Simple DIY Animal Canvases

I wanted to add some more color and some personality to Lydia's room, but wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. After playing around with the layout of the room and finally being satisfied with how things were, I was left with a large empty wall that needed some attention. Lydia's room is tiny, so when we painted it I chose a very light purple. Sometimes it's hard to tell that it's not white, but overall I'm happy with the color. However, I wanted to incorporate some more colors.

Since Lydia loves animals, I thought those would be a fun addition. I finally decided on very simple animal silhouettes with colorful backgrounds. The hardest part was deciding which animals to use. Had I used all of her favorites, the wall would have been fully covered.

Because the wall is so big, I knew I wanted large canvases to help fill the space. I bought 16x20 canvases at Hobby Lobby and used acrylic paint to paint each one a solid color (except for the purple--I didn't realize until I opened it and saw really thick paint that I'd actually bought enamel for glass and ceramic. This is what happens when you're shopping at Hobby Lobby with three kids).

I also had to tone down the green and yellow, but unfortunately I went a little too light on the green and didn't have any more. I added a tiny bit of dark green and called it good.

For the animals, my initial idea was to cut stencils with my Silhouette, trace them onto the canvas and then paint (I would have done the solid colors last had I gone this route). However, I realized that it probably wouldn't come out very crisp and even, and I really wanted the finished product to look nice.

Option two (which almost worked) was white contact paper. I tested it first with the pig, which came out great and stuck beautifully. Unfortunately, the next two (the dog and cat) were super wrinkled and wouldn't stick. I suspect it's because the contact paper was from when we lined the shelves in our old kitchen...4 years ago. Fresh contact paper would probably have worked fine.

Finally, I decided just to use cardstock. A few cuts on my Silhouette, some glue and they were ready to hang. Lydia is quite thrilled, and I'm pleased with how they turned out.