Wall Space? Filled!

So, when I was at Jo-Anns earlier this summer, I found some really cute little canvases super cheap and decided to grab some and do something with them for my apartment. Well, now I'm all moved in and finally finished the canvases! They turned out super cute and weren't all that difficult!


First, let me start with this HIDEOUS mirror my mom bought me

No, she doesn't have bad taste

She bought it for me to revamp and make pretty

Here's some close ups of details from the mirror

Ok so, maybe the whole chili, cactus, desert, deep Texas thing is cute to you, but its not to me. So I decided to paint this to match my bathroom! All I did was to put 3 layers of blue craft paint on and then use white fabric paint (the type that you just use the bottle to squeeze it out) to make 3-D polka dots!

 How cute is it now!

 It looks awesome in my bathroom!

Now I just have to find some way to cover this ugly thing

 and my bathroom will be done!

Now, back to the canvases, I had 4 squares and 4 rectangles.  I decided I would put the squares in the living room and the rectangles in the dining room.

They are only like 2" square

Let me tell you about the squares first. I wanted to do something cute, but simple so I decided to paint each of the squares one of the main colors of my living room (pink, yellow, green, and blue).  The blue and yellow were wall paint and so only took 1 layer, but the pink and green were craft paint and took 3 layers, but it dries super fast so it only took 10 min to paint.

Painted! 

To hang them up, I decided to put them up in a diamond with a little space between each of them! (I love geometric shapes!)

How beautiful!

Total, I probably spend 20 minutes painted them all and 10 minutes hanging them (not the easiest thing for a perfectionist but it turned out beautiful!) So only 30 minutes for such a beautiful piece of art!

The dining room rectangles were a bit more complicated and took a lot more time (total like 3 hours), but were totally worth it! I wanted them to match my table runner and continue the pattern onto the wall! So, I sat down with the canvases, a pencil, and the table runner and drew. Yes, it was free hand so it took a good bit of time, but by looking at the pattern I was drawing consistently, it really wasn't too difficult.

This is the pattern done in pencil!

Then, I took my tan paint and painted the pattern.  I wasn't super particular about staying in the lines too much because I knew I would be painting black next and that would cover anywhere I got out of the lines.

After their tan painting

Then, I took my black paint and filled in the rest.  I outlined the pattern with the paint first to make it easier to just have big spaces to fill in the rest of the time.  I also did the edges in all black instead of continuing the pattern on them and I think that really looks good. (Apparently I didn't take a picture until after I hung them)

With space in between them, of course!

Do you prefer to make or buy your wall art? How much time would you devote to making your own art? Would you be brave enough to free hand a pattern?