Ocean Sunset Painted Pallet Art and Summer Mantle

True confessions on unOriginal Mom today:  I am NOT artistic.  I desperately wish I was, but I’m not.  At all.  I like coloring inside the lines, tracing things, printing a sign out on the computer instead of hand lettering it.  Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I started this blog (and named it unOriginal Mom) in the first place – because I don’t think of myself as very talented when it comes to the creative side of things.  That doesn’t mean I don’t love crafting – I am easily inspired by great ideas when I see them, and I love following a tutorial to create neat things.  Usually I’ll end up with some creative inspiration along the way that puts my own twist on things, and sometimes I end up going in a completely different direction and coming up with something almost completely original.  But it’s rare that I come up with a brilliantly creative idea out of the blue.  And I cannot draw or paint to save my life!  But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.

It all started with a discarded pallet-type thing in our backyard.  It was there when we moved in, I think an old air conditioner pad or something.  But I knew from the moment I saw it that I wanted to paint it!  So I hosed it off and sanded it down, then put it in the garage while I gained the courage to attempt something artistic.

Of course, there was inspiration for this project.  I discovered this beautiful painted sunset pallet art from Lake Girl Paints on Pinterest – she even has a great tutorial on how to create one of your own.  She has made several different kinds of ocean art like this, and they are all stunning!

I knew I couldn’t just jump in and paint something and have it turn out like that…but I thought, what the heck, I’ll give it a try and see what happens!  So one lovely summer afternoon at the beginning of nap time, I gathered my supplies on the patio table and set to work.

It was really pretty therapeutic to paint.  I didn’t have much rhyme or reason to my strategy…I just followed some of the recommended color ideas from Lake Girl Paints and dove in.

I even got artistically adventurous and mixed some of my own paint colors on a paper plate!

I love the card stock technique from Lake Girl Paints – it really added some neat texture!

As I sat there, watching this art emerge from my own paintbrush, I felt an immense sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction.  I still don’t think I’m much of an artist (and I know that this painting really isn’t that good), but I discovered something about myself in the process of painting this ocean sunset.  Maybe there is a little bit of an artist hiding deep down inside…under a rock…at the bottom of a deep ocean.  But there is something there!

In case you’d like to try your own, here are the colors I used for the sand:

The water:

And the sunset:

My “masterpiece” is now the centerpiece to our summertime mantle – and I smile each time I see it!

And I added some fun elements to the beach-themed mantle, including making dock pilings out of pool noodles, following this tutorial from Miss Kopy Kat.

And I used my Silhouette sketch pens and this free sketch file from Clever Someday to make this scripture art.

They are a great complement to my painted pallet art!

I know it’s nothing spectacular, but I am pretty proud of it. :-)

So let me be your cheerleader for a minute – what is your “pallet painting?”  Something that you don’t think you can do?  DO IT!  Step out of the box, and try something new.  What have you got to lose?  I think you’ll be surprised at what you find inside yourself!

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