Hey ladies–Let me introduce my sweet friend Heidi fromThe Craft Monkey
She has been a faithful follower –it seems like forever. She is super sweet, has an adorable little boy, she is crafty and a DIY gal. If this is your first time meeting Heidi, make sure you are a Saints fan. As soon as the Saints won the Super Bowl, I immediately thought of Heidi-I even e-mailed her and told her that.

I can’t wait to go check out Block Posters.
I still need to go get some Brushstrokes Modge Podge.   Heidi did this post Sandy Toes Salty Kisses and used it and made her pictures look like it had brushstrokes and had been painted. I can hardly wait to try it. I will quit talking so Heidi can show you her Tute

So Ladies get ready to learn something new.

Wow, how excited was I when Cheri asked me to share a “Tute” with ya’ll! I’m Heidi from The Craft Monkey, and I’m super excited to be here today to share with you!

Just a little back story, I’m currently in the process of redecorating my house from a Tuscan(ish) decor to a more light, airy, beachy feel.  I’m trying to do it on the cheap and reuse things I currently own by transforming them if I can.  Browsing Pottery Barn I kind of fell in love with these pillows.

One day I was looking at it and thought…”hmmm…I bet I could just re-use that foam board!” I was right.  The canvas peeled right off and all that was left was the foam board.

I measured it and cut it in half {with my bread knife, cause I’ve got mad chef skills like that} HA! Once it was cut, I covered it with some burlap that I had leftover from other projects. I didn’t have any spray adhesive, so I just hot glued it down then reinforced it with duct tape (but forgot to take a picture of the back for ya).

Then I found some clip art online of a Seahorse & a squidy octopus thingie) {aka, cuttlefish} I loaded them into the BlockPosters website (Thanks to Dawn @ WackyWhimsy for the tip on this).  This website takes a regular picture & lets you blow it up poster size but print it out on 8×10 sheets on your own printer.  I did that, and cut them out to make a very large stencil.  Then I traced them with a sharpie onto my burlap boards.  For the insides I just kind of “winged” it.  Now, you have to know (which I think is obvious) I have NO artistic ability what.so.ever! So this was SUPER easy!!

Once I had my images drawn out, I took some acrylic paint and just started painting, originally I was going to try to add more color & depth, but that is WAY beyond my ability.  And, I kind of liked the way the sharpie still showed through the paint, so I left it that way.  Just plain, flat, 1 dimensional, 1 color, easy, peasy!

I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out & I think they look pretty good flanking my hutch.  I think they look A LOT better considering they were free.  I mean, I’ll be honest, I do think they look like myself {or an 8 year old} painted them, they definitely don’t look like they were bought at a store, but they make me happy for now! What do you think?