The only requirements I had were that it had to be able to completed while sitting on my bum and it had to cost zero dollars (since we're living in the land of the layoff-meaning money is tight-meaning if it's not a necessity for life it will not be bought-you get the point.)
So I "shopped the house" as the Nester would say, and found some sticks, some mossy stuff, and two cute containers. I also always have paint on hand, so the brown sticks became white and got shoved into the containers. Good start, but the poor little trees looked kind of barren, more like winter and less like spring.
What's a girl to do? Keep shopping, of course. I dug out and dusted off the paper sack with last year's Easter stuff in it-complete with leftover candy (ewww, crunchy jelly beans!) The eggs on their own looked a bit bright and loud so I pulled out the paint and some ribbon and started playing. Unfortunately, the more I played the less I like what I saw. Here's what I came up with:
Not too bad, just not the look I was after. The pictures don't do justice to how bright those babies are. Good for diamonds-not so much for eggs. So, I packed the poor fellows away, they'll have to wait for the egg hunt to have their moment of glory. That left me with two empty, unspring-like trees. Now what?
That's when I remembered the Weekend Creative post from Ali Edwards. She used cool chipboard butterflies-which I had none of. I also had no cool chipboard shapes at all. (Remember, zero dollars to be spent here.)
What did I have? Sheets of naked chipboard, a pencil and some acrylic birds, more paint and some other goodies-I traced them and cut those bad boys out and painted and glued, then.....
This is what I got:
Not too bad. Here's a close up of a few of the birds.
You too can have all this for the low cost of....nothing! Just a bit of time and some creative thinking is all that is required. Who was it who said "necessity is the mother of invention"? Whelp, they were right.
I still feel like it needs a bit more punch, but not to sure what-any thoughts?
Posts
Hey Gina, what a great project!! And isn't whatever we decorate with more meaningful and fun when it's hand-made, dirt cheap, or better yet free?? yay!
ReplyDeleteI think it's very sweet-looking and the branches stand out nicely painted white. Do you have any other paint color laying around? Maybe you're looking for more of a pop of color since the containers are pale pastels and the branches are white. ?? I don't know....
I do like how the ribbons and such stand out against the pale yellow birds.... I'd say maybe just try out some more paint colors, a tad brighter or something to offset. You can always use the little birdies to decorate the girls' rooms if you don't like them...make a framed collage or something.
(Man this "comment" is getting long!)
Or what about some kind of texture for that 'punch' you're looking for? Something you could adhere/hot glue onto the birds rather than paint? Burlap, grasses, leaves?
Who knows... I'm thinking out loud and rambling.
Love it though, awesome and inspiring!
~hugs!!
You know, Levi did suggest that we paint one of the trees green....I did think of making more birds with patterned paper and less embellishments-hmmm-good ideas-thanks!
ReplyDelete