Lansdowne Life

Elise’s Room: Low- or no-cost artwork

by Erin Heaton

I thought I’d share some of the low-cost or no-cost pieces of artwork in Elise’s room. (This is my last post about her room for now. I promise.)

The shadowbox house was a $3 Goodwill find. Strangely, I went into the store that day specifically looking for a shadowbox and I walked out with this cutie. It was a little dingy, so I painted it white and stapled some colorful scrapbook paper to the backs of the openings.

I found the dog cutout at my parent’s house. It was originally part of a wooden sign that had broken, and they were ready to trash it. It was already painted black and had the screw eyes on the top. All I did was Mod Podge a piece of scrapbook paper to the front and tie on a ribbon to hang it up.
 

This vintage bingo ball sculpture was a high-school era creation of mine. My dad brought home the set of worn out bingo balls, and this is what I came up with. It never really had a home before, but the primary colors suited her room perfectly. I re-glued a couple of the balls that had come loose over the years and good as new.
These circle paintings above the closet door were sections from a larger painting I did six or seven years ago. It was a loose doodley type painting on unstretched canvas, so I cut out the best parts and put them in some simple frames I had on hand.

I made the paper ball garland the week before I had Elise. I wanted to hang something above her crib that was festive and still very lightweight (in case of earthquake). So there I was, nine months pregnant, sitting on the floor cutting out paper circles. Took forever with a cumbersome pregnant belly, but totally worth it. I think it’s one of the happiest things in her room.

I made these Mod Podge photos of Dan and myself pre-Elise, and thought watching over the crib was a good place for them.

 

The mama robin illustrations were part of a set of classroom sequence cards I found at a flea market for like $1.50. I matted them on some orange construction paper and put them in some frames I had. Super quick and super cheap.

Comments

  1. Nicole says

    I love everything in room. It looks so happy. Every post about her room I’ve looked for details on the paper ball garland. It looks easy enough, but how about a little tutorial?

  2. jodi says

    I think I was with you when you bought the robin cards. I even remember us talking about how they would look cute in a nursery.

  3. Erin says

    Thanks, Nicole. I will think about doing a tutorial soon. It’s kind of a tedious and time-consuming project, so I’d like to make one with a purpose in mind. I made Elise’s before I had a blog, so I don’t have any progress photos. Here’s a tutorial for making the balls on Design Sponge:

    http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/12/diy-wednesdays-paper-ball-ornament.html

    Jodi, you were with me at the flea market! Now if I could think of something to do with the rest of the cards. The others are not as cute as the robins.