Many years ago, I found this metal urn--basically, it's a 3-D wire sculpture that's slightly domed out and resembles an urn--it's not as deep as if it was an urn that was cut in half, but it does have depth. When I bought it, I had this great idea of turning it into a larger 3-D wall art piece, but never could get all of it pulled together, so I've just used it as wall art as-is.

Let me explain what I had in mind. I thought I'd start with a big primed canvas on stretchers. When I say big, I mean 24" wide x 48" or so tall. I'd add a wooden support across the back where I'd attach the urn, which measures about 17" wide, 24" high, and 4" deep. I planned to paint the canvas first, with a base color and then maybe some very bright flowers. But I wanted to have some three-dimensional flowers "in" the urn, extending out from the artwork. Now remember, I'm not really a painter, and I hadn't yet figured out how I was going to actually paint this, much less how I was going to create 3-D flowers. I thought about paper flowers, considered fabric flowers, and have been stymied on this project for probably 6 years.

But today I received a newsletter from BHG.com (Better Homes & Gardens) and there was a link to a slide show about recycled garden art. And it made me think that it's possible that I've found the answer to how to make the 3-D flowers. I'll need to ponder this a little more, but I'm pretty excited about the possibilities, thanks to Dave and BHG.com!

Several years ago (and when I say several, I mean maybe a decade ago), my nephew (now 15) was obsessed with Lego's and Fisher-Price, and his favorite incarnations of these toys were pirates, castles, knights, and dragons. He's also peeled the wallpaper off the walls of his room, which had been his nursery (sorry to air the dirty laundry, sister dear). The room really needed an update. So sister dear stripped the wallpaper and put a basecoat on the walls. And over Christmas break, we got a little nutty and did this.

As for the how we did it.

1. Rent an overhead projector or opaque projector.
2. Find a coloring book with the images you want to use.
3. Make copies of the page on transparency (for an overhead projector).
4. Buy a whole bunch of acrylic paint and brushes. And Sharpies. (Much to my Mom's horror -- "how will you ever cover that up?") Don't forget the pencils.
5. Pop the first image on the wall and determine the right size for the image. (I think ours are about 3 feet tall.) Trace it on the wall with the pencil.
6. Repeat on the other walls with the other images.
7. Paint sections as desired. It's like a coloring book on steroids!
8. Once it's dry, draw outlines and fine lines using a permanent marker.

I did the pirate ship. My sister and brother-in-law did the castle. Since we started at 8pm, my nephew was supposed to be sleeping in the other room. But every once in a while, as we discussed what color certain things should be, we'd hear this little voice reminding us that the knights should be red and black, the banners should be different colors, etc. So finally, since he wasn't sleeping, we brought him in to act as color consultant.

I ran across these photos the other day in my organizing binge. The photo I'm missing is the one of the dragonslaying. They're still on the walls of his bedroom, mostly covered up with posters and furniture now. At some point, we'll have to paint over them, I know. And I'm okay with that. This was a very fun project to do, with a lot of laughter, though not at all as artistic as real mural painting. But it's a great way to add fun artwork to a child's room.