on one of my remaining ornaments. It's no city in particular, I just had fun with building silhouettes and shadows. Since I'm HOPING the Pierce household will actually have a substantial Christmas tree in 2011, I thought personalized ornaments would be the perfect addition!
This latest project is also brand new and one that I mentioned in Friday's post {here} about all the crafts I'm looking forward to diving into. I figured I had to do at least ONE detailed paint project for today's link up!
After stumbling across some simple tiles at Home Depot I snagged a few and brought them home hoping for some inspiration to pop up. I was going to do some kind of decorative coaster but after seeing Angela's split cherry blossom painting I decided to do a mosaic instead.
Z and I have been taking about our family tree a lot lately so I thought an image with a tree would be unique and fun. Especially if I could successfully break up the photo so there were branches reaching across all 4 tiles. This is the image I decided to use. 
I loved the color, the white accents and the tiny birds. Very whimsical and soft. After printing it off on a full page I placed the tiles on top to see what type of dimensions I was looking at. 
Even with the excess space it seemed perfect so I cut the picture to fit each tile and started painting! 
I started with a white base just to get a nice coat of acrylic on the tile before adding color. Here's the finished product! It's slightly different from the original but I really like it. I'm thinking of displaying the tiles in a shadow box with a tiny bit of space in between each. Thoughts?
If you have any fun paint projects you want to share, be sure you link up with Kate at Centsational Girl and join in on the Fair Weather Forum!
I'd love to hear feedback on my projects, especially if you have any tips on how to be less amateur in my painting. :P I'm definitely no expert and could spend all day picking through my work pointing out all the things I could have done better, but what's the point in doing something if you can't learn from each and every mistake?I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend filled with Easter eggs, family, food comas and sugar highs!Until next time...What type of paint do you prefer to use for household projects? Do you have any secrets or tips on getting the best results?
