Make it Monday // 10 Minute Pantone Color of the Year Wall Art DIY

We've reached the second month of the year & I haven't done a Pantone post yet which surprises me.  Why? Because any & every shade of purple really gets me.  It's literally my favorite color ever.  No question.  There was one time in middle school though where I wanted Tangerine to be my favorite color - however I will never cheat on you again purple, I promise.

I've been in a little bit of a DIY rut lately so again this past weekend I busted out some paint & threw it on canvas.  I got these little squeegee type things from a campaign with Martha Stewart crafts a while ago but hadn't used them.  They sat, unloved, in my basket of painting tools until Saturday and boy do I regret that!  They are super fun to use & make abstract paintings rather quickly.  This is why I called this the 10 minute wall art DIY.  I'm not even sure if it took my 10 minutes - it might have been less!  Here's how you do it:

Supplies: assorted paint colors (I used acrylic paints in the purple family + some yellow + some white),  this Martha Stewart Squeegee or an old credit card (or a thick piece of card board might work though you may need a few), canvas, hair dryer to speed the drying process, brushes if your paint is too thick to squeeze, 10 minutes or less.

I got this canvas at Big Lot's of all places!  Whenever I see crazy stuff in Big Lot's I buy it.  This canvas actually came from a Big Lot's in Williamsburg 2 years ago - yep, it made the trek up to Indiana.  Never get rid of art supplies.  Anyway, start by dotting a few dots of paint over your canvas.  I actually surprised myself - you don't need a lot of dots!  The less you use the better the colors show.  So just dot your paint in different colors at different places on the canvas.

Start from the top left (or right) side & with your squeegee, squeegee the paint down.  Start all the way to one side, on the edge & all the way at the top.  It helps to hold the canvas with your free hand.  Once you reach the bottom of your canvas move the squeegee up back to the top & an inch (ish) over.  Continue to squeegee down until you've covered your whole canvas.  If you find that you've reached the other side & need to go back over places, just place the squeegee & drag.  It creates a beautiful blend of colors.  The uncontrollable nature of this project really inspires me!

I definitely thought that I would have needed more paint to get the look I wanted but boy I was surprised that I didn't need a lot!  Now run the canvas upstairs (or wherever your bathroom is with your hair dryer) & dry that bad boy for a minute or so.  If you're counting you've probably only been working for about 2 or 3 minutes, so the dryer might take 5, which gives you 5 more minutes to add the contrasting paint.  You want the paint to dry before you move onto the next step because you want to create defined vertical & horizontal colors.

Run your canvas downstairs (or where ever you were painting) & turn your canvas 90 degrees from the original orientation.  You are now going to add much fewer dots to the canvas than what you did before.  This time with your squeegee start at different places on your canvas.  I ran my squeegee down one side, half way down on another side, half way up, in the middle, etc to get a random look.  This time you're just adding movement & balance to your painting.  Should take no longer than a minute but at this point you can be a bit more careful & precise - if you want to add more color here add another dot, etc.  But don't fill it up all the way like you did before though, (unless that's your jam, then go ahead).

And you're done.  Go over it with the hair dryer if you're going to hang it right now & you won't get paint on your walls.  Can you believe this took less than 10 minutes?  I can't. Seriously, I surprised myself!

Hope you enjoy!

xoxo, Moe

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