Messy Masterpiece

So in our living room, we have an empty, red wall, which we stare at often because our television sits in front of it. There hasn't been anything on that wall in some time because we have been looking for a particular piece of artwork, specifically one on a long, short canvas that would sort of lay above the tv.  Nothing we saw ever fit our budget or really fit what we were looking for ~ design-wise ~ so I thought why not just make something. I'm not intimidated by that.

I was inspired by a post “messy masterpiece” where daughter and mom created an artpiece “if it’s not messy it’s not fun” for her daughter’s room.

the original 'masterpiece' …which i love by the way

I liked the quote and I really loved the way it came out…and when it comes to brushes and paints and canvases, I'm easily inspired {let's just say I find the idea of teaching my boys arithmetic far more daunting than art}.  So this seemed to be an easy DIY that would allow us to showcase some of the boys’ creative talents WHILE filling up that blank red space at the same time. Two birds. One stone.

So I went out and bought a canvas and used some items I already had at home.

Canvas
Alphabet Stickers* {I used Artskills Poster Letters & Lettering}
Acrylic Paint and/or Finger paint

* I took the tip from her post and used white alphabet stickers. I had those in the lettering packet and I thought that might work best so that the kids wouldn’t try and pick at them. It was a success. Honestly, I think they were just really into getting paint all over their hands and then all over the empty, white canvas.

We used four different paint colors, mostly with an analogous color harmony, {or side-by-side on the color wheel, like red, orange and yellow}, with those that would work in our living room. I added purple to give it some depth.  We did one color at a time, and I used paper plates to separate each color. Since we did it outside on our deck, the paint dried up by the time we went to get our next color. {There are some "brown" areas where the paint didn't dry and the colors mixed together, but that's okay. It's supposed to be a little messy!}

Then we peeled off the stickers after everything was dry, and voila! Our masterpiece.

I had white paint that I was going to use to clean up the paint that found their way underneath the stickers, but then after taking them off, it really did seem appropriate. So I just touched it up a tad bit, but left a little of the color there.  I was planning to paint the words "life is" before it but then I just liked the way it came out so I left it alone.

{NOTE: If you don’t have the stickers, you could always just paint your word, or phrase, on there with stencils or free hand}

It was fun. I wish I had taken more pictures of us actually making it, but I didn’t think that far ahead. Anyway, here is the finished piece on our red wall:

Honestly, I love it. Especially since over the last few years I have come to learn and live with “messy” being a very big part of our vocabulary. It just seems appropriate, don't you think?