Cheap-o Art

After my son was born, I busied myself (Ha! As if I wasn’t busy enough!) with decorating his nursery.  It was never complete – always a work in progress.  Back then, just about two years ago, I created these pieces for his wall.

Now I’m in the process of rearranging his room, slowly transforming it into a “big boy” room. These guys used to reside above the crib, and today, down they came.  I’ll find another home for them shortly, but decided to snap a couple pictures for you and show you how I made them since it was really easy and inexpensive.

Art Done Cheaply

First, I purchased three canvases.  I was lucky enough to find these at a yard sale, but they can be purchased at a craft store as well pretty inexpensively.

To create the images, I used black oil pastel.  I traced store bought letters for the large canvas and free-handed the elephant and giraffe based on images I found online.  Next, I took blue, green and yellow oil pastels and filled in the entire canvas.  I smudged the black oil pastel into the bright color to create the shading I wanted.

Lastly, I sprayed a fixident like dArtigny Oil Pastel Fixatif to keep it all in place.  This fixative is a little pricy, but I’ve heard that hairspray works just as well.

I hung them with string and there they stayed for two years.  Not bad, right?

How about you?  Do you have an easy and cheap DIY project that you’d like to share?  Let me know!

P.S. I’ve been featured in the Fiscal Times!  Go check it out!

Also linked up with The ArtsyGirl Connection and Life As Mom