Artwork for cheeeeeeeap!

We have a lot of wall space in our house...it's kind of obnoxious.  Therefore, I am on a never ending mission (so it seems) to fill these empty spaces for as little monies (yes, I said that) as possible.  Because let's face it, when you have a family, decorations come last on the list of importance :)

Anywho, I've had these canvases sitting around for a while and knew I needed to do SOMETHING with them.  I've tried several times to use them and always ended up hating the idea and/or concept.

So I was in Pier 1 the other day, making mental note of things in there and how I would be able to make/buy them for cheaper, when I came across these lovely guys!

They were place mats of a burlap type material and there were only two...AND they were on clearance! Sweet!  I didn't know how much on clearance until I bought them and they came out to be a dollar a piece! I just love a good deal :D

Well, I brought them home and immediately went to tracking down the canvases that had been the result of many discouraging projects, determined that THIS time, the project would be a success! (the canvas is actually painted light blue...once again, the result of another failed project)

I started out by cutting/ripping out the thread sewed around the border so the place mat would be bigger and lie flat.  Then I took the smaller of the canvases and stapled the place mat around the canvas.  Didn't think of this until after the fact, but since the canvas was painted light blue, I probably should have done something about that, like paint it white...alright, alright, maybe the real reason I didn't do it was because I was impatient and in a hurry!

After stapling on both the place mats, I took the two larger canvases that I had and got out some of our leftover brown paint we used in our house.  Not sure if you're supposed to paint canvas with latex paint but...I did!  Once the paint had dried (or was semi dry...once again, I'm impatient!), I stapled the smaller canvas onto the larger canvas and voila! ..................er.....

..........actually....I hated it!  Seriously, another failed project?! I couldn't believe it! I just couldn't stand the way the textured place mat looked against the flat, ugly, brown canvas.  I knew it needed something else...or it needed to be taken apart altogether :(

And enter Ralph Lauren Faux Technique Glaze to the rescue!! Yes, that same wonderful can of glaze I got for one dollar weeks before!

I painted the glaze on (side note: if you ever do a project like this...glaze the canvas BEFORE attaching the smaller canvas...saves loads of time) and then using an old t-shirt rag, I twisted and rubbed it around until I got the desired look I was going for.

Let's try this again...Voila!!

I looooove the way it turned out! (I don't know why the burlap looks so shiny in these pictures because in real life it's not)

Finally, a successful project with those stinkin' canvases!

To break the cost down, I already had the canvases on hand (for well over a year or so and were originally bought at half price), along with the paint from our house and the glaze (1 DOLLA!) had already been bought as well...so technically my only expense in making these were the place mats...that's right, TWO dollars for this wall art!! Love it!