Category: Handmade Art with Heart

Home made art.

Inspiration Flies

Published on by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

I love when I stumble upon beautiful ideas.  Some of these I can duplicate myself.  Like this felt circle pillow. 

I love the texture!  This would be pretty simple to recreate, too.  Cut tons of circles from felt, fold in half and sew to a front piece.  Add a back and stuffing and you’ve got yourself a sweet, textured pillow!

Speaking of sweet, how about this finger print cut out artwork by Lori Danelle.

I wonder what I can do with a cut out design…?

Months ago, I saw this b.e.a.utiful custom pendant on an episode of Dear Genevieve and fell in love.  A little googling later and I found the maker, Sarah Foote, and where to buy said pendant. 

I still can’t figure out the frame or how to cut a million ash veneer circles, but I would love to do something similar.

It would be fun to make a clock like this, from Timber!

What inspires you to take on a DIY project or two?

Animal Artwork

Published on by Our Humble Abode3 Comments

My cousin, (and pseudo sister) Jenna, is pregnant with her first baby and is due November 5.  (My sisters and I threw her a baby shower a few months ago).  She knows she’s having a boy, but she wants gender neutral decorations.  We gave her a hand-me-down crib bedding set that has jungle animals, similar to the Tiddliwinks Safari bedding at Target. 

Jenna asked me to create two custom art pieces for the nursery.  Her only requests were to include the nursery colors (chocolate-brown, sage green and cream), monkeys, giraffes, and birds (to coördinate with the bird mobile I made as a shower decoration/gift).  That’s it.  The rest was up to me.  I love free rein designs.  Jenna had already purchased two IKEA Ribba frames with mats.  I considered designing two custom 12 inch square prints to fit the frames, but decided to create custom cut paper scenes.  A year or so ago, I created a cut paper scene of Ben and I in our wedding attire as a custom art piece for our home. 

The first piece features a cartoonish monkey hanging from a palm tree with a bird flying by.

The second piece has a giraffe standing in tall grass, a little bird perched in the giraffe’s back, and an Umbrella Thorn Acacia type tree.

Both pieces are entirely hand-made with pieces cut from cardstock.  While in Minnesota recently, I visited her house to help with some final nursery touches, including matting and framing her new artwork.  We didn’t get around to hanging the pieces, but we’re both very pleased with the result. 

I am taking orders for custom art pieces, including cut paper scenes, silhouettes, prints and modern paintings.  To see samples, ask questions or place an order, please visit our Etsy shop.

Gimme a Giveaway: Our Humble A{Bowe}d

Published on by Our Humble Abode61 Comments

*This giveaway is no longer accepting entries, Thank You!*

This post is a little early because I’ll be pretty busy tomorrow, so you’re getting this now!  We’re back with another giveaway from our print shop, Our Humble A{Bowe}d.  The winner can choose their favorite print from the options below.

Carved Initials:

Bird Family:

I Love You This Much:

Love Math:

Love Tree:

Want a chance to win?  Here’s how it works:

Prize:  One 8 inch by 10 inch customized print of your choice.

To Enter:  Subscribe to follow Our Humble A{Bowe}d, if you’re not already.  To subscribe, click the “Sign Me Up!” button under “Be the first to know.” 

Bonus:  Comment on this post with the words “PRINTED” and tell us what patterned (chevron, faux bois, etc.) item you’re lovin’ right now.  (I shared my love for FLOR’s Sophistikat rug)

Contest Closes:  Thursday, September 30th at 9:00 pm, central time.

Number of Winners:  One!

Ships:  Anywhere in the U.S.

Other Info:  Only one entry per e-mail address.  The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Friday, October 1st.  Good luck!!

New Home

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I love to see where my artwork lands once its sent out, and I was lucky to get an e-mail from a recent giveaway winner, Emily.  She won our Leaves Silhouette giveaway a few weeks ago.  Here is the painting, now residing in her master bedroom.

Doesn’t it look great?  I love the bird prints and ceramic owl keeping the tree company.  So fitting.

Magazine Artwork

Published on by Our Humble Abode18 Comments

The first time I saw the Skinny Cow ads was when Young House Love turned it into art for their nursery.  I fell in love with it right away, and the colors were perfect for our boys’ room.  So, I Googled around to find more ads.  I found one print ad and a few more designs used on the Skinny Cow website. 

I love that the dachshund is being held up by a balloon to share with the giraffe. 

Aren’t the monkeys from this coupon cute, too?

I couldn’t find other printed designs, so I went to You Tube and found two commercials. 

I paused on the frames I liked and did a print screen and saved the image to my computer.  Then, I opened the images in Photoshop to make alterations as I liked.  After an hour or so of playing around, I had five new 5 inch by 7 inch art pieces to frame. 

I had to recreate the koala and monkey images to place them on a solid background.

 I didn’t have to do much to the other images, except remove the ice cream and text for the actual ad.  I bought five ugly faux wood $3.00 frames from Wal-Mart and gave them a quick coat of gloss white spray paint.

I love how the group of five looks in the room, adding a dose of whimsy and a pop of color.  Not bad for $15.00.  Have you turned any magazine pages into artwork?