Easy, Affordable Art Ideas

Featured Pro: Kristan Cunningham
Category: Home Décor
Time: 4:46


KRISTAN CUNNINGHAM: Welcome to GMC Trade Secrets, brought to you by the GMC Acadia. I’m Kristan Cunningham, and I’ve got some do-it-yourself art ideas that you are going to love.

And first up, we’re going to recreate the look of marquetry or inlaid wood with wood-grain contact paper – super-cheap and much easier to work with than actual wood.

So I’ve got varying different colors here, different wood grains. And first I’m going to start by just covering my whole canvas with one neutral paper. I’m going to go with this one.

So now we’ve got the whole thing covered. Next up will be a nice border, a one-inch border. So that’s really simple. That’s just one-inch strips. The nice thing about this stuff is it’s already got a grid on the back for you. So you can just line up your straight edge. You don’t even have to make pencil marks.

So this first kind of odd-shaped piece is a cloud. I’ve also got some water that’s going to go in, a moon or a sun, and I’ll do it all out of different wood grains. But it starts to look like this is all an inlaid wood pattern. And because the contact paper is so thin, the seam is flawless, so it actually does look inlaid. Not bad so far, right?

I am loving the look of the wood – the wood grain, the inlaid wood. I’ve got a couple more mountains to go and a little bit of water and we’ll be all set.

Now, for this one I’m just going to use a canvas and some rope. And this is going to kind of be a modern twist on the `60s and `70s macrame art and all that natural fiber art. I do not have a plan. I’m just going to start twisting it up with some rope and see what happens.

So I’ve decided to go with a bit of a starburst pattern, kind of offset; leave some texture on top of that. And really, this is, like, no harder than measuring out your pieces and using a little bit of hot glue. The thing I love about hot glue is that you can manipulate it as you’re working. And rope is a little bit unruly, especially this thick stuff. So you can lay down a strip and kind of model it in its place as you go along.

Okay, so I’ve got the basic skeleton of my pattern laid out, and my goal is to have every bit of canvas covered. So I’ve got a little ways to go.

Okay, this last one is going to be so easy and so inexpensive that it’s going to blow your mind. You know how sometimes, when you’re trying to make a fabric on one side of the room work with an accessory on this side, but you didn’t design the fabric, so you’re limited to the colors that are in it or the colors that are in your accessory? But with paint chips, you have thousands of colors to choose from. So pick the exact shades that you’re trying to draw out and maybe make work together and incorporate them in one piece of art.

So go to the store. Pick up a couple at a time, because they’re free. Get enough to make your art. I’m literally going to use the frame as my guide to make straight lines. And this is where we get really fancy. It’s just Scotch tape holding it together.

Okay, so I still have to finish up on the framing, but you get the idea. Pretty cute, right? And the best part is I have an accent in this room that’s going to match it perfectly. And that’s really the whole idea. No matter what you’re trying to work in or work around, by using paint chips, you can completely customize the art to the room. And that’s true with all DIY art. Whether it’s the size or the material or the overall aesthetic of what you’re creating, you don’t have to rely on what you can find at a gallery or a store.

I’m Kristan Cunningham, and that’s your GMC Trade Secret about three ways to create custom art.