Wednesday, January 25, 2012

DIY State Wall Art

I have run across several home décor items promoting state pride. These products prompted me to display some Hoosier love in our home. 


Have you discovered AHeirloom’s state shaped cutting boards on Etsy? I ordered my father-in-law a custom Argentina cutting board for Christmas. The shop owners even put a heart over his hometown. I was very pleased with the product and he appreciated the unique gift.

(Funny aside: They accidentally shipped me the upper and lower peninsula of Michigan. I was quite confused. Regardless of how I arranged the pieces, they did not resemble Argentina. AHeirloom quickly rectified the geographical mix up and the correct cutting board arrived two days later.)


I recently found these hand embroidered pillows at uncommongoods. They have a lot of character, but I will never be able to convince myself to spend $150 on a pillow. 




I set out to make a basic Indiana water color using supplies I already owned. I found the state outline by doing a Google image search. I printed the outline on sketch paper. 



I added two small hand drawn hearts over the towns that Josh and I grew up in. I am not a painter, but I do remember a few watercolor tips from my high school art class. Before painting, I used a brush to do a light water wash over the areas I wanted to color. This helped me control the paint.



This photo was taken after one layer of paint. All of the water made the paper wrinkle. If I had used proper watercolor paper, I would not have run into this problem. 




I needed a place to hang my Hoosier art. I created a collage with a couple of picture frames I already had and these cute hooks my mom bought for me. (Any suggestions on what I should hang on my new hooks?)



After a few coats of spray paint, all of the collage elements match. I used the same technique to hang these frames as I used when installing our gallery wall. This little collage is tucked beside some bookcases in our office. When I finally get around to making curtains, I will show you the rest of the office. 





19 comments:

  1. Your painting is sweet, and I love the cutting boards too!

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  2. I love this idea! So doing it for our gallery wall! Visiting from Delightful Order linky party.

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  3. Looks great!! You could hang some giant antique keys on the hooks with ribbon, that would look so cute!

    - Shauna life.love.

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    1. Thanks Shauna! I will have to start looking for some vintage keys.

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  4. Such a cute idea! I love how it turned out! I also wanted to let you know that I'm hosting my first giveaway for a free My Memories digital scrapbooking program, If your interested you can enter until Saturday!
    Sally
    http://loveofhomes.blogspot.com/2012/01/my-memories-digital-scrapbook-give-way.html

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  5. I LOVE this! I really hope you'll share it here:
    http://oneartmama.blogspot.com/2012/01/shine-on-fridays-12.html

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  6. what a cute idea! Love the black and white with the tealy green :)

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  7. cute - I would love to do this with Michigan!

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  8. that is fabulous-and the colors, shaded like that? love!

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  9. I totally just pinned this idea as something to do for each child I have.
    I'd love to show a picture of the state that they were born in (we are military so more than likely they'll be in different states!)
    Such a great tutorial!

    Biz

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  10. That looks great! I love the bright green.

    Visiting from Delicate Construction!

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  11. I've seen this trend too and your take on it is fantastic. Thanks for sharing at this week's BFF Open House!

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  12. Total AWESOMENESS!!! This turned out SUPER CUTE!!! Love the watercolors!!! Thanks for sharing at Overflowing with Creativity! Here's a link in case you want to register for my giveaway!

    Ramsign Giveaway: Porcelain Enamel Sign {up to $99 value}

    XO, Aimee

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  13. You've been featured!

    http://makinglemonadeblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/refresh-your-nest-friday-19.html

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  14. Roberta in IndianapolisMarch 13, 2012 at 4:40 AM

    I just recently found a great reproduction of an Indiana map from 1882 on Ebay for just $17....shipping included! It's about 2'x3' and is going to look great in a frame I already had. The railway lines are shown along with a lot of little towns that are no longer there. Fun little Hoosier history lesson built into the wall art.

    Thanks for sharing all of your great ideas!

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Thanks for visiting! All of your nice comments make me smile!

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