Marbled Skull Canvas Art DIY

Haven't blogged for awhile, oh well! Not going to get into it. 

Halloween is my favorite holiday. And though I set the boundary for decorating and wait until the 1st of October, that doesn't mean I can't prepare.

I found this felt decoration at the dollar tree and knowing I had a blank canvas at home, this is what I came up with. I have a picture ledge above the bed that I like to redecorate occasionally so once I give myself permission, that's where it can go. 

You'll need:

• Canvas size 18x24
• Felt decoration
• Nail polish in colors of your choice
• Water and container big enough for canvas to lie in

The totals cost of this for me was $1 since I had everything else on hand. Depending on if you need to buy a canvas and nail polish or not, I'd say it might range from $5-$10. Get your Michaels coupon for the canvas :)

To do the marbling effect I used this tutorial. 

I want to stress three important things when using this method:

1. Use gloves! Otherwise you WILL get nail polish all over your hand. 
2. Use a disposable container, or one you don't care about. It will get dirty.  
3. Once you start pouring the colors, I would pour, then swirl, pour then swirl etc. I poured all my colors at once, and when I went to swirl, they had already set. I liked what came out anyways, but it could have been even more swirly than this. 

After doing the marbling, I let it dry overnight. I tried every combo on the skull overtop the design before glueing down, trying to line it up so the design would be able to show through the teeth and eyes in the best way.

After adding glue to the entire backside, I placed it down as centered as I could, and gently rubbed into place.

A very easy project, and a cool modern halloween vibe. Now to wait for October 1st!

How to Frame Odd Things

      Have some cool things you'd like to get up and on display? 

But not everything is flat and angular amiright?

      Here are 2 things I've had lying around that I really love, but didn't have a way to showcase other than sitting them awkwardly on a shelf, or something to that extent. So here's what I came up with, and hopefully you can apply it with something you'd like to show the world! (erhmm or your hallway).

      Here's Tink. She's some sort of paper cutout. I'm really unsure what her exact purpose is supposed to be. A friend gave her to me because of my love of Disney (and my similarities to Tinkerbells hair style) and I loved it, but had no idea what to do with it. Since it's flat, it'll easily be framed. But sometimes just throwing something into a frame doesn't actually do the framed piece any good. It has real glitter on it, so that's what I wanted to accentuate. 

      So with that in mind, when I was frame shopping, I was looking for something that would bring out the coolest feature. You can do this with anything, just find the color or detail of what you're framing and look for a frame that will compliment it. It creates a more interesting piece as a whole. I was lucky to find an actual silver glitter frame. I could have also gone with plain silver, or diy'ed my own glitter frame with mod podge. 

      I also wanted to bring out the green of her dress, so rather than sticking with a white background, I cut some paper to the size of my frame opening, and did a light paint wash with some green paint mixed in with a cup of water. 

      And that's all! I'm a little torn on the background as I think it came out a little too bold, and distracts a little from Tink herself. But overall the silver glitter showing up on the main focus and the frame itself really makes it complete. 

      As for Batman he was a little more of a challenge. It's an old mask from one of my brother's Halloween costumes when he was a kid. So this thing might be over 20 years old! So it's 3-dimensional, and old and delicate. As you can see, it's got some cracking happening in multiple places. Obviously, I can't just sandwich this between some glass. 

      When selecting my frame, I chose a shadow box frame, which allows for much more depth. Even still, when put together, that glass pushed down on the nose in a way that smushed the whole mask. I ended up forgoing the glass, leaving the front open. It won't be as protected this way, but it's better than slowing ruining its shape over time with the pressure of the glass. 

      I wanted the background to use colors themed after the old batman color schemes. I choose yellow as the main color, and used the paper the frame came with to cut out some yellow paper the same size. Then I wanted to make a pattern. Originally I was searching for a batman logo stamp to use, but it was surprisingly hard to find. So I went with a simple polka dot pattern in purple. 

      To keep the mask attached to the paper, I used small amounts of elmer's glue on places the mask made contact with the paper. Some shadowboxes come with pins and a soft backboard you can stick the object to. 

      Now I have some great wall art, from things I already had. All I needed was some creative thinking, and the solution was pretty easy. Take a look around your place and see what you might be able to frame today!