Art for the non-artistic

I was feeling all artsy fartsy this weekend and staring at the big empty wall over my couch. Oh how I'd love to paint a giant masterpiece that would impress all my friends! But alas, my painting skills topped out with stick figures and some days it is hard just to stay within the lines. Yet I had to do SOMETHING.

My inspiration struck when poking through the lovely blog of Anna Maria Horner, another Nashvillian with a drool-worthy house and studio (and fabric line!). Her appearance on the Martha Stewart Show featured a project that even my so-so painting skills could master - painted fabric silhouettes.

For my lovelies, I picked up some "batik" fat quarters at JoAnn's, some canvases at Michaels (hurrah, on sale), and some Royal Coat decoupage finish. I skipped the Modge Podge because it said something about lingering tackiness on the label which didn't sound cool. My stencils were actually huge printouts of selected letters. I have this weird thing for decorating with text--it always catches my eye--and I wasted oodles of time on dafont.com searching for JUST the right font.

Easy peasey project. I followed the directions given to staple the fabric, then traced my font outline using a sheet of graphite paper. Decoupage coat over that so I don't rub it off, then paint.

Done!

And then I shopped the house for other items, put up some shelves, and we have art!