Just for fun: scrap paper artwork

This has nothing to do with all natural or organic food. There is nothing about pesticides or preservatives either. But this was fun {and cheap} so I thought I'd share.

I wanted something new to put over our fireplace. But I have really expensive taste...like Pottery Barn~Land of Nod~Restoration Hardware kind of expensive so finding something I would like AND could afford was highly unlikely. So I used some things I had around and came up with this:

I think I like how it turned out ~ very clean & simple:

 Although, I kinda think it needs a pretty wooden frame but that defeats the whole cheap artwork plan. It was super easy and cheap to make. Here is what you need:

~ Canvas {this one is 16x20, purchased in a package of two from Michael's on sale and with a 40% off coupon. I think it ended up being around $2 for each canvas}

~ Mod Podge

~ Paper {such as scrapbook or wrapping paper, pretty paper bags or note cards, old book pages, etc}

~ Pencil, scissors, pattern, and printed words, name or verse

I didn't take pictures as I made it because it was one of those make-it-up-as-you-go projects and I wasn't so sure how it would turn out. Basically, I just decided my design and cut bits of paper out to make the branches, then the leaves, and then the little birds. I had seen something on Pinterest with this shape bird and thought it was cute. 

Once I had laid out the cut-outs how I wanted, I secured all the pieces to the canvas with a dab of mod podge to the backs using a small paint brush.

The letters were the most time consuming. I typed up the verse in a font I liked and printed this out on a sheet of paper. 

 I followed this tutorial (scroll down towards the end of the page to get to the tracing part) to trace the letters. So the back of my sheet of paper looked like this from the pencil rubbings: 

I ended up using a pencil for the letters and to make the beaks & eyes for the birds. I liked that look but a colored pen to fill in the letters would be pretty too if you want it colorful. 

The last step is to "paint" the entire canvas over with the mod podge. It makes it shiny and seals all the paper down.

I am thinking about making some more of these canvas pictures for each of my kid's names and maybe something with old book pages. There are so many variations you could do. Technically, this could have something to do with organic living I guess...if you save money by making your own artwork, you can buy more healthy food? Okay, maybe that's a bit stretching the connection...

Stay tuned next week...I think we'll talk about chickens ~ the ones that lay eggs, not the fried and crispy kind :)