Put a Bird On It

I've had this idea in my head for a while to create some art that looked like THIS. It was another idea from Pinterest. The caption said "Elmers glue then paint over it." Genius I thought, pure genius.

So, I grabbed my canvas (which I had painted a long time ago and never finished), came up with a sketch of what I wanted, that included a sweet little bird. As I was drawing it I kept chuckling about the "Put a Bird on It," from the show Portlandia.



Anyhow, of course I ran into some issues. In doing this project I didn't actually look into the blog of the lady that did it. I took my HUGE canvas and just went all glue crazy on it. I could tell immediately that it didn't look as "puffy" as the photo from Pinterest, so I started to wonder what was going on.

So, I went onto the computer and went into the actual blog of the gal that created it. Come to find out it was NOT Elmers glue. She used puffy paint in a very SPECIFIC way to make this piece of art.

So, I had a couple options, go with what I had or try something new. I decided to go with it, paint on top of it and see where I was. If I still wanted more texture I could add the puffy paint afterward. After I added the white it was just TOO much white, it would have been fine for a small canvas, but this was just TOO much. Even with more texture it was going to overwhelm the bathroom where I had it and it needed something else to it. SO, I started painting some grey on it to see where I ended up.

It's getting somewhere now...

This is the finished painting, no place for it yet though....

I ended up liking the way the different shades of grey looked on the white canvas and left it as is. For fun I hung it over the fireplace in my den while I was painting the cabinets (to keep it out of reach of small hands) where my Monet painting used to be and it actually looked REALLY great there, so I just decided that it would stay!

My mantel (now painted white with new decor)

 Anyhow it was a DIY turned disaster that actually ended up being something different than I imagined, but it totally worked itself out, and I think its fun, even though I did get a little cheesy and "put a bird on it".  I've gone back and forth about adding color to the flowers, but I like it simple as is, the splash of color with the scrapbook paper on canvas is all I really want for now, so I think for now I'm just going to keep it that way.