Mother’s Day string art

A couple of weeks ago Woodie’s set me the challenge to create a project for Mother’s Day that was quick, easy, would make a statement and also consisted of supplies found in Woodie’s branches nationwide. Challenge accepted.

A project I had filed neatly away in my brain for such an occasion was a, dare I say old school, string art tutorial. It was perfect as it required only a handful of supplies, all of which could be picked up from your lcoal Woodie’s. And even better, it’s a simple tutorial so you don’t need to be a DIY expert to make it [remember, nothing tugs on heart strings quite like imperfection].

Onto the good stuff! Here are the items from Woodie’s I used for the string art …
– a piece of wood shelf board [800 x 300 x 16mm], cut to a square
– a pack of 20mm masonry nails
– Dulux tester pot in whatever colour you like*
*I originally planned on painting this project in a shade of turquoise, but as we were going to be working with a green screen during filming in parts, green or blue was a no-no. So purple it was! 

Items you’ll also need …
– a saw to cut the wood shelf
– a hammer
– scissors
– a pencil and a piece of paper to draw your template
– tape to hold the template in place
– a paint brush

Now I’ma show you how to make it in 6 seconds. Ready? Prepare your retinas for my stop motion video debut … 

I think JP Prewitt would be proud.

I worked alongside a truly cool and down to earth team at Agtel on this Vine for Woodie’s. It took us just over 3 hours [plus 2 hours prep] to put this little gem together. It was my first stop motion video experience so it was very surreal and exhilarating to see the video come together one frame at a time. I was exhausted by the time I got home, but so excited to see the finished piece. Hats off to Agtel. You guys are magic. 

I showed my parents the Vine as soon as it went live and it turns out my dad used to make and sell string art! Albeit incredibly more complex pieces. I’m assuming before my time because I don’t remember seeing my dad make any. I do remember a couple of pieces over the years, but unless you’re told “that was made by dad!“, you just don’t know. My future children better brace themselves. They about to get schooled.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoy our little video, and to all the mothers out there – both human and fur baby variety – happy Mother’s Day this weekend xx

p.s. I’m now on Vine! I haven’t a clue how to use it, so we’ll see how much I use it. So far I’ve done the equivalent of retweeting. 

DIY Friday – you’re the Obi Wan for me

It’s no secret my husband is a Star Wars fan. As is evident by our apartment. So a couple of months ago I saw a really cute meme on Instagram [I’ve tried to back track and find it, but I can’t UGH] stating you’re the Obi Wan for me and BOOM. I knew my Valentine’s Day card for husband was sorted. It was perfect. 

I sat down the other day and planned it out. I used an A4 piece of 220gsm card, folded it in half and painted some abstract water colour on the front [I practiced on some scrap paper first until I was happy with the right amount of random]. While that was drying, I stamped out the key phrase using our Dymo Omega label writer. There is nothing that thing can’t improve. Including Valentine’s Day cards. Of course if you don’t have a label writer, you could write directly on the card. 

I finished it by drawing a little heart on the outside and wrote ‘always and forever’ on the inside; part of our geeky Napoleon Dynamite inspired wedding vows. I’m obv. going to write more than that on the inside, I just wanted to mimic the sentimental message that usually comes on the inside of store bought cards. 
A really simple card idea I thought I’d share for anyone who may be stuck for a card next week. Pretty simple and dare I say fool-proof. Not that I think any of you are fools. xx A

Also featured – Bill Murray print – living room artwork [warning: shoddy early blogging photography etc.]

New living room artwork – waxing moon

For husband’s birthday 2 years ago I drew the moon on our chalkboard wall to complete his space and Star Wars themed birthday. I painted over that moon 2 months later when I painted over the chalkboard wall. At the time I swore to husband I’d paint him another more permanent moon, as he loved the chalked one. 

And then 2 years happened. Because I’m a disaster and terrible wife. 

I was going through some old blog posts this week and was reminded I still had yet to fulfill my moon painting promise. I figured there was no better time than the present. I had an old canvas that I painted a black-on-black tree about a hundred years ago when I was an emotional teen [which you can see here], and it had been passed from room to room these past years waiting to be painted something proper. Well, half proper. It’s still mostly black. 

It had been something like 7 years since I had last painted, so I have to say it was so relaxing setting aside some time to painting again. 
I used a small plate to trace 3/4 of a circle onto the plain black canvas [sans emo tree], and then I attempted to mimic this waxing gibbous photo of the moon as best as I could. It took me about 2 hours from start to finish. 

I wrote a little here a couple of months ago about my alter-ego career. If I were to start over again and choose a different field of work, I would have loved to have gotten a B.Sc. in Physics with Astronomy. Yes, it seems somewhat random, but I’ve always been fascinated with all things space. Case in point – when I was little, to get myself to go to sleep I’d try and think of how far away the edge of space was and what it looked like. I also used to try and think of a colour no one had ever seen before and as you can imagine, that was an utter failure. But it did nicely segue to some pretty interesting dreams and an overactive imagination. 

Which is why, if you look really hard, there’s a lot of space-themed pieces and books dotted around our apartment. Husband actually hasn’t seen the new painting yet, so hopefully when he comes home tonight he, a) actually notices it so my ego doesn’t take a hit, and b) likes it. 

And above, you can see how well the sockets and heater switches under the stool nicely compliment the waxing moon. I find they really add a certain je ne sais quoi to the space, no?

Happy Friday, friends. Hope you have a good one xx