From Ordinary to Extraordinary

Black and White Found Art
Painted in bold but simple shades of black and white, everyday trinkets in your home can take on the look of modern, abstract art pieces. From an old pair of scissors to a long forgotten bracelet charm, freshen up ordinary objects with a coat of paint, and then frame them in playful compositions for a unique new look.

To keep your party prep quick and easy, print our Found Object Art Shopping List.

• Step 1: Objects Found
  Ask your friends to peruse their home for small objects that they don’t mind painting and swapping. Recommend that they comb through kitchen and desk drawers, closets and bookshelves for pieces with strong silhouettes. Eccentric items are welcome, but because you are painting them in a single bold color, more ordinary, familiar forms work nicely—think kitchen items, letters and numbers, puzzle pieces, buttons, charms and so on.
  
  Before your party, purchase inexpensive black or white frames for each of your guests, or kindly ask that each person bring their own. Use a standard picture frame for light, flat objects, but if mounting heavier, more dimensional pieces, a recessed shadowbox is ideal.
  
  

  Tip: Together, black and white makes a clean, bold statement, but to add an unexpected pop of color, consider purchasing frames in bright hues like fire engine red and royal blue. If you already have a set of frames, but they’re not the right colors for your purposes simply prime and then paint your desired hue.

• Step 2: A Fresh Coat of Paint
  Collect your guests’ found objects and lay them out on a large work surface lined with newspaper. Use a black acrylic spray paint in a matte finish to evenly coat the objects, then let dry. Once dry and ready for framing, let your guests swap objects to give their artwork an eclectic, mixed-and-matched effect.
  
  

  Tip: For a different look, try painting all of your objects white, and then mount on black paper or poster board. To complement a pop of color in your frame, try painting a few of the objects in your piece to match.

• Step 3: The Framing Touch
  With your frame and objects selected, cut a piece of white paper or poster board to the size of the frame. Have fun with your friends as you each design your composition. Play with your items to tell a story and present the objects in an unexpected way—perhaps you position letters and numbers across the page in a meandering form to create words, or couple together charms to represent important people in your life. Unsure about your design? Try sketching it out in pencil first, and then use a hot glue gun to adhere the pieces in place.
  
  

  Tip: Get rid of any stringy hot glue messes around your objects with a hair dryer.

  Tip: Consider mounting your objects against other black and white paper items, like a page torn from an old book.

• Step 4: Mount and Admire With your objects dry and in place, use mounting hardware, available at Lowe’s, to hang your frame or shadowbox on the wall. Because shadowboxes are thicker and freestanding, you can perch your artwork on coffee tables and bookshelves, too.

Tip: Instead of hanging your beautiful new artwork in your own home, offer it to a close friend or family member as a truly one-of-a-kind homemade gift.

This month, it’s so simple—and fun—for you and your favorite friends to transform everyday items into artistic, inspired works of art.

Clean-Up:
Crafting with paint and glue is sure to result in a few spills. When protective newspaper doesn’t do the trick, give your work surfaces a thorough clean with Mr. Clean ^® Multi-Surfaces Spray with Febreze ^® Freshness . It combines the grime-fighting power of Mr. Clean with the freshness of Febreze to go tough on project messes.