DIY Wall Decor - Watercolor Painting and Paper Flowers

My DIY wall decor. Including the spaces in between each piece, the size is approximately 32 inches x 20 inches.

Our wall in the dining area was bare and so boring. I had always made a mental note that I'd check out some paintings or framed poster to put there but I always forget whenever we go out. I was planning to make a mail organizer because our bills and fast food delivery brochures and flyers are cluttered atop our fridge so I bought some supplies to make one which include illustration boards. Then I thought that the boards are big enough to make my own wall decor, so I decided to make one first, I'll just make my mail organizer next.

These are what I used: two 15" x 20" illustration boards, metal ruler, cutter, pencil, mixing plate, brushes, and a watercolor set which is an affordable student grade set for only Php 220 (around 5$). 

I cut each board in half, vertically, to make four pieces of 7.5" x 20" boards. Then we painted each piece in different color. 

With my little helper. She enjoyed painting a lot, that even her clothes, skin, and the mat have paint all over after our activity. I just finished the painting to cover all spaces, and added another layer of watercolor. 

I painted in different directions to get some effects, but it still looked plain to me. I googled easy ways to make special effects using watercolor and I found this YouTube channel, Art Food Kitty - Kelly Eddington, with great watercolor tutorials. The method using salt is the easiest for me so I tried it. Good thing my husband still uses rock salt instead of the finer iodized salt. 

Since I already have layers of watercolor, I just wet the surface with water using a flat brush, and sprinkled salt on the wet part. I do this on a small part at a time to be sure that I'll be able to sprinkle salt on the surface before it dries. The salt absorbs the watercolor pigment so the space beneath the salt crystal and the area around it appear lighter giving a nice effect.

I did the same to the other boards with different colors and this is how they all look after the process. Though this isn't the usual result of the salt method, haha, I'm happy with it. Anyway, the watercolor, paper used, salt, and the wetness all affect the result, so I went wrong with any of those, or maybe on all of them, lol.

So, now that I have the background of my wall decor, the next process is to make the paper flowers using card stock, and I chose white orchid to be the main feature on my project. This paper orchid printable template and tutorial from Lia Griffith is the one I used. 

The template has three parts that make the whole flower. I looked up a picture of a real orchid for the color of the center part and then I painted it with watercolor. I rolled the sides a bit to give it a 3D effect before I glued them all together.

I made several more of this and glued them on the colored boards and arranged them like they're all connected to a long branch.

I just used a double sided tape to mount all the parts on the wall, that way I can easily remove it when I already have a nicer piece to replace it.  That's how it looks like. I'm happy with the finished project and it gives me a good feeling that what's on our wall is something I made myself with the help of my little girl. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this and you can try making one yourself, or any other wall art you can think of. It's our wall, right? We can do whatever we want with it, lol. Thank you for dropping by!