Fall-Inspired Ombre Art

Happy Thursday everyone. I hope you are having a great week.  Little A is in the process of getting his first tooth so it has been a little exhausting around here. I just wish he would wake up one morning with a mouthful of teeth but I’m pretty sure this is not going to happen!

This week I decided to tackle a little art project to add something fall-esque above our fireplace mantel. There were a few things I was hoping to accomplish in this art piece: 1) it would be fall-related (duh); 2) it would have warm orange or red tones; and 3) it would somehow bring in the Ombre effect as I am currently in love with that.

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So here is what I came up with:

Here is what you will need for this project:

1) A canvas

2) Paint colors of choice (I opted to use  Martha Stewart’s adobo and acorn acrylic paints). I also used some white acrylic paint.

3) Paint brushes

4) Any fall-related shape

5) Painters tape

6) A ruler or measuring stick

7) A few cups or plates to mix paint

8) Paint sealer

So here are the steps I used. I had a 16 x 20 canvas around the house so I began by painting it white. I next found a leaf stencil I liked online and printed it as big as I could make it.

I cut it out and traced two leafs on to my canvas.  Next I measured out four-inch wide stripes using a measuring stick (sorry I forgot to take a picture of this step).

Starting at the top of the canvas, I applied painters tape to the bottom of the first stripe and applied the paint.  I just used a small paint brush around the leaf part.  Once that paint dried, I moved on to the next stripe down. I added a few drops of my acorn color to the adobo color and mixed it until I was happy with the color. My goal was to get lighter as I moved down each stripe to accomplish the Ombre effect I was going for. I then added more painters tape and painted the second stripe.

I continued with this process all the way down the canvas, each time adding a little more acorn color to the adobo color.  I didn’t get over board with the amount of acorn I added because I wanted the Ombre effect to be subtle yet noticeable.  I took my a total of 3 hours to do because I waited for each stripe to dry before moving on. Waiting also helped me see how the paint color was drying so I would know how much acorn color to add.

The last step was to apply a sealer over the whole canvas.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I may try to add another canvas with a gold Ombre effect and a different leaf pattern to fill out the mantel a bit more.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for reading.

~Kara

Linking to:

Happy Hour

DIY Showoff