Pottery Barn Kids "Surf Plaques" Knock Off: My First Silhouette Project!

I'm so excited to show you my very first Silhouette project, a Pottery Barn Kids wall art knock off!


I was looking to create some wall art for the new playroom in the basement, and went looking for inspiration. Where else does one go? Pottery Barn Kids, of course!

The playroom has to be a shared space for our 20-month twin boys and out 7-year old daughter, so I wanted the artwork to be fun and whimsical, yet gender and age neutral. Not that easy.  But I've always LOVED this series of artwork at PBK called "Surf Plaques", and it perfectly matches my criteria!  Each of these pieces retails for $40US, so for a set of 4, $120US.

Photo credits to Pottery Barn Kids

Photo credits to Pottery Barn Kids

Photo credits to Pottery Barn Kids

I knew it was going to be an ambitious project for my first try with my new Silhouette, but since I haven't been crafting much lately I was up for the challenge!

The first thing I did (after reading up on how to use the Silhouette and working through some confusion, lol), was to download and cut sea creature shapes out of card stock, similar to the Pottery Barn ones.

Next, I painted the shapes using water paints to get a softer less uniform effect.  You don't need to be an artist or use fancy paints for this. I grabbed  my daughter's $2 water paints, and they worked perfectly!

It's a little hard to see in the photos above, but the PB artwork has fun facts about each of the sea creatures.  So I googled each of the animals, and came up with some potential words for each piece.  Then I put them into my Silhouette software, and printed them out on black adhesive vinyl.

 

 This part didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped.  I made a few mistakes which I'll share with any of you new Silhouette users so that you can try and avoid them.  If you are an experienced user, skip the next paragraph! 

First, when cutting vinyl, you do not need to use the carrier sheet!  Just feed that sucker right into the machine.  Secondly, when feeding vinyl, make sure that your display says "Load Media", not "Load with Carrier Sheet".  Finally, use a font style and size that is not too thin/delicate.  I learned the hard way.  Oh the horrors. On my first attempt, the machine cut right through the vinyl and the backing.  On my second attempt, many of my vinyl letters wouldn't come free from the backing at all as the blade didn't cut deeply enough.  Finally, after reading some awesomely helpful posts by other bloggers, I got it right! 

Once I had all my vinyl cut, it was time to mount the painted shapes and words to boards. I used 4 pieces of 11x11 mdf that, lucky for me, were leftovers from our basement development project. Some of the other things I used: textured card stock, white craft paint, mod podge, spray adhesive.

I painted the boards with one thin coat of white craft paint, allowing some of the wood to peek through to give it a distressed look. Next, I cut my textured card stock to 9x9, and dry brushed it with white paint. Then I adhered it to the board with spray adhesive (although you could just use mod podge), followed by the water-painted sea animal shapes.

I didn't use the Silhouette transfer paper to apply my letters as I didn't want them to be straight.  I wanted to create curved words, just like the PB originals.  But I've gotta tell ya, it took a lot of patience to pull each vinyl letter from the backing with my finger nails, and them apply them without curling them!

Once I had the lettering applied, I "ooh-and-aah-ed" ;-). And the I gave each piece a coat or two or mod podge  to seal everything together and give it a nice finished look.

Once the Mod Podge was dry, I finished them off with some spray varnish (in matte).  I don't think this step was critical, as the mod podge already gave them a nice finished look.  So if you don't have any spray varnish on hand, don't sweat it.




It was after midnight when I finished up. So I left them overnight on the kitchen island to dry and set.  I was so excited in the morning when I came down and took another looksy.

Here's the final pieces....

And now for the cost...um, like $4.  For all four.  So $1 each. I had all of the craft products on hand, so all I had to pay for were the shape downloads from Silhouette.  It's amazing what you can create (well, OK, in this case re-create, lol) with stuff you already have in your craft room.

If you liked this tutorial, you can 'follow' my blog on the right side-bar!

Until next time, happy crafting.


And P.S., hope you'll come back and visit again soon to see these pieces in our new playroom!

I'm sharing this post at...

The Evolution of a Gallery Wall!

I'm gitty over my latest find!

Restoration Hardware: $850

Well, if you've been following my blog, you might already know that I LOVE subway art.

I've been dreaming of this piece from Restoration Hardware for like ever, but, hey, at $850,  I'd better not get too attached to the idea of having it!  A girl can dream though, right?


Well, that was until the other evening when I popped by Homesense to buy a dog bed of all boring things. Being the decor addict I am, I decided to take one quick pass through the wall art aisle.

HomeSense (Canada): $25

Well, low and behold, just look at the lovely canvas that was peeking out at me!  I snatched it quicker than you can say "ooh la la"!  The thing I love about this piece is the list of cities.  My hubby is in international marketing and travels extensively.  The cool thing is that he's been to all ( but 3) of these cities, and many of them numerous times. So it's personally meaningful.

I knew I had to have it, despite the price.  So you can imagine my complete surprise when I turned it over only to see a price tag of just $24.99.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I mean, what the heck?!?  Guess it was my lucky night! 


So can you guess where I hung it?!? ;-)

You got it! 

I knew it absolutely HAD to go up on my new gallery wall in my living room. 

You know, the one that was already 'finished'. (Remember that post earlier this week?)

Finished schmimished! Yes, people, I tweaked it AGAIN!  Please don't judge, lol.  I admit I need therapy!

What I'm learning is that a gallery wall really is always a work-in-progress.  There's not really a finish line, as such.  It's a creative exercise that continues to evolve until it's comfortable in it's own skin.
 
If you recall, this is where I started about a month ago...

And here's was my first stab at it...



And, after a few other iterations, here's where it stands today...

After some hard negotiation with pieces that were quite happy to stay put, I found a new arrangement that would accommodate the new 'subway' city name piece.

Sticking with the travel 'theme', the new piece also inspired me to pull this one in from another room (see right). 

It's a collection of black & white New York City street sign photos that I bought off a street vendor in NYC a couple of years ago.  I think it balances out the city 'subway' art really nicely.

Also, I love effect that the hit of black from both these new pieces gives the gallery wall.   I really liked the wall before, but the softness was feeling a little on the insipid side.You can always count on black to bring strength and sharpness, especially on something like a gallery wall.


You might notice a couple of other small changes as well - like the new column of cream plates, and the little starfish.  A gallery wall is like a puzzle, and as with most decorating projects, once you move one item, it sets of a chain reaction, and before you know it, you're up to your eyeballs again in plates, and pictures and 3MCommand strips!


I have promised myself NO MORE TWEAKING for a least a couple of months.  It's just way too much work!

But it was all worth it to incorporate my new 'subway' style canvas which, at $25, just happens to be my... Best Find Ever!

I'm off the enjoy a Friday night BBQed steak and glass of red wine.

Have a happy weekend!

PS. I am sharing my gallery wall at Melissa's Gallery Wall Party at The Inspired Room.

The Gallery Wall: an exercise in patience!

It turns out that I wasn't finished with my gallery wall in my living room after all.

It also turns out that this gallery wall is just one more thing in my life that is going to make me crazy!

When I went in search for gallery wall inspiration, the examples I found all seemed so, well, perfectly imperfect. For me, their 'perfection' came from being imperfect. It didn't matter that the distance between each element was inconsistent, or that something was a little off-center.

So why is that I keep asking myself...Is that picture centered? Should it be? Is that picture level?  (I swear it was yesterday!) Should I fill that empty spot? Is it too crowded? Yes, each and every time I sit in my living room, I stare blankly at the wall and think...hmmm...that needs a little adjusting here...and that could be better there! 


But despite those little irritations, I really enjoy this wall.  I realize that gallery walls are not for everybody, but they are high on my list of favorite things. And, this one has really grown on me over the past month.

Here's where I started out...

Here's where I was with it the last time I posted about it:

At that time, I really felt that something was off.

The more time I spent with it, the more I determined what needed to change.

I determined that the sconces needed to go.  Because the large canvas was centered between them, it felt like everything else was just floating on top.  It felt like two separate wall groupings, rather than a cohesive 'gallery'.

I also felt like it needed more personal relevance and personality.  It needed to be meaningful, not just a bunch of pretty things. So I added more of my favorite photos, as well as my favorite rustic sign and a little chalkboard.  It now incorporates so many of the things I love - my favorite photos of my babies and my niece/nephew, a bird and a butterfly, french wine labels, pretty plates (one with the Eiffel tower), a chippy vintage sign, and a chalkboard.

And, tada, here's how it looks now...

 And here's a closer look at some of the elements I used...

 

I know it will probably be tweaked again later, but for now, it makes me happy. And isn't that what decorating is all about? :-)

 So how do you feel about gallery walls? Love em or leave em?





PS. I'm sharing this at