DIY Craft - Create a Fun Cactus Garden Using Pool Noodles and Kick boards.

I'm sharing a DIY on how to make 3 dimensional fun cacti over on my studio journal.  It's surprisingly easy and uses readily available materials.

Cactus making DIY by Aaron Christensen

I'd love to see what you come up with.  If you share your cacti on social media tag me @aaronchristensenart.

Enjoy!- Aaron

DIY on crafting your own Cactus.

Color Coma, the Magic of Color and the Power of Green

You've seen them, I know you have.  Those folks standing in the home improvement store, staring at the wall-o-color wonder, the paint chip display.  They are suffering from what I call chasing rainbows, it's a debilitating sickness of epidemic proportions.  These unsuspecting and ambitious homeowners storm the paint department confident in their plans.  "I'm going to paint my room an x,y,z color...yep I am.  I just need to find the right shade."  They arrive at the paint chip color display and like some kind of hypnotic funhouse whirlygig the sheer amount of color options begins to undermine their confidence and send them into a trance.  Wobbly kneed and glossy eyed, they start grabbing random colors...."hmmm, this fuchsia is nice, wait how about bright yellow...oops can't leave out teal, teal is purdy....that's purdy...p u r d y  c o l o r s . . . l o o k   a t   a l l     d   a         p  u   r    d     y          c      o     l     o      r      s".  The poor victims have drops of sweat and a little drool forming as their color coma takes over.

I bring this up because abundant color is all the rage for home decor and fashion!  Every color is the new black.  So while the rainbow spectrum is hot I encourage you to explore.  But, to prevent a big box mental mush meltdown, I want to introduce you to three ways to improve your color swagger and confidence.


1) PAINT CHIP PALS

 You need a color buddy who will love you regardless of any color mishap or confusion.  My friend Andrea Currie and her hubs Cliff are working to introduce the world to their full spectrum Paint Chip Pals.

Andrea is a powerful force in the crafting community, you may have caught her champion worthy glitterness on TLC's Craft Wars, hosted by Tori Spelling.  She wields glitter like a sparkly ninja.

She and Cliff's characters, based upon paint color cards, are in development as plush dolls and colorful accessories.  You can help Pinky, Gaareen and all their friends paint our world and prevent color coma by visiting the Currie's Kickstarter campaign.  Your support can earn you Paint Chip Pal swag of your very own.  My favorite is  Blooty.

  

 Send some Kickstart-ing funds their way and watch your greens turn into a rainbow of color.  Head over to my Rainbow-tastic Blog Hop post for more info and a chance to win a Paint Chip Pal.

2)  SKIP THE PAINT GO STRAIGHT TO THE DECOR

Avoid choosing paint as a way to bring color into your home and decorate with color instead.   If you have neutral colored walls and want to add more color pizazz then consider furniture, accessories and decor as your palette for rainbow nirvana.

Here I've created a mood board to illustrate how colorful a craft room for you and the family can be with some fun and whimsical hues.  The magic of mixing and matching multiple colors will help you avoid the doldrums of a simple color palette and allow you to explore your inner color cravings.  You've heard practice makes perfect, right?  If you want to play with your own mood boards and decorate your color needful room virtually, there are a ton of great collaging sites to do so, such as Olioboard.com and Sampleboard.com.  

 

Let's play a game of eye spy.  Within this colorful craft room mood board, you'll not only find some Paint Chip Pals, you will find my latest wall art introductions of "Love Knows No Color", "Fill Your Heart With Rainbows" and "Color Outside the Lines".  All of which are available as canvas reproductions from my site and a network of 1500 boutiques nationwide.  They're my vaccination for the colorless lifestyle.

You will also spy a quick an easy DIY project which is my third cure for the color coma.  Craft your way into remission!

3) INTRODUCE COLOR THROUGH CRAFT

Create your very own Crayon Monogram Alphabet Letter.  You'll feel safe and sound playing with your childhood faves the crayon.  Arrange and rearrange them to explore your favorite combinations.  And maybe they'll inspire some paint colors.

This easy to assemble craft can personalize your art space, child's room or is a perfect gift for a beloved teacher.  All you need is some foam core or thin wood panel, crayons, a sharp knife and some hot glue.

Excuse me sir....maam, can I help you with something or bring you a tissue, you're drooling.  Welcome back from your chasing rainbows fever.  I hope my poppy, coral, greeny so you can rest color medicine helped you in your quest for a full spectrum.  

If you'd like a chance to win a Paint Chip Pal for your very own, visit my Rainbow-Tastic Holiday Blog Hop Post.  You'll find out more about these little guys, their creators and can visit more color inspiring posts by other artisans.

Purple Glitter in My Paper Cut, Thanks Justin Bieber!

Over the years, my kids have become numb to the weird and wondrous stuff that leaves my studio.  They know, with a little smile and a hug, that I'll turn the studio upside down to create whatever their aspiring art director hearts desire.  Sucker!  Well, the prince of pop, Justin Bieber was coming to town and my daughter's studio wish list was submitted for my consideration.  "Oh, Dad...I don't want to ask for too much, but do you think you can make me a T-shirt and a sign?," she asked with a smile.  "I promised my friends you would make them some too!," she slipped in at the end.  Sucker!

Cut up t-shirts

What's a dad to do?  Get busy of course!  For the t-shirts we cut up the lower part of Bieber purple t-shirts and knotted them to create a fringed look.  I had recently acquired a Silhouette cutting system, so I thought I'd put it to task cutting out her text of choice to use as a reversed stencil, which was Belieber #1.   Placing the stencil on the shirt acts as a mask for the fabric spray paint.

With a few coats of Simply Spray's stencil spray, the purple was covered.  Peeling the stencil revealed the purple shirt color underneath.

She wanted signs to catch the attention of the local radio station, who was giving away seat upgrades.  If she and her two friends each had a part of the sign then for sure they'd upgrade all three of their tickets.

For the signs, I cut out the stations logo in black foam core in two sizes.  One was covered with glue and glittered black and silver.  The other was coated in purple.  Sandwiched in between the layers, I duct taped little battery operated LED lights.  Her favorite part was using two print outs of Mr. Bieber's face as the centers of the zeros.

Decked out in their Bieber wares, holding their flashy signs did the trick!  They caught the attention of the pop star reviewing the crowd from above.

Justin Bieber gives the girls two thumbs up.

As for the seat upgrades, well... the radio station was only upgrading tickets from the upper levels to the floor, which they already had.   Oh well... they we're rewarded by catching his attention and receiving the two thumbs up from the purple pop star.

 She and her friends had a great time.   Which makes it all worthwhile.  Now, if only I could get the purple super fans to help clean up the whirlwind of glitter that's everywhere in the studio and wedged in the "blood, sweat and tears" paper cut I gave myself wrestling the lights onto the foam core.

Thank you Justin Bieber for the opportunity to bond with my girl, her friends and sport bits of purple glitter.  I guess if you can be the purple pop-star, I can be the purple glittered craft dad.

What kind of extraordinary crafty things have you created to make your kids happy?