Glue Resist Art Wall Hanging

Have you ever made glue resist art before? If you aren’t familiar with glue resist, it’s a technique using a medium such as glue or wax on fabric or another surface to cover the bottom layer. With resist painting, you then apply a layer  of resist, then another layer over it with another medium such as paint, or dye. Then, you remove the resist medium to reveal the layer underneath. This is often used in silk scarf dying, and in watercolor (on paper) with a material called frisket. Resist art is fun, because it really opens up possibilities when you want to bring another layer of color in, or even just negative white space.

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As well as white craft glue as a resist for this glue resist art  wall hanging project, I also used the HomeRight Super Finish Max Paint sprayer. I really liked being able to use the paint sprayer to evenly apply the  paint. It made it super easy to get an even coat! I’ll share a bit of the technique with you here, but you can head over to the HomeRight blog to see the full tutorial, iincluding how to hang your project when you’re done.

This project is made with just  painter’s tarp and white craft glue, so the best part is, it’s an easy project…I always love a good white glue craft project.

Use the tip of the glue container as a drawing tool. Since I was making mountains, I let the glue flow out and make some wavy, free-form lines. Once the glue was ready, I laid it flat in my Medium Spray Shelter .

I loved using my Super Finish Max for the larger scale of this project! It applied the paint waaaaaay more evenly than I could with a brush. Once the paint is dry, you’ll use this technique to remove it.

Once you remove the glue resist layer, you get this really cool look! I am excited to break this out for other projects, including DIY fabric with fabric paint.

If you liked this project, you might also like this DIY stenciled art project,

and also how to do this DIY abstract painting technique.

 

This post is sponsored by HomeRight, opinions are entirely my own.

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Wild & Bloom 2019 Spring Launch

One of the thing I love about co-owning my own retail store is the possibilities. One of the possibilities we had talked about was doing a spring collection that would allow us to guide not only our spring buying, but allow me to go deeper into my experience with art and product design. After brainstorming, we decided to capture the feeling of spring. The freshness, and the sweetness, and abandon that it emerges as everything grows. We landed on the name Wild & Bloom, and started building everything around that theme. Of course my favorite part is the Wild & Bloom bunny. He’s(or She’s)  just the cutest!

 

I’ve been working on window display for a while, which if you’ve followed my Instagram stories, you saw my giant vases with pampas grass plumes for the window. If not, don’t worry! I will be following up with a post for you to see my process, which building cardboard displays from our recycled boxes was so fun and interesting to try for the first time!

Last night, we hosted a VIP event in our store, and it was so much  fun, and it was so awesome to be able to unveil our vision!The best part is, if you aren’t able to stop in the store in person to see the collection, you can find it here in our on-line shop! 

I loved being able to pull out my paints, and really dive into what Wild & Bloom meant. I love spring so much, especially after such a long winter. I can’t wait to start my seeds, and I get so excited when I see all of the rebirth happening around me! I poured that into my artwork, and we used that as a guide as we picked out coordinating decor, candles, jewelry and apparel items.

 

I love Wild & Bloom, and I am excited to start thinking about our next collection, and how we can make that come alive in our store. For those of you who don’t live close, you can shop Wild & Bloom on-line too!

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Free Botanical Fern Printable

Are you as excited as I am that spring is almost here? We finally have turned the corner weather-wise and the sun is out! I love seeing all of the spring bulbs poking their little noses through the ground, knowing that in a few weeks, we are going to have tulips, hyacinth’s, unfurling ferns, and other lovely smelling blooms!  I’m joining a group of talented bloggers to celebrate, and give you some goodies hosted by Ella Claire! We are all sharing free printables with you perfect for your spring decorating, and I have a Free Botanical Fern Printable for you for personal use!

I’ve styled mine in a distressed blue frame from this project, with white vases, and some pretty flowers from the grocery store.  I love having fresh flowers and plants around the house, especially when it’s so gray outside. I’ve been really inspired by these houseplant books to add even more into my decor.

 It’s an image I collaged of my own watercolor and digital artwork. I’ve been doing a lot of painting lately to get product ready at the store for our spring collection launch. I’ve also been preparing to teach a Santos Doll sculpting workshop weekend (there are still a few spaces left!).

 I had my image printed at our local UPS store on regular 8 x 11 white cardstock. It was less than $1.00, and I just e-mailed the jpg to them and picked it up when it was ready. I find our local UPS store is a great resource for local printing needs, and for a quick project like this, it’s so much easier than trying to feed card stock through my printer at home, or wonder if I even have cardstock.

Just right click to save the image of this free botanical fern printable, and then scroll down to visit the other bloggers.

 

Make sure to visit  below to see the other free printables!

  8×10 Vintage Postcard Easter Bunny by Ella Claire | Easter Banners by Tatertots and Jello | 2019 Floral Calendar by Tidbits | Spring Flower Cones by Designthusiasm

Set of 3 Handpainted Spring Watercolors by Twelve on Main | Botanical Spring Flowers by Live Laugh Rowe | HOP to it Spring Printable by Nest of Posies | Spring Nest Watercolor by Nina Hendrick

Spring Herbs by My Someday in May | Series of Four Watercolour Art by Happy Housie | Black and White Florals by Zevy Joy | Leaves and Mushrooms Wood Slices by Town and Country Living

Feather and Nest Spring Towel Template by Craftberry Bush | I Love Paris in the Springtime by So Much Better with Age | Hurry Up Spring! by Home Made Lovely | Vintage Amber Bottle Label by Blesser House

DIY Easy Cupcake Wrapper by Happy Happy Nester | Fresh Flower Market by Clean and Scentsible | Bright and Beautiful Watercolor by Maison de Pax | Sunflowers and Butterfly Muffin Wrapper by Paint Me Pink

Welcome Spring by My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia | Spring Bingo Cards by My Sweet Savannah | ‘Happy Easter’ Bunny Tags by Boxwood Avenue | Spring Spring Spring by Taryn Whiteaker

Fern Botanical by Jennifer Rizzo Design Co. | Believing in Spring by anderson + grant

 

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Punch Needle Embroidery Painting

Have you ever embroidered? Regular embroidery is not something I’ve done a lot of, but I recently came across punch needle embroidery and was intrigued. I decided it was something I could tackle, and immediately ordered a kit and a bunch of beautiful thread. Well, after stabbing myself twice, and drawing a little blood, I realized there is a bit of a learning curve to it. It’s a good reminder that I don’t have to be a rockstar in every arena of crafting (as hubby reminded me… there was the great macrame debacle of 2016.). It is something that I am going to continue to practice. In the mean time, I wanted to share a project with you that will give you the look without physical injury…punch needle embroidery painting.

 

It’t super easy, and all you need for punch needle embroidery painting is:

A thin-tipped paint brush, craft paint, some paint supplies like water, and paper towel, a surface to paint on such as a wood slice,  and you are ready to go!

Start the project by painting the wood slice with gesso. I used DecoArt’s Chalky Gesso in white to give it a base coat. This helps the paint grabs the surface, and the “stitches” pop from the background.

Once the gesso is dried, lightly sketch your pattern onto your surface.

I used DecoArt’s Americana Acrylics in their new colors Vintage Pink,Berry Cobbler,Golden Yellow,Green Lagoon, and Mermaid’s Tail.  The trick to making your paint strokes look like punch needle embroidery is to use a thin brush. When you touch the end of the brush onto the surface, push down slightly to lengthen the stroke, and then lift up right away. This will create the “stitch”. It’s also important to have the brush strokes moving in the same direction like how real embroidery does. Finally,  when doing longer running stitches, that each end touches. This will give that embroidery-like look.

Dip the tip of your paint brush in the paint  an off-load a little paint onto a paper towel so it doesn’t have a “globby end”.  Use a practice surface like a piece of paper. It’s always a great way to test your strokes out before jumping right onto the surface of your project.

Start creating “stitches” with your brush. When painting, turn the wood slice instead of your arm or the brush, to change direction on the brush strokes.

I found it helpful to work in different sections when I needed to change color, and then return to an area once it was dry. This will help to keep the punch needle embroidery painting stitching from smudging. Also, let the paint run a little low on the brush before reloading to get color variations and tones in your pattern.

It’s also OK to have some white space between the stitching, but you don’t want huge gaps. You can also go back and touch up in areas where there is a little too much background showing through… but less is better than adding too much, and making it too solid.

I’m happy that punch needle embroidery painting does look like stitching! I’m excited to play around a little more with this technique on fabric with fabric paint for an “embroidered look”.

 

 

This post was sponsored by DecoArt, opinions are entirely my own.

 

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10 Best Houseplant Books

The one thing I love about bohemian decor, is all of the plants! I am a huge gardener, and for years, there are great books on outdoor gardening, but there haven’t been a ton of resources, except for some stodgy old manuals on not killing indoor greenery. I wanted to share the resources I’ve found, and I’ve rounded up some of the 10 Best Houseplant Books for your indoor green thumb. Not only are these books pretty to look at, but they have great information not only on care, but troubleshooting as well for common pests and diseases as well. Some of them are also great resources on how to decorate with plants in your home too.

Just click on the picture to take a peek at each book.

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I love Leaf Supply! They have an amazing store too, and I love following their Instagram account too.

If super green and leafy plants aren’t your thing, this is a cute book for succulents and air plants.

It’s always good when a plant loves you back! Sometimes I think mine die out of sheer stubbornness… like every Fiddle Leaf Fig I’ve ever owned!

 

In The Inspired House Plant, I love the cover so much, I was excited to open it up, and I wan’t disappointed!

This book is more about decorating with indoor plants, but has some great and approachable ideas for your including greenery and plants in your home.

The cover of this book had me at “hello”

Urban Jungle is another plant book that is more about decorating too, but it’s great for people who want to have a few plants, but don’t have a ton of space. If you want to read more about decorating with plants, you can look at this post for some ideas.

This next book is more about the unexpected and houseplant cuteness!

If you want to get deeper into making more plants, you can read this post here about propagating plants,or you can get this book about cuttings, layering and other indoor plant propagation techniques.

Of course I am always down for anything associated with Anthro, and that includes this beautiful book by Terrain.

 

I hope you enjoy one or two of these 10 best houseplant books. So are you jumping on the real houseplant bandwagon?  While I have lots of live plants in my home, I do also have some faux plants. There are some very realistic looking fake plants now, which are a nice way to get the lush green look without having to worry about the care of a real plant.

 

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White vases in a spring centerpiece three different ways

Faux Mantel with Vintage Brass Candlesticks

If you are familiar with the Marie Kondo cleaning method, you’ll know that people have been doing massive clean outs of their homes. In an attempt to get rid of  excess items they don’t need, they are donating them en masse to local charity shops. For those of us who like to visit the occasional thrift store in search of a treasure, it’s made the task of finding the “good stuff” much easier! Recently I saw a mantel lined with vintage brass candlesticks on Instagram, and I became obsessed. I loved the idea of lining the top of my faux mantel in a similar way, and I knew I needed to find some ASAP. I started hunting the shops in my area, and with a lot of searching, would come across one or two. I was a little discouraged, thinking that at that rate,I wasn’t going to have my collection until mid-summer. Finally, I hit the jackpot and found five at one shop at one time! I’m still looking for more, but it’s enough to have a sizable collection, and to decorate the mantel.

I love how they are all different shapes and sizes, and when I placed them on the mantel, I arranged them in order of size, tallest to smallest.

 My neighbor dropped off these gorgeous flowers for me (it was such a treat to get them!), and I thought they were the perfect addition to my mantel decor.

I picked up two sizes of plain white candles at Hobby Lobby, they were super-affordable at just over a dollar a piece. I put one of my Pothos plants in a brass planter on one side to balance out the taller sticks on books on the other.

 I pulled my Gram’s mirror out of storage, and I love how it goes with the brass. Vintage mirrors are such a great way to add a vintage modern touch to your decorating.

It looks so clean and fresh for early spring/late winter.  The best part is, it’s about a $30 mantel decorating idea!

If you like mantel decor, or are looking for more mantel decorating ideas, you can see inspiration here, and here.

 

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