Crafting withdrawals....what to do???

Last night, after everyone else went to bed, I starting brainstorming for a craft that my son and I could do together.  I wanted us to make something together, something we could display, something that would make my son feel important.  I don't have the budget to go out and buy anything, so I started rummaging through the closets and looking for anything that we could use.  I found a canvas and some paint....what kid doesn't love to paint! 

If you have ever been on Pinterest, you have probably seen LOTS of chevron pattern art.  I have always wanted to attempt this, just had not gotten around to it.  So, I figured this was the perfect opportunity!  I thought it turned out really good!

What do think of our chevron painting??

Here's how we did it....

Supplies needed:  Canvas (we used a 16x20), painters tape, scissors, ruler or measuring tape, pencil, paint, paint brushes, and paper towels.



First, I measured my pattern grid and lightly drew it on the canvas with a pencil.  My grid ended up being in 4 inch squares.

Then I started taping the chevron pattern onto my grid with painters tape.  The grid is a MUST to keep it uniform.

Here's what it looked like after taping the entire canvas.  I used my pencil eraser to lightly erase the grid lines.  It's okay if you can still see a little bit of the lines.  You are about to paint over it. 

We just started pouncing our paint colors on.  We used a REAL difficult technique.  You blot the paint color of your choice on with a paint brush, then very very carefully, crinkle up a paper towel and blot over the paint.  Hard, right?!?!  Bwahaha...yep, that's how we roll.  All joking aside, the paper towel gives it a cool texture.  You really can't mess this up.

We ended up using red, turquoise, gray, and just a little hint of green in there.  We had the best time doing this!  There is no rhyme or reason to this.  The messier the better. 

This is what it looked like when I pulled the tape off.  Not as clean as I would have liked it.  I also lightly erased the lines left on the white part at this point. 

You can see that the tape didn't work as well as I had hoped. 

No problem, though.  I just got out the white paint and cleaned it up.  It didn't take long.  The white paint also covered up any lightly visible pencil lines. 

So, here it is hanging above our mantel.  And if you are wondering what that is, sticking out of the wine glass tea light candle....it's a feather.  My son got a feather from his papa the other day and he wanted to display it.  It makes an interesting and unique addition...don't you think?

This project was pretty easy.  The only thing that was a little tedious was drawing out the grid and taping the pattern.  But listen, if you don't want to go to all the trouble of taping out a distinctive pattern, you could just randomly throw on some strips of painters tape and paint it like crazy.  It would make a nice piece of abstract art. 

We had so much fun doing this and more importantly, my son got to paint and create something for everyone to see :)