It's a Crafter's Life for Me

Folks, I am no artist. Not by any means. My last successful art project involved a paper plate and leftover macaroni noodles... and even my own mother didn't want that hanging on the fridge. So when my friend Becky invited me to join her in trying something new and scary, like painting (on a canvas and everything!), I absolutely had my doubts. What would I paint? What if I messed up? Do I actually have to show this to Scott?! So, to ease my troubles, I did what any girl would do: I turned to Pinterest. And found some inspiration there, combining several different projects' ideas and making them into one that was my own. Today, I bring you... My Tutorial on Seasonal Art! *Results may vary*

What you will need: Four (4) equal-sized canvases- ours came in a 2-pack for $6/each from WalMart; as well as one (1) can of spray paint; acrylic paints- for this, I recommend black, white, brown, blue, green, yellow, and red; round sponges on a stick- available in a variety pack for $3 at WalMart, and one paint brush.

I began by spray-painting all of my canvases with my base color paint. This part is tricky, so if you lack spray-painting skills, like me, be prepared to do multiple coats to disguise flaws. I used fast-drying paint, so after 10 minutes, I was ready to get to work!

I began by freehand painting the trunk of a tree (that was the easy part). From there, I added long, swooping branches that lead off in various directions. When done, I recommend standing back to get the full effect and see if you need more branches.

After that, I got out a paint palette, and mixed varying shades of blue (by using my blue paint and adding various levels of black or white paint to each quadrant of my palette and mixing with the end of my paintbrush). From there, I designated one sponge to each shade... some were bigger sponges, some were smaller. Then, one by one, I sponge-painted my circles around the branches of one canvas to create the effect of leaves.

This completed my winter tree.

I continued rinsing out my palette and sponges after each quadrant, and continued sponging from left to right. For spring, I used lots of greens and added a few more leaves; for summer, I used yellows; and for fall, I used reds, oranges, and browns (but if you lack orange, you can do without).

When I was finished, I wanted to add just a touch more texture into the mix, so I opted to outline and detail the tree trunk just a little in black. If you are going for the surreal, simplistic look, you can skip this step. However, if you choose to implement it, I would recommend doing this step before adding your leaves at all (See? We learn from our mistakes!). In the end, my tree turned out like so:

Now, I know it's nothing glamorous and I'll probably never hang it on my wall, but it was the idea of the project that made it so sweet. It was a great opportunity to boldly go where I had never gone before and dip my hand in the artist's pool for a day. For all you talented painters out there, I'm sure you could turn this idea into your own and make it something much lovelier, but for a newbie, I think I did alright!

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial this morning and I'm urging you all to step out of your comfort zone and give something like this a try! You may not be great, but you won't get better until you try! Best of luck!

Keep your paintbrush gliding,