Easy DIY Abstract Art

You really don't need lots of mad artistic skills to make a passable piece of abstract art for your home.

This post contains affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase the cost to you will be the same but Sum of their Stories will receive a small commission. Our dining room has needed a something to go on the wall in a big ol' space for the 2 1/2 years since we moved here.  I finally found a suitable old canvas in a local charity shop to paint over and last week I got to work. It's really easy and quite a lot of fun to make your own art and if you don't like it or get tired of it after a while you can just paint over it!

To make you own DIY Abstract Art you will need:

A canvas - buy new or pick up one in a charity shop or garage sale maybe Household emulsion paint (latex) Spray and/or acrylic paint in your choice of secondary colours  A couple of brushes, nothing special - just use what you have Ideas - pinterest is your friend here, I've a board of ideas to get you started.

I found this red canvas for £4, it's about 24" x 31" (61cm x 79cm) - perfect.

The first thing you want to do is get rid of any colour you don't want. 

I wanted our new art to be shades of white & grey with a touch of blue and pink. So I painted the whole canvas with 2 coats of regular household emulsion paint (I believe you call it Latex in the US)  

Now you are going to create your masterpiece. 

It's all about splodging on layers of paint until you are happy. How you do this will depend on the look you want and the paint you have.

I had a very small bit of spray paint left over from something else in the perfect shade of blue so that's where I started.

It may be hard for you to believe but this is not the final look I was going for!!! My husband pulled a doubtful face at this point, I don't blame him!

You can see I also had a teeny tiny bit of silver spray paint hanging around so I squirted that on too. If I had had more silver I think I would have done much more of that and much less of the blue. But this is ok, because we are working in layers these early stages don't really matter too much. Just keep going!

Next I mixed my grey acrylic paint with the emulsion (latex) and just painting in on randomly. I gave the middle a bit of interest with a band just the grey on it's own and a bit of a line up the right side. I just left a few bits of blue showing properly, but there are a few areas where the white/grey mix is pretty thin and the blue shows through lightly. 

Once you have the bare bones like this I'd recommend letting it marinate. You want to leave it to dry anyway, but give yourself a day or so to look at it again with fresh eyes. 

I decided this needed to be lighter all over and it needed some proper points of interest. 

I added a few areas of pink, a few grey and white lines with the finer brush. It was all very add hock, just a few bits here and there. Stand back every now and again, make a cuppa then return to your art and see what you think it needs more of. 

Just keep going with random blocks, lines or even dots and whirls if you like. Stop when you think it's enough.

To finish I used the larger of my brushes, with just the smallest amount of white paint to go over most areas. This softened the whole thing and lightening up some of the areas that felt too dark.

You can see here how the almost dry brush softens the pink area.

This is probably the busiest part of the artwork. Those lines through the white blob were done with the thinner brush and grey paint whilst the white shape underneath was still wet, to give a variable effect.

You can see the almost dry brush effect in this close up too.
And here it is in all it's glory in situ.

I'm sure the light balance is all off in this photo, the sun was streaming in the window - hooray! But it gives you an idea. One day I'm going to paint those wooden chairs white.  You can also see my globe makeover and where it lives ....

... and those are my Autumn Apothecary jars on the table 

I really enjoyed making my unique piece of abstract art and as a complete bonus, I hardly spent a thing. 

The main rule seems to be there are no rules, it's art so you can do what you like. 

If you paint a bit and the next day decide you don't like it you can just paint over it. Have fun, I can honestly say it was much easier than I thought it would be to create something that's not embarrassing to hang on the wall. Do you fancy having a go?

 

Floral Painted Wooden Box

I had so much fun painting simple flowers on my X-acto knife box to turn it from plain to fabulous in one afternoon.

Regular visitors to Sum of their Stories will know we have a crafty linky every Monday, where my crafty bloggy friends stop by and share their latest makes. A few weeks ago the very talented Teodora from Teodora Paintings shared a pretty trinket box she had made with step by step photos showing her process, how she builds up layers to create her little works of art. 

She made it look so do-able I thought I'd have a go so Sunday before last, in the afternoon, I took my X-acto knife box, emptied it out and spent a couple of hours giving it a total makeover.

I took the hinges and catch off before painting, it only took a second.

Following Teodora's photos, simplifying it a little I was able to transform the plain wood/MDF box into a floral delight.

I used some acrylic paints that I already had for this and then gave the whole thing a few coats of spray sealant. 

I am totally in love with it's new look.

It's not perfect but I don't care, it's cute and pretty and I love it.....Did I mention that I love it?

Big thanks to Teodora for sharing a little of her secrets, hop over to her blog to see the steps I was inspired by here. And if you don't fancy having a go yourself she has a load of pretty things for sale in her Etsy and Folksy shops.

Nan's Recipe Kitchen Art

Make personal art for your kitchen using old handwritten recipes.

My maternal grandma, Pearl was a great cook, she had been a kitchen maid and then a cook in a grand house in her young days - think Daisy then Mrs Patmore in Downton Abbey. She gave that up when she married my granddad but still loved to cook, always making everything from scratch. I have a few cookbooks that belonged to my mum and tucked inside I found a few recipes handwritten by my nan.

This one is a recipe for apple cake and I can remember my nan baking this for us. It was delicious. I thought it would be nice to conserve this little bit of family history so I turned my nan's recipe into art to go on the wall in our kitchen. I first shared this idea almost 2 years ago on The Pinning Mama when I was a guest contributor there and this art has been on the wall in our kitchen ever since. As I dusted it the other day I thought it was high time I shared it with you all here.

To make a similar piece of art for your kitchen you will need: A box frame, mine was a 23cm x 23cm Ribba from Ikea A handwritten recipe (ideally you want one from your own family of course but if you don't have one you are welcome to use my nan's - she would have been delighted! Just right click on the picture of it above and then save it on your computer) Coloured card Plastic cutlery Glue for paper - I used a pritt stick Strong PVA glue or hot glue gun Access to a scanner and colour printer

First you want to copy your recipe. We are not cutting up and glueing onto a precious handwritten bit of family memorabilia! Scan, enlarging if necessary and print your recipe - or photocopy in colour, again enlarging if needed. Now cut it to a 20cm x 20cm square. Cut your coloured card to fit exactly inside your box frame.

Mount the recipe copy onto the coloured card with the paper glue. Using the strong pva or hot glue gun, attach the plastic cutlery to the recipe in a pleasing arrangement. I wasn't going to set the world alight with this 'lined up' thing but I like it simple. You can be more adventurous if you want! I used pva and held the cutlery in place by putting mugs on top until the glue set. Pop the art into the box frame and Ta-dah you are finished. It's ready to hang.

A pretty and personal piece of art for your kitchen, or dining room, or any other space you like to eat I guess.

A little tribute to Ellen - Part 3

28th March was my Nan's birthday, so today I'm sharing another thing she made as a little tribute to her.

As I was growing up I knew my nan dabbled in oil and acrylic painting, but it was either when she retired or when my grandad passed away (I can't remember which) she went to classes and tried out lots of new techniques.
These pretty painting were some she did for us when she was experimenting with watercolours.
As far as I know she always painted from her imagination so sadly this little cottage and garden probably doesn't really exist!

I remember that we had them framed and on the wall in our bedroom in our first house but at the moment the are in a box along with a load of photos and other family memorabilia. 

Interesting that she signed her name in different ways on each picture.
I think I said it last year, but if my paternal grandma Ellen were still alive today I'm an absolutely sure she would have a blog. She would have loved the idea of sharing her ideas and makes with people all over the world, connecting with like minded people, being inspired by what they've been creating. 

The stories I've sharing in previous years showing items made by Ellen, my mum and my other nan can be found here.

Marbled Clay Jewellery

Air hardening clay makes it easy to make things from clay at home.

This post contains affiliate links

Cass Art sent me some Air hardening clay and marbling medium to try out and review as part of their upcoming #BEINSPIRED campaign.

In the package I had pack of DAS air hardening clay, 2 packs of DAS Idea Mix marbling material in Verona Red and Sodalite Blue, a bottle of Vernidas Vitrifying Varnish and a DAS adjustable rolling pin, all in a lovely reusable Cass Art tote bag. The rolling pin has clever rubber rings so you can easily adjust the thickness of whatever you are rolling.

I've made a whole load of things from this 1kg pack of clay which I'll share over time, but I thought I'd start with this simple marbled jewellery.

Before you begin get everything ready that you will need. This clay dries in the air, which means it starts to dry as soon as it comes out of the packet!

Have a little pot of water handy as you can damp your fingers to make the clay more workable. I wouldn't make it too wet though, I found it slippery and difficult to handle if I made it too wet.

Marbling the clay is pretty easy. You break off a big lump of the air hardening clay, knead it a little to soften it then add some smaller blobs of the marbling mix.

Just knead it and roll it, repeating a couple of times and a random marbled effect just appears. Don't knead and re roll too many times though or the effect starts to disappear and the clay turns a pale blue (or red, or whatever colour you are adding)

I tried out both the red and blue, you can see my photos here switch between the two.

Once your clay is marbled you are ready to begin making your jewellery shapes.

For the triangle pendant I rolled the clay out leaving the largest rubber ring on, that leaves the clay 5mm thick. 

I made a paper template of a triangle 6cm(2.25'") x 6cm(2.25"), laid it on the clay and then cut round it. I tried my x-acto knife and just a regular kitchen knife. Both cut the clay just fine so either will work. I also tried just using my cutting mat or rolling out the clay on a piece of baking parchment. The baking parchment did make it easier to lift the clay shapes up, but it did make it a bit slippery to roll out so swings and roundabouts with that. Try it out, see which you prefer.

If your shapes have little rough bits like mine on the left, just wet your finger with a drop of water then smooth the clay down. You can pick the pieces up and handle them carefully, so you can smooth all the sides. Apparently you can sand this clay once it's dry but it seemed easier to me to smooth it at this stage.

Then make holes for the cord. I used a wooden kebab skewer. Poke the skewer in from the front and then again from the back, giving it a bit of a wiggle to make sure no little lumps of clay get stuck inside.

Now the difficult part, you just leave then for about 24 hours to dry and harden. (Oh and wash your knives, rolling pin, board etc now, hot soapy water works fine)

You can see here how the white clay lightens as it dries. The marbling mix colours stayed pretty much the same.

It takes between 12 and 48 hours for everything to completely dry and harden, depending on the thickness. The mini bunting pieces dried really quickly, the fatter beads took longer. Once they are dry the pieces will feel much lighter too.

Then you can varnish to protect the clay and to give a glossy finish. The Vitrifying varnish gives an amazing high shine, it really is a glass like finish. Just brush it on one side at a time, giving it time to dry in between. I found any brush marks just smoothed themselves out so no need to fuss over them.

It's not a great photo but you can see the high gloss on the left v the matt look before varnish on the right.

To make these flattened beads, just roll a lump of clay into a ball, poke your wooden kebab skewer through either in the centre or just a little above centre then flatten very lightly with the rolling pin.

Looking at this photo below of the finished blue pebble pendant I think I should have spent just a little longer smoothing the clay at the bottom before I left it to dry and harden. It's a little bit too creasy for my liking, although in nature pebbles to have cracks and crevices in them. Maybe subliminally I was going for a natural effect!

This little bunting necklace was made in the same way as the triangle pendants but on a much smaller scale.

The clay was rolled out to 3.5mm (the middle rubber ring on the rolling pin) and much smaller triangles cut out. I tried mixing a little of my marbled mix into a fresh lump of the red Idea Mix to give a reversed marble effect for some of the triangles.

The little holes for the jump rings I made with cocktail sticks.

Originally I thought I would join each piece of bunting with a single oval jump ring but they just didn't fit.

You can see what I mean on this page from my little note book (where I make notes and sketch ideas that may or may not ever happen) 

I ended up adding a little round 7mm jump ring to each side of the bunting triangles then joined them up with another jump ring.

This way the triangles lie flat, if I'd joined the triangles directly to one another the whole thing would twist.

Part of Cass Art's #BEINSPIRED campaign is to share where inspiration comes from. Normally for me it's Pinterest, magazines, books, TV, looking out of the window..... anything really. With this marbled clay I originally set off thinking I was going to create clay pebbles to turn into beads. As the marbling effect starts to appear in the lump of clay it does feel like you are holding a large, cold, slightly wet pebble. But as I was experimenting I thought it would be fun to try geometric shapes, to contrast completely with the natural stone effect of the marbling. Triangles are such a simple shape to begin, but I would like to try the hexagon, or maybe the triangle split into 3 from my note book when I have time. 

Have you ever tried using air hardening clay? It was much simpler to work with that I was expecting and the glossy varnish gives the pieces a lovely expensive finish. I've really enjoyed playing with it and have quite a few more projects to share with you later on.

You might also be interested in:

3 Pink Bracelets

Cluster Drop Necklace

Easy Bead necklace

Fabric Twine Bracelet

I'll be linking up at these great link parties,