Our Harborside Mansion Build: Paintings Big and Small

I have some incredibly creative friends who found their way through the recent, terrible, indoor-only weather by creating some really fun crafts!! One of them had her dog "paint" for her, so I got our dog in on it, too. Here's what he made for My Girl:

And, here's what he made for My Boy:

But, how'd he do it?! And, what on earth does it have to do with The House? Ohhh ... hang tight because you're in for a treat!

To create the piece, take a blank canvas, and squirt acrylic paint on it in blobs. No neatness or particular planning required (except to leave a spot for 'signing' the work; I messed that up on My Girl's which resulted in a schmeary signature). Then, carefully slide the canvass into a big, plastic bag. Leave the end open because an air pocket will prevent the painting. Pre-treat the side of the bag facing up with something like peanut butter that your dog wants very badly to lick a lot. Tape down the corners of the bag to the floor if you don't want it pushed all over the room. Finally, let your pooch go to town licking to spread the paint! The signature part is up to you. My friend's efforts required both a bath and a change of clothes 😂. Our dog is quite good with the signature, but it takes me about 20 minutes to get all of the paint out of his pads and fur to keep it off the couch.

Given that much of the inspiration for decorating The House comes from my own family, I had to have replicant paintings on display! So, I blobbed the mini canvasses ...

and, I put them both in a quart bag. I taped the backs of them to the inside of the bag itself so they wouldn't slide around too much inside of it. As soon as I put the bag on the floor, our dog immediately abandoned his own food and came over toward me. He knew what time it was! Art Time!!

"I'm sooooo ready!! *slurrrrp!*

After I got it taped to the floor, the artist went to work!

"All hail peanut butter! Down with kibble!"

And, with that, The House has two new masterpieces! This one is across from the little girl's room ...

... while this one is in the boy's room!

Both of my own kids chose colors that reflect something about them. My Girl intentionally chose berry tones to go with a space she is intentionally decorating. My Boy's colors were selected specifically to reflect those that remind him of one of his all-time favorite movies, Toy Story (he definitely believed he was Buzz Lightyear when he was a child!). And, this worked very well to go along with the decoration I finally figured out how to hang in that room of The House! Here it is:

This is a picture of a large mural I painted in his room when he was a kid. The mural itself was 7 feet by 4.5 feet, and I had the best time painting it! I thought it would be a fun addition to the boy's room, so I printed out a copy of the picture on a piece of regular ol' paper and treated it with micro glaze to keep it from smearing. I then adhered the picture to a piece of card stock, using a tape runner with permanent adhesive, to give it some durability. I then sat with that piece on my work table for about a year as I've debated so many ways to stick it to the wall. I hoped to do so in such a way that I could one day remove it, if desired, without having to scrape it off. I conveyed my conundrum to my crafty friend Cindy who suggested using a tape running with repositionable adhesive, and it's like a light of DUH went off in my head! She's so wise.

This weekend, I got just what I wanted at Michael's, and I was so happy to finally put the "mural" up in the room!

I made sure the adhesive got all the way to the edges of the paper, so I'm hopeful this stays put for a long time!! I took this opportunity to do a little resetting-up in the room. For instance, I recently discovered the basketball net in a box of Legos I was rummaging. So, I reworked the back of it to hang on the bed. It's pretty perfect!