DIY Color Swatch Art

The wall in front of my table in the craft room had been blank and drab forever. My initial plan was to add a pegboard but husband had a fit at the number of holes we would be making in the wall in the process. Check out the rest of my Craft Room/Study here.

While watching the Fixer Upper series, I noticed some Color Swatch Art in one of the styled houses and literally fell in love with the idea. I knew that this would be the perfect pop of inspiration I needed on my wall, also adding color to the space.


The same day, we were off to Spotlight to get some canvases for the purpose. I grabbed 8 of the 11"x14" ones for 2$ each. (SCORE!) Just look at the transformation!

Supplies needed: 

• 11"x14" canvas - 8
  (Technically, the number and the size of the canvas would depend on the size of the wall you would like to cover with this project)
• Acrylic Paint
  (In the colors you would like to paint, or you could mix up colors to make new ones, totally up to you!)
• Alphabet Stencils 
• Mod Podge
• Pencil
• Ruler 
• Eraser

Directions:

1. I started with creating an outline for the color swatch with a pencil and a ruler. I wanted a 1 cm border around three sides, just because I think that looked better. My measurements of the square hence, turned out to be 25.5cm x 25.5cm. I created these on all the canvases as a guide for the paint.
    
   
2. Then I decided on the color palette I wanted to paint, and started to fill in the squares with the decided colors. I decided on the following shades: Crimson Red, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue, and made some pastel and neutral shades: Jade Green, Lilac Purple, Light Pink, Steel Grey and a Bright Orange. The painting need not be perfect, so I slapped the paint on!
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once this was complete, I stenciled out the color names on the bottom of each swatch canvas with pencil. I could have spelled out the exact color, but I only wanted to replicate the look and feel of a swatch, so kept it super simple!
   
   
   
4. With black paint I filled in these words. This was the most time consuming and tiring part of the entire project since this needed to be precise. You could use other mediums to do this, but I wanted to paint.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Once everything was dried up, I mod podged all the canvases to seal and finish them up. This gave them a professional look and removed any major inconsistencies in paint color.
   
   
   

   

Two more to finish, and that's it, all done and ready to hang... love them to pieces! We used 3M Picture strips to hang these canvases. Trying to figure out the arrangement here:

And this is what the final arrangement looks like! They add such a fun vibe to the room and lots of pops of colors - perfect accompaniment to my doodle wall!

Hope these have inspired you to make something fun and colorful for your home! 

Xoxo

Divya

Craft Room/ Study Reveal

Instead of sharing boring and sweaty pictures of putting this place together, I figured I’d just share the good! So without further ado, I wanted to share a quick tour around my new craft room (before decorating!!!) and of my new craft room basic set-up.

When we were looking for a new house, I was sure I needed a space for me for my crafts and my office supplies and I am so happy with how it is turning out! Besides looking fun and quirky, I also needed it to be functional for both of us. It took a bit of brainstorming, moving and adding things until I finally got it where it needed to be. Let's take a look!

You can see in the before photo that we basically painted it bright white like all the other rooms in the house bringing in a lot of natural light through the high windows. Loved it, and made the room look so much bigger than it actually was!

I went on and doodled one wall of the room to give it some color, texture and a quirky personality. It has turn out super fun!

Upcycled thrift store find: Altered Spoon (Tutorial)

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful week. Today, I'm going to share how I altered this vintage spoon I had picked up at the Lost and Found Market. It had so much character that I just couldn't let it go.  

To get started, all you need, other than basic supplies, is an old silverware piece (which you can usually find at thrift stores):

Craft Room Doodle wall

As soon as I had my own space for myself, I had to make it my own. Whether you have your own studio or a corner of your bedroom for your crafting, I feel this is a must to personalize your creative space and let the ideas flow. So, what better than to paint a wall? I did not want to simply paint it a color since I had already done that in other parts of my home. This had to be UNIQUE, so I went about scribbling for some ideas. And that's when I realized, what better than Doodling? Here is a draft I made incorporating everything I love:

Cinderella Pop-up card!

Yes, I said it - I am officially obsessed with pop-up cards. Anything that looks out of the ordinary greeting cards catches my eye. I wanted to create a girlie pop-up card, to go down the memory lane of my own childhood. I know I would have loved this card growing up. I loved fairy tales, spinning stories, and everything to do with fairyland.

My mom says that as a kid I would spin stories and get my brother in trouble, and would talk for hours about all things that happened at school. Once a chatter box, always a chatter box! :)  

So, here I made a Cinderella-inspired Pop-up card. I thought of everything that reminds me of the whimsical Cinderella fairy tale - the pumpkin carriage, the glittery glass slipper, the fairy godmother, a starry night, and lots of magic. 

Mixed media cards!

I was inspired to make some cards with artsy backgrounds. Wanted to create something new, which I hadn't done before. Thought I would give a start, and see where they lead me, and think they turned out quite nice!

Card no. 1

Got all my distress inks out, and started to spray. Was aiming for a "batik" inspired background. So, used a stencil, versamark, and then holographic embossing powder, to get a glittery design on the card. Then went on to emboss it, stamped a sentiment. 

Here is a close up of the background:

I have also entered this card into the Crazy 4 Challenge no."C4C319"
And into the Share Joy Challenge 19: Sketch & Tic-Tac-Toe.

Card no. 2

I wanted to make an inspirational card with an artsy background. Nothing like making one of those to cheer yourself up! 

Again, I started off with spraying several layers of distress inks. Then I went on to stamp some areas to get some more texture. I also painted a few areas with acrylic paints to get a pop of color. Then, I hand sketched out this pretty girl. Went on to emboss her hair with holographic embossing powder to get that shine and glitter. Then made some handmade paper roses, added some paper vines, and then stamped some pretty flowers to adorn her pretty hair, finishing off with some pearl dotsThen, I stamped "You're one of a kind" on several pieces of leftover embossed paper, and added that to the card. 

Here, you can probably see some textures and layers going on: 

I have also entered this card into the SugarPea Designs Sugar Sketch 37 (SPDSS37).

Hope this inspires you to do something creative! 

Love!

Painting - Bani Thani!

Folks, in this post I would like to share a painting I had made several years ago. It is my version of the famous "Bani Thani" miniature painting. It is not an original, but I loved it so much that I had to try it! 

Hope you like it!

Love,
Divya

Radha Krishna paintings - Digging through my archives!

Folks, in this post I share some paintings of Radha Krishna I had made some years ago. The inspiration of all these paintings is the famous Krishna raasleela on the banks of the river Yamuna and the Madhuban forests of Vrindavan. 

Painting no. 1

Painting no. 2

Painting no. 3

And, here is a close-up of the above:

Hope you like them! :)

Love, 

Divya

Flip card - for a Birthday/Anniversary!

Folks, so on this post, I am sharing a card I had made for a birthday taking inspiration from those flip cards we loved as kids! 

So, for the cover of the card, I made a house. Cut some scraps of paper to make it, and added some newsletter butterflies, lace, confetti and a tag as embellishments.  I made some clouds, birds, and the ground with white acrylic paint. Thought it looked super cute. Also hand drew some ethnic design near the spine to add some layers. 

Old Ganesha Art - Digging through my archives!

Hi all,

Today I am sharing some of my Ganesha art pieces I had made long back. I don't remember when I had painted them, but I know I have always loved painting Ganesha, because I have always been so mystified with this divine God.

Hope you like these.

Lots of love!

Divya

Acrylic Painting - Along the Yarra

Hi folks! 

This acrylic on canvas piece is entitled, “Along the Yarra,” and is inspired from the landscape along the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia. 

I tried to step out of my comfort zone with a landscape with this piece of art. During the summers, it is so amazing to sit along the Yarra River, and watch the cityscape, that I had to try my hand at capturing it.

Hope you like it! 

Love, 

Divya

Acrylic Painting - Ganesha: Remover of Obstacles

Hello folks,

Here I share an acrylic painting I had made, entitled, "Ganesha: Remover of Obstacles". 

I’ve long had a thing for pictures of Ganesha. I used to paint them all the time as a kid and have quite a few around our house. So, that is always an inspiration I go back to every few years. 

This painting depicts the Hindu deity, Ganesha on a colorful canvas background. I admit this is not an original, but I loved the color combination so much, that I just had to make it! 

Hope you get some inspiration to do something artsy!

Love,
Divya