Summer officially ended at our house yesterday with our girls finally starting back to school today. I’ve definitely got mixed feelings of being sad to see summer end but happy to get back to some sort of normal routine. One thing I know for sure is that I’m dying to jump in and start decorating for fall and working on a bunch of projects that I cooked up over the summer. September should be a fun month! And there’s no better way to kick it off than my joining my friends Lisa of Shine Your Light, Jennifer of Dimples & Tangles, and Pam of Simple Details for our monthly My Five Favorites series. This month we’re sharing simple ideas for bringing art into in your home – I’m focusing on my five favorite ways to create your own art (psst…they’re all super simple!).
And we’re welcoming Jennifer of The Chronicles of Home as our guest host this month! Jennifer is Martha Stewart on steroids – she not only sews but has taken on projects as big as reupholstering her own sofa, she is an amazing cook, and she’s got some major decorating skills – her fall fireplace from last year is still one of my favorites (I can’t wait to see how she decorates for fall this year!):
Thanks so much for joining us Jennifer! Ready to get going and check out my five favorite ways to create your own art?! (post includes affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here})
Frame Agate Slices
After stenciling the walls in our powder room, I had a hard time finding pieces of art to stack over the toilet that were simple and didn’t compete with the patterned walls. I ended up stumbling upon some beautiful agate slice coasters at a local home store (you can also find agate slices online {here}) and decided that they would be the perfect simple but elegant art for my space:
As long as you have thin slices like mine, framing them is as easy as adding either glue dots like {these medium-sized ZOTS} or hot glue from a glue gun around the back rim of each slice and then mounting them to card stock cut to fit your frame. For a step-by-step tutorial with pics of how to knock out this simple DIY, check out {this post}.
Use Feathers, Fronds, & Other Backyard Beauties
There are lots of natural elements that can make simple, beautiful art, including many that you might be able to find in your own backyard. One of my favorites is feathers – I created a piece of art for over our fireplace that’s made up of five feathers in an alternating pattern that I simply hot glued onto card stock and framed:
I found three of my feathers on walks and bought the other two at the Country Living Fair but if you’re looking for a good online source you can find lots of feather options {here}.
Another idea is to press and frame leaves or fronds like I did for our home office gallery wall:
Neither of these art projects could be more simple but they’re actually some of my favorite art pieces in our home.
Design a Plate Wall
Whether they’re cherished heirlooms or simply plates that you really love, think about hanging them as art like I did in our dining room:
For some reason creating this large plate wall totally intimidated me and I put it off for months but it actually ended up being super easy to do! You can read more about how I planned out my plate wall and what I hung my plates with {here}.
Let Your Little Ones Do the Work for You
There is no better art than something made by a little one that you love, right?! A fun, casual way to display art that your children or grandchildren or other little ones bring home is to use clothespins (mine are covered in striped washi tape) to clip artwork onto strung ribbon or twine. Simple and easy to swap out as new pieces are created!
My girls are both teens so we don’t get much artwork coming home from school anymore but they still love to be creative. My youngest daughter and I made some new spring art for our fireplace by cutting bunny shapes out of corkboard sheets and hot gluing faux flowers on them:
And every now and then I still get a little something home from school – last year she spent weeks of art club taping and painting to create this beautiful art piece for me. She knows her mom well (I heart plaid!):
It’s found a new home on our home office bookshelves (you can see more of our home office {here}):
Print it Yourself
OK, this isn’t really an idea for DIY art, it’s more like PIY art – print it yourself. If you’re lacking on time or creativity, there are TONS of fun art prints that you can download and print instantly for just a couple of dollars like {this deer art printable} and {this Let’s Stay Home art} that I’ve used for art on our fireplace mantel:
You can see more of my favorite instant art printables in {this post}.
So that wraps up my five favorite ways to create your own art! Be sure to hop over and check out my friends’ inspiration for artwork in your home – they all have some truly inspiring ideas:
Jennifer – The Chronicles of Home
Pam – Simple Details
Jennifer – Dimples & Tangles
Lisa – Shine Your Light
And if you missed any of my past posts from our My Five Favorites series, you can catch up here:
XO,
emmy and i have been collecting feathers from our yard to make some feather art! we also have some cool chicken feathers, but i want to keep that separate… make two. one that is our own chicken breeds, and another that is wild birds of our area.
Such a cool idea! I love that you have chickens!!
I think you just coined a new phrase – I am an excellent PIYer 🙂 …..mad printing skills over here! Your feathers were such a cool thing to frame…..and love your daughter’s plaid art she made you!
I’m very, very skilled at PIY! 🙂
Kris,
There are some great ideas here. I love to create my own seasonal art work since I can be changed out after a couple of months with something different. Graphics Fairy (online) has a ton of vintage graphics free to download. I love the pieces you’ve created and your daughter’s plaid painting is wonderful. Like you, plaid is my favorite color! 🙂
xo,
Karen
Shoot – the Graphics Fairy would have been a great idea to include in my post (that’s where my octopus print is from!). And yes, plaid is the best!!
where did you find all the great frames though?
The frames are almost all from Target or Hobby Lobby – unfortunately they don’t carry any of the Target ones I have any more…
Martha Stewart on steroids…that made me laugh out loud, you are too funny! Thank you for saying such nice things though 🙂 I love love LOVE the framed agate slices, what a great idea! I have a few coasters but we don’t really use them that much, I would love to out them on display like that instead. Thanks so much for having me join you all this month!
Well, it’s true! You know how to rock it out with your DIYs AND in the kitchen! So glad you could join us!
These are great, Kris! Those agate slices are so beautiful and would be such a great DIY, especially with agates possible picked up while traveling! And how fabulous is your daughter’s plaid painting? Wow!!
Thanks Jennifer! Yes, she was so proud of that – it took her weeks and weeks to do!
Oooh, I can’t even choose a fave! Love the simplicity of these DIYs and how they can transition for the seasons! I’d still be procrastinating if that plate wall were at my house! It was such a fabulous addition!
Thank you so much Pam!
Your art is beautiful, but just would like to warn your readers that the collecting of most wild bird feathers in the USA is prohibited under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It doesn’t matter how they were obtained. I doubt you would be prosecuted because the act was primarily intended to prevent the killing of birds for sale of their feathers. It also includes nests and eggs.
I had no idea! Thank you Lucinda!