This was my first piece – using that German newspaper that listed nearby cities that we often visited, restaurants that we enjoyed, fests that we attended, and other current events that we were a part of… It’s something I’ll cherish forever.

Once we relocated back to the United States, our next duty station was still a world away from “home.” We were living outside of Buffalo, NY and I decided that although it’s not an exotic country, I’d like to document our time spent there as well! So, the tradition has continued…now every state or country that we may be moved to, I will always collect a newspaper and create a canvas to capture these places in time.

I’m going to take you step by step on how this is done if you are interested in creating one of these for yourself! Especially for us military families, I think this is a neat way to show off all of the exciting places we have been!

Supplies:

• Newspaper
• Canvas
• Mod Podge®
• Thick paintbrush (or foam brush)
• Black acrylic paint and/or black permanent marker

Directions:

• I use a mix of pictures and articles.
• I look for different types and sizes of font for variety.
• I search for article titles that are meaningful to me.
• I look for names of cities that I have been to, school events from my children’s school district, and anything else that will ring a bell later as I look back on my artwork.
• You can cut things out from the newspaper but I prefer the look of the uneven edges from tearing it with my hands.

• Tear pieces out of your newspaper that are appealing to you.
• Place them around on your canvas until you are satisfied with the way it looks. Layer them, angle them, play with them!
• Use Mod Podge® just as you would glue to fasten these newspaper clippings to your canvas.
• Once you have glued everything down, flip the canvas over and use a flat edge (credit card, etc.) to push out any air bubbles.

• Cover the entire canvas with another layer of Mod Podge®.
  • It appears milky white as you lay it down but it will dry clear and create a protective layer to make your art work easy to wipe down and it helps preserve these memories for you for years to come!
  • Let this dry completely before the final step.

• For my German newspaper canvas above, I drew birds on a telephone pole. For my French and Czech Republic paper I painted birds flocking together on a huge tree. For this New York newspaper canvas I decided to make two love birds with some branches and leaves just framing them in.
• You can freehand or sketch any animals, plants, flowers, skylines, etc. to create your black silhouettes. Then, use paint or black markers to color in those images.

Notes:

• A bonus with the top coat of Mod Podge® that you applied is that it makes mistakes easy to wipe off – simply use a wet paper towel to smear off paint before it dries and try again.

I hope this inspires you to start collecting papers along your military journey. Then, get creative and see what you can create! Happy Crafting!

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My youngest wanted her name displayed in her room and I came up with a handful of ways to do this… but the easiest, by far, was this Tape Art craft. By using tape to block off the areas of a picture that you don’t want colored, and by allowing a child to go crazy with a blank canvas to fill in any way that they please, this leaves incredible opportunity for wonderful imagination! “Staying in the lines” is NOT a part of this craft so little ones are free to create a beautiful masterpiece with paint splatters, finger painting, globbing, dotting, stroking, smearing… all without any frustration. And it’s a great chance to discuss mixing colors and the different textures created by different types of painting tools (foam brushes vs. coarse brushes vs. fine brushes vs. painting with finger tips, etc!)

For this craft you will need a canvas, painters tape, paint, and paintbrushes. A cup of water for rinsing and paper towels for wiping spills will come in handy as well.

Step 1) Use the painters tape to write a name or to create a design that will show through the finished painting.

Step 2) Paint the canvas any way you wish!

We layered, blended, and flicked paint drops everywhere. And I do mean everywhere.

Step 3) Once the paint is dry, remove the tape and hang your creation!

Kylie is so proud of this painting that she makes sure to show it off to everyone that enters her room. She did it “all by herself” and that is what is most important. She is such an artiste!

Think of the possibilities with tape and a canvas! We made a snowflake painting last winter using this technique – check that out here for a little inspiration! What will you create with your Tape Art?

For more ideas on room decoration… check out Kylie’s 3D Butterfly Wall – a fun DIY project!

For more fun family crafts, follow me at MyMilitarySavings.com!

One of my other favorite things (besides raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens… ha) is simple craft projects that look chic and trick you into thinking that it took a lot more effort than it really did. It’s like finding a fantabulous outfit from the thrift store that cost you $10 but you wear it and feel like a million. Ya know?! This Birch Tree Canvas is exactly that… an insanely easy craft that I think looks store-worthy once it’s finished. I’m pretty sure I would have bought this if I found it at my favorite craft spot and didn’t know any better, that it can simply be recreated! So. The cat is out of the bag. Save your moola and craft this up yourself!

The trick to EASY birch trees is an old credit card. Or ID card. Or whatever card you don’t need anymore. You use this to scrape black paint along the edges of your trees. Bam. Whoda thunk?? Stay with me here… I’ll explain it all.

This is what you’ll need for this project:

• A canvas (I used an 18″x24″)
• Painters tape or masking tape
• An old credit card
• Acrylic paint in colors of your choice (for the background) and black (for the trees)

The how to:

1) Place tape down to create your tree trunks. Stick two pieces side by side to create thicker trunks, place some at a slant, and even crisscross one or two to add a little depth to the picture. Turn your canvas over once this is done and smooth it out firmly to make sure the tape is adhered completely at the edges.

2) Paint the background of your picture. You may choose to use bold colors, a pigment that matches the color scheme in your room, or a neutral tone. I chose a very light grey but decided to do a reverse ombré at the bottom with darker grey colors.

I had grey acrylic paint but decided that I wanted a much lighter shade for my background so I added white to the grey to create the perfect color. To create the reverse ombré I added black to the plain grey acrylic paint to mix the darkest shade that I wanted to have at the very bottom of my canvas. I dabbed this dark grey color at the very bottom and blended it upwards with a dry paintbrush. I then added a touch of white to that dark grey paint to lighten it a bit and I painted this color right above the dark grey on my canvas, again blending upwards with a dry brush and blending down as well. I added a touch of white twice more and repeated that process until I had created the look I wanted. This reverse ombré reminds me of peering through the forest and seeing the sunlight pierce the sky towards the top of the canvas, but as you look deeper into the forest and lower towards the ground the light diminishes and it is more damp, cold, and earthy. Man, I can almost smell it. Tree hugger here, I told ya!

3) Once your background has dried, remove the strips of tape. If you crisscrossed any, only remove the top strip at this point.

4) Begin painting with your credit card! The fun part Before attempting this on your canvas I would suggest a few practice strokes on a piece of paper to understand how exactly this works. It all depends on how hard you press, how much paint you apply, how far you smear, etc. It’s simple, don’t get me wrong, but practice never hurts. As you see in the photo below, apply paint to the edge of your card and then place the card straight down on your canvas at the edge of your tree trunk. Then turn the card sideways and smear inwards.

Play around with the paint. If you add a lot to your card, you will end up with thicker smudges. You will want to alternate between both thick and thin paint to get a realistic birch tree look.

5) If you had crisscrossed any tape to give the appearance of a tree resting behind another tree, you should still have that last piece of tape on your canvas as I described in step 3. Once all of your tree trunks have been painted you will then remove that final tape strip and paint it as well. This will become the tree trunk that is farthest in front.

Step 6) Once your paint has dried, you will have a beauty similar to this! Now you can stop here or you can choose to add a little decorative heart like I did, perhaps with your name or your and your spouse’s initials? You know, like a carving in a tree that young sweethearts tend to do.

I actually already have a tree painting with my husband’s and my initials (but it isn’t a birch tree… aha!) so I decided to add a heart with our anniversary date instead. I traced it with pencil on the largest area of tree trunk that was unpainted and I used a small paintbrush and gold acrylic paint to cover it.

NOW my masterpiece was finished!

Let’s be honest – I never would have thought to paint trees with a card until I came across Angela Anderson’s blog (view it here). I know artist knives exist for similar reasons of just slabbing paint on a canvas (like, to add dimension to a mountain or something… google Bob Ross, you’ll see what I’m sayin’!) but this handy dandy card technique had me in awe. Now the possibilities are endless… I have so many ideas fluttering through my head! Stay tuned and perhaps I’ll be sharing more soon!

For more DIY projects and fun family crafts, visit MyMilitarySavings.com!