DIY "Life is Better at the Beach" Wall Art

It's Monday again and another week is in full swing! We've got a busy week ahead of us so I may not end up posting on Friday since we have plans for the long weekend.

We had a great weekend at our house. I took an early walk around the neighborhood on Saturday morning because the weather was so gorgeous, hit some yard sales, and then crawled back under the covers for some quiet reading time while my husband and son were at the grocery store.

Yesterday we got out the inflatable kiddie pool, and sat in the shade with popsicle with the kiddo splashed. We worked on one crafting project together, but I tried to take it pretty easy since I hurt my back before the weekend started (victim of domestic horseplay with the child). I think he's almost too big for me to roughhouse with anymore (or at least not without causing bodily injury to myself).

Summer has definitely arrived here in Central Florida, and I'm finding myself missing the beach. My little sister turned 26 today, so I decided to tap into that feeling and make her a gift with a beachy vibe - she loves the beach even more than I do, and now that she's living in Maryland she doesn't get her Florida beach fix much anymore.

I grabbed a piece of ivory cardstock that I already had and went to town on it with my son's watercolors. I blended and mixed a bunch of colors together to create an abstract water and sunset inspired background. I didn't want it to be very detailed or planned out so I just brushed on a few shades of blue accented here and there with almost every other color on the palette.

Then I searched Pinterest for a beachy quote - the best one I could find was "Life is better at the beach" which pretty sums up my sister's personality to a T. I typed it up quickly on the computer (using Word) and printed it out.

After I figured out where I wanted the words to appear, I rubbed sidewalk chalk on the back of the paper.

Carefully re-position the paper, and use a pencil to outline the typed letters.

The words will be transferred to your page in chalk. It doesn't actually come out this dark, but I altered the picture so they were easier to see.

All you have to do next is grab a small paintbrush and fill in the letters!

Super easy, right?

I used the same process to add some seashell details.

Voila! Easy to frame for display. You can even use a chip-clip to hang it up in your cubical at work - which is probably what she'll do :)

Today I'm partying with

Debbiedoo's Newbie Party
Brassy Apple's Make It Monday
Tatertots & Jello