Ideas on Wall Murals

Wall murals are a fun way to enliven a dull, boring wall. You can add a touch of your personality to your home by painting or hanging wall murals. With a little bit of creativity, a simple room can be turned into a playful, adventurous zone.

Best of all, you don't have to be an artist to decorate your walls. Just pick up any children's book or artwork to draw the inspiration. If you are a beginner, start practicing on a cardboard. Once you grow in confidence, start with the actual wall.

If you want it easy going, then you can also buy mural kits. Wall mural kits for children are readily available in the market. All you have to do is, trace and outline on the wall and then fill in color with a paintbrush. You can get good quality brushes at craft stores like Ben Franklin and Hobby Lobby. Pick up flat and round brushes for wide areas and a pointed brush for details.

As per your taste and budget, you can cover a single wall or entire room with murals. You can decorate your bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, kid's room and create all sorts of illusion with wall murals.

According to taste, trompe l'oeil and faux finish can also be used in the murals. Trompe l'oeil means, "to trick the eye". A three dimensional effect is created in this art. Windows, doors, pillars and arches can be painted in trompe l'oeil murals. You can hire a local artist to paint that for you or an artist from many of the websites dedicated to this art. You can also create a faux effect on your own. You can use stencils or stamps for this. You can use stencils to create a three dimensional effect. The more the layers, the better it will be. Depending on how you shade the objects, stencils can give the sense of perspective.

Also, there are wallpaper murals available in the market as well as on scores of Internet sites. Adhesives with guidelines come with them. You simply have to mix the adhesives and paste the panels according to instructions.

When you are in the process of deciding which wall to choose for hanging mural, decide on the one, which gets minimum amount of sun exposure, where furniture is not moved frequently. Taking this simple precaution will help your mural to stay intact for years.

You can also get a personal photograph, any illustration or artwork be converted into a mural. This type of mural is called custom mural. Many companies are doing this now a day.

Amy Thompson
To have more information about home improvement, visit-
http://www.kitchensuniverse.com/
http://www.wall-murals.info/

Native American Face Painting Ideas

The Native American tribes had many different designs for face painting. Every tribe had it's own particular design, but each person would also paint their face reflecting a personal message or a design having personal spiritual significance. Colors normally used in painting their faces were red, black, green, white and yellow. Each of these colors had a certain meaning, red was the color of war, black the color of the living, green was meant to increase the wearer's night vision, white meant peace - i.e. flying a white flag, and yellow signified death or an encounter with death. A few tribes would associate different meanings to each color, but most of them had the same meaning for each color.

Men would often paint lines on their cheeks, foreheads, and chin. And the women used mainly dots on their faces. Often the males would separate their into two parts and paint each section differently. Most of their paintings were not very elaborate, and because the colors had signified a happening or feeling they used the color to illustrate meanings.

To create your own little Indian use some of the ideas below

Half Face Design.

1st Face. Take your sponge and red paint and paint the top half of the face ending in a straight line across the nose to the middle part of each ear. Take a medium brush and paint a blue line across the face from ear to ear. Paint another line in white below the blue line. The red paint needs to come down to these two lines. For added flare paint vertical stripes on the cheek and chin in red or black.

2nd Face.

With white paint and a sponge paint the lower half of the face. The white paint should end just below the eyes. Next take black paint and a large flat brush and paint a black stripe from ear to ear across the eyes. The top of the strip should cover the eyebrows ending in line with the tip of the ears. The bottom should be straight below the eyes and then slant down and end three fourths of the way down the ear. Black paint can also be applied to the lips. With a large round brush paint two vertical red lines on each cheek. Then take a small brush and paint a small white line across the forehead, above the black paint and you're done!

For girls a small feather or two on the cheek bone looks very pretty. Start with white paint and paint the white of the feathers. The edges should be a bit rough or jagged and the end should come down to a point. The shape of the feather can also be slightly curved. Draw a thin black line in the middle of each feather and then paint the lower half of the feather black. For a more natural effect let some of the white paint show through the black. Take the white paint again and paint two short lines or ribbons attached to the end of each feather. Edge the ribbons with black paint.