Thursday, April 4, 2013

'Nailed It' - State of Mind Artwork

Okay, so I have no doubt that most of you fellow Pinterest addicts have seen 'state art' floating around on the boards. I love the idea, but there are just soooo many ways to do this. 


State Artwork Chevron
Little P's State of Mind Artwork

There's the string and nail version.
The fabric cut out version.
Ones painted on canvas.
Ones painted on pallets.
Ones in picture frames and others directly painted onto walls.
Ones cut out from actual maps.....
 
The list goes on and on. 

You Google 'diy state art work' and you get 28,600,000 results. Now, I know a good portion of these aren't going to be actual state art work, and that some of them will be things that are listed on sites like Etsy for sale, but you get a pretty good idea of what's out there.

I was digging on the whole triple state idea - where we met, where we married and where Little P was born kind of deal - but then I wondered, 'just how many people would get what the state of Victoria (Australia) looks like?' I know if we were back in Oz it wouldn't be a stretch, but since we are in the US it's kind of an interesting dilemma.

So, as I was pondering this quandary (over a glass of wine, naturally), I happened to look over to one of Little P's latest artistic creations and I had a 'light bulb' moment. What if I make it so it's a piece of art for her room, and just do the state of Nevada? But instead of scrapbook paper or even an actual map of Nevada, what if I use one of her paintings and cut out the shape, put it in a frame and BINGO! instant piece of art (from her own artwork) for her room.

So, as I naturally had a ton of her paintings just sort of hanging around (as kid's artwork tends to do) it was simply a matter of working out which one I wanted to use. As it turns out, Little P had her own ideas about which paintings Mommy could have (surprise, surprise) and she handed me two that she had deemed fit.

kids pink paintings
Little P's masterpieces
I decided to go with the one light pink one as it wasn't quite as 'busy', plus I liked the simplicity of it. I located a template of Nevada at this wonderful little site call Apples4Teacher that has all the states (including coloring pages of each state for the kidlets – super cool).


Here's what I used:

  • Artwork graciously donated by Little P
  • Template from Apples4Teacher
  • Pencil to trace the shape onto the artwork
  • Scissors or Exacto knife to cut out the shape (I used scissors but for those states with lots of fiddly bits, I'd go with an Exacto knife)
  • Frame to put it all in at the end

Tracing an outline on the back of the painting, so, you know, if my cutting skills weren’t that fantastic, I wouldn’t have to worry about rubbing out any erroneous lines (praise the gods that Nevada doesn’t have a lot of squiggly bits).

map template

Once I had it cut out, I was left with trying to decide if I wanted to put it in the frame on a white background (which seemed kind of 'blah' to me), use colored paper or find something fun to use as the background.

Decisions, decisions.

Eventually I went with a grey chevron print (cause who doesn't like a chevron pattern?).

Chevron State Map Art
Not bad, huh?
I like the contrast between the pink and the grey, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

What says you, oh wonderful people? Did I ‘nail it’?

Till next time…

K

8 comments:

  1. Love it!! I too have seen the state art stuff, and I think you successfully added a new version to the overload out there! :) Much more meaningful as well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love reading about all your crafts --- I could never do anything out of the box and fun. {sigh}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Billie - trust me, it's taken a while to get to the point where I'm okay 'going outside the lines'. Now if I could just get that sorted with cooking, I'd be golden.

      Delete
  3. I love this idea! We have SO much artwork lying around that looks a lot like yours and I never know what to do with it. Maybe I'm out of the loop but I haven't seen all of the state artwork so you inspired me. ;) Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Any time. We are going to try and Instagram some of her favorites and turn them into magnets for the playroom - that should be an interesting project.

      Delete
  4. I have not yet seen the state of art on Pinterest I must admit. I'm getting more into Pinterest but haven't evolved into an addict...yet. Give it time. LOL

    This is a cool little project! Uhh, can I borrow your kid to make one of these? Haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pinterest is great - but it's a huge time suck. So if you have a few hours to kill, that will do it. And Little P is available for artwork creation - for a price ;)

      Delete