I have mentioned my friend Stephanie a few times on this blog. She’s the creative genius who made this adorable sign for Olivia’s Sesame Street party, this fun Valentine’s Day garland, and this DIY decoupage ornament. I don’t think there’s an artsy thing she can’t do!

She also happens to be a talented photographer. While looking for new ways to display her art, she started experimenting with photo transfers. Her work won such rave reviews from family and friends that she decided to open an Etsy store—For the Birds.

Stephanie specializes in taking photographs and transferring them by hand to various materials, including wood, canvas, glass, tile, and acrylic. The transfer process gives the photos a vintage, Instagram-ish feel. Check out this collage of photos she took while in Charleston, South Carolina this summer:

Charleston on Canvas, $50

Amazing right?! The best part is that she takes custom orders. Have a collection of pictures from a recent vacation that you can’t figure out how to show off? Still trying to figure out what to get your parents for the holidays? Here’s your answer!

I love the finished product so much that I’ve collaborated with the artist herself to bring you an awesome giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a free custom photo transfer! The winner will be able to choose between one 12×12 wood or canvas transfer OR two to three smaller sized (think 5×7) transfers. Stephanie will work directly with the winner to recommend the best medium, size, etc. for the photograph(s). Enter below for your chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am loving these prints by giclee artist Juri Romanov. His Etsy shop, Orange Optimist, is chock full of little gems like the ones below. The prints are sophisticated and whimsical at the same time and would look awesome in a nursery, child’s room. . . heck, I’d put them in my dining room!

London print, $45

Hippo print, $60

Owl print, $45

Hot Air Balloon print, $45

Elephant print, $60

Whale Print, $45

Have you ever gone to a museum and looked at a painting and thought, What’s so special about that? I could do that in about 10 seconds! Turns out, that shit is harder than it looks.

I recently put up some new shelves in our dining room, and because I was too cheap to go to Crate and Barrel and too picky to go to HomeGoods, I decided, naturally, that I should channel my inner Picasso and get to work.

After three different types of paint, two hours, and a LOT of “rough drafts” which are far too embarrassing for me to post publicly, I somehow managed to pull off this jellyfish (that, for some unknown reason, I have been calling an octopus since I painted it).

In the end, watercolors won, and I have to admit that I am damn proud of myself. I mean, I don’t think it’s ever going to hang in some museum, but I deemed it decent enough for my dining room.

If you’re new to using watercolors, I would recommend trying a jellyfish because it’s pretty freaking hard to screw up.

I have been an art-making fool lately! We had our downstairs painted recently (Luna by Valspar, which is a pale bluish greenish gray), and the new color totally changed the way our house looks. This was mostly for the better, but we suddenly found ourselves living in a sea of blue and green with not so much as a pillow to contrast the monotony. So I set out to liven things up as cheaply as possible (hence all the homemade art).

This was our foyer before. The wall color was a dirty-looking cream that was here when we bought the house, so I tried to introduce a bit of color with the framed pattern (actually cheap wrapping paper from Target’s $1 spot!), choice of photo, and background color for the quote. Not great, but it worked fine until we could paint.

Once we had the new paint on the walls, however, everything sort of blended together; so I decided to switch out the framed wrapping paper for something in the orange family. I was inspired by Katie Bower from Bower Power (awesome blog if you’ve never checked it out!) and her paint chip sea urchin, so I decided to give it a shot. Plus (hello!) paint chips are FREE. I hit Home Depot and pulled about 20 of my favorite paint chips in varying shades of orange, coral, and pink.

When I got home, I used a ruler and an Exacto knife to slice the paint chips into strips of various widths, working only with the portion that didn’t have the paint name and number printed on it. Once I had everything cut up, I started gluing each strip in a diagonal pattern to a piece of cardstock that was slightly larger than would show through the mat in the frame. After it all dried, I trimmed down the edges, taped it to the back side of the mat, and voilà! My own little paint chip masterpiece!

I also swapped out the colored cardstock with the quote (I just wrote it in the first place, so this was a super easy change). I’m planning to switch out our family photo after our photography session this fall, so that should hopefully have some nice browns and oranges in it since we’re taking the pictures outdoors. Here’s what our foyer looks like today:

Grand total for my tiny little foyer switcharoo was $0.50—I only had to pay for the cardstock to glue the paint strips on and the scrapbook paper to rewrite the quote! (I did, however, already have glue, so that helped.)

Have you made any art using paint chips from the hardware store? I would love to see it!

We hit up the Fairfax Fine Arts Festival this past weekend and bought an awesome new print for our dining room. The artist, Dan Albright, takes photos all over the world and then expertly mats and frames them in antique and vintage picture frames. My dad is a framer, so I know how unique these frames are—and how expensive they can be. So I thought the $65 price tag was a good deal.

We loved this quote from W.C. Fields and thought the picture would look great next to our bar. Mr. Albright even allowed us to switch the print to a different frame that we thought would match our house a little better. I still have my eye on one of his other prints in a cherry red vintage frame—could be a great pop of color in our new master bathroom!

If you’re looking for some unique framed photography for your home, definitely check out Dan Albright Studio!

Finny and Zook specializes in whimsical prints that are perfect for a nursery or big kid’s room. There are alphabet images for every letter that would be adorable framed and hung next to each other to spell out a child’s name or initials. And the most important part? The prices range from only $8 up to $40 for larger prints, which is a steal!

Bonus: Zulily has Finny and Zook prints on sale now through Friday morning for only $7.99 a print! Plus, they have additional graphic prints that are not available in the Etsy store.

Seriously, how cute are these?!

Courtesy etsy.com

Courtesy zulily.com

Courtesy etsy.com

Courtesy zulily.com

Having a security system helps me sleep at night—not because I live in a bad area (please, our crime awareness report consists of graffiti in the tot lot) but because I have an overactive imagination and I might be a little bit afraid of the dark. But what I didn’t love was the way the keypad console looked on the blank wall in the middle of my foyer. So I decided to build a gallery wall around the console to help disguise it. What do you think—did I succeed? I think it blends in pretty well!

I made the picture in the upper left corner using a canvas, some wooden letters and a can of spray paint—super easy and cheap. The picture directly under that one is just some framed wrapping paper from the dollar section at Target. I got the idea for the picture in the bottom right corner from YoungHouseLove (love, love, love their hallway gallery! this is my poor man’s version). I grabbed some card stock and a Sharpie and voilà! Instant art. The other three frames hold family pictures. All of the picture frames came from either Target or HomeGoods.  Next up will be painting the wall (I’d love a little more contrast with the white frames)—we aren’t big fans of the creamy yellow shade, but we just haven’t gotten around to painting this part of the house yet.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this print from The Wheatfield by Katie Daisy shop on Etsy. And the best part? It’s only $22!! I sing this song to my little one all the time, and this would look too cute in her room. The shop also features adorable state prints, but alas, there’s no VA one yet. So I shall wait and stalk until it’s added. In the meantime. . . time to shop!

This is such a cute rainy/snowy day activity idea if you have little ones. I came across this on Pinterest earlier and immediately wanted to try it with my daughter (when she’s old enough to actually do this sort of thing). The original idea comes from The Honorable Mention Preschool Blog, hosted by Intello Kids®.

Just tape a sheet of bubble wrap down and let your kid loose with some washable paints. When their “artwork” is complete, press the painted side of the bubble wrap down onto a clean sheet of white paper or card stock, leaving a colorful imprint that is, at the very least, frig worthy!

. . . to me (and my husband)! In honor of our anniversary today, I thought I would post about some cute anniversary art I found recently. I absolutely love this anniversary date print by blessedannouncements on Etsy. It’s so simple and understated, not to mention affordable at only $7!

I also love the idea of making my own anniversary art to mark the occasion using some wooden letters, a canvas and some spray paint. This is such a versatile idea because you can do everything from a quote to a child’s name in a variety of colors. I actually picked up all the supplies at Michael’s today and plan to make something similar to this for our front hallway.