Kalamari

I'm a huge fan of the Young House Love blog. If you haven't checked it out, you definitely should!

They blogged today about their Memorial Weekend adventures and took a few shots of the treasures they found. Sherry took a picture of a print sporting an octopus and an ad that says, "On Special Today KALAMARI of Colossal Dimensions." And I just fell in love with the style and the text.

But with a price tag of $200, that's WAYYYYY out of my price range (provided I could even find something similar!).

So I decided to try to recreate it. And had a ton of fun doing it. My version is not a total copy of the pic Sherry snapped, but that's the whole point, right? If you're inspired by something, you're supposed to put your spin on it and make it your own.

{Click graphic for SUPER large version}

The octopus and ship graphic I grabbed from The Graphics Fairy. I highly recommend that site! So many cool vintage graphics over there and it's all free. Everything else was of my creation. I threw in a layer of smudgy paint to give it that aged look in the corners. The "sunburst" you see in the background (very light) I drew in using the line tool.

I hope you like it! Feel free to print or save for your own personal use!

 

 

More Text Art --- Emerson

Have I mentioned before that I'm a collector of quotes? :D

I love a good inspirational quote. Many have gotten me through tough times. In my writing life, it's hard to keep going when you hate every single word you've put down, when you think not a single person could possibly love what you've written. But you have to push through, even if you don't want to. It might not turn out the way you wanted, but in that failure you'll learn something. And sometimes what you create is epic. The best you've ever created.

This graphic I'm posting has an Emerson quote in it and I just love it. I hope you do too. :P

Again, I had a hard time deciding which design I liked the best so I figured I'd include them all. I think I'm partial to the one on the right with the wood background. But the one at the top, if you click on it, you'll see the text is sporting a very cool swirl design.

How fun is that? It really stands out against that charcoal gray. LOVE.

Feel free to copy for your own personal use! Click on graphics for SUPER large graphic. Made to fit 11X14 frame.





Kitchen Art

I love text art. Visually you're drawn to it because of the design and the color. But intellectually, you're drawn to it to read. Double whammy of art!

If you're at all like me, your kitchen is light on art and design. So I wanted to create something I could frame but that reflected what the kitchen as a room was all about. And for me that's baking. And tasting. :D

I made several different versions of this graphic because I just couldn't decide which one I liked better!

Love using different fonts to change it up!

Bold and simple.

And lastly, just plain yellow. Because I lurve yellow right now.

Feel free to copy and print for your own kitchen! Click on the graphics for bigger versions.



Birds of a Feather

I'm totally digging birds right now. And it seems like they're gaining popularity in design too. I'm trying to resist inserting random birds in everything I do.

But I was too weak to resist today!

{Click graphic for SUPER large file}

This graphic combines all the things I'm loving right now.

1. Birds

2. Texture

3. Pink & Mustard

This graphic has several layers to it and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Feel free to copy for your personal use! And if you do use it, let me know! I'd love to see where you used it and how you used it.

Linking up over here for Just Something I Whipped Up!





West Elm Art

Often times, some of the coolest art is the simplest art. Like this piece from West Elm---

It's so simple. Circles and squares. Black and white. But it's bold and modern and I love it.

So I recreated it.

I created an 11 X 14 canvas in Photoshop, made some circles and squares, layered on a few more circles and squares in a contrasting color (in this case, white) and then grunged them up with the paint tool so the lines weren't so crisp and perfect, which is what I love most about the art.

Here's what I came up with---

{Click on graphic for bigger, high-resolution pic}

Feel free to copy the graphic for personal use!

ETA: The West Elm Art was featured on Knock Off Decor! WOOT!

Under the Sea

I don't know about you, but I ♥ Pottery Barn. I wish I had a gazillion dollars to shop there for my entire house. But I don't. I don't even have .0000001% of a gazillion dollars. Cue the sad face!

I do keep a lot of my PB catalogues and peruse them for inspiration. And the thing I love most about PB is its beachy feel, especially with the kids' stuff.

This was on the PBteens front page this week---

See those pillows?

I love the octopus pillow. Actually, scratch that---I love all three of them! And I wanted to make some sort of art that could easily be printed off and framed for a little guy, or girls!, room.

I just love how simple these are. I used plain graphics for the octopus and stingray, colored them blue and added a textured layer to them. It kinda looks like beadboard. Hmmmm...that gives me a new idea! I must make a mental note to use a beadboard texture on the next project!

But seriously, wouldn't these be cute in black frames in a little guy's room? Love. I'm sorta wishing my son was still at that age where I could decorate for him. Instead, he's at that age where everything Mom suggests is automatically lame.





Just Believe

I just *LOVE* this quote. Who doesn't dream big? Who doesn't need a little push every now and then? Sometimes I have to remind myself to just believe in who I am and what I'm doing.

{Click for larger version}

As always, feel free to copy and print for your own personal use! Maybe in a distressed white frame in the office?