Posts tagged ‘paint’

When we did our bathroom update last year my Mother-in-Law handed down a very sturdy wall mirror to replace our tiny medicine cabinet. I planned on just using the glass and discarding the faux gold frame, but as time passed it just never got done.

This weekend the girls and I needed a little project to do in the afternoon together so I pulled the mirror off the wall. With a little baking soda and a tooth brush I scrubbed out all of the crevices and washed out the dirt and dust. Then the girls and I painted it with simple acrylic craft glue. I wanted it to be completely red, but the kids’ less carful hand had a better outcome leaving some of the black accents to show through. In the end I ended up copying their technique, which we used to cover the mirror in two coats.

I need to give it a schelac finish before it is truly done, but I didn’t have anything around. For now it is on the wall, standing out and making a statement. And the girls are really proud to have helped make something important.

About two years ago Anna Maria Horner was on Martha Stewart teaching how to make a fabric silhouette painting (the “crafting with fabric” segment) and I’ve wanted to do it ever since. In fact I bought the canvases about a year ago and have been putting it off since. I knew that I wanted to put the artwork in our newly remodeled bathroom, but I didn’t know what I wanted to silhouette.

Then I watched the fabric painting project on Reconstruct, and I got the itch again to make this art. I didn’t have enough fabric to use Anna Maria’s method so I sort of blended the two projects into one.

I cut out the silhouettes from the fabric and pasted them to the painted canvas with Mod Podge. Then to give it a little bit of detail and contrast I went over the fabric with acrylic paint in a sort of drop-shadow fashion. I like the look over all, especially since I’m not really a graphic artist and usually work in 3-D. I do sort of wish I had done the canvases in the red and the drop-shadow in the green. I may end up changing it since they are on my blue walls and blend in a little too well.

It was pretty quick to work on. I made it over the course of a few days to allow for paint drying time. I will most likely make this again, probably smaller and for gift-giving purposes.