News Flash / paint by number

Herbie's Garage - The Disney Back Story

THE BACK STORY to this very special mural. 
This particular mural was designed for a recent car-themed fundraising event for the Ryman Arts Organization that was started in honor of Herbie Ryman.
Who is Herbie Ryman?
Herbie Ryman was the very talented illustrator that Walt Disney came to on a Friday and asked him to do an illustration for him. Herbie said, "Sure, let's talk next week". Walt said "No, I need it by Monday". So they spent the next 48 hours together - Walt telling Herbie all of his ideas and Herbie putting them all together in beautiful illustration. This illustration was the very first image of the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Walt took that very illustration to the bank (literally) that Monday to ask for funding for his soon-to-be theme park we have all come to know and love - Disneyland!!
The rest is history.
The Ryman Arts Organization continues to this day providing free art classes, mentoring and scholarships for a select and very talented group of mostly low income high school students at Otis College of Art and Design and California State Fullerton.
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Create an Easy Circus Tent Ceiling

Creating a circus tent ceiling mural is really rather easy. Now you can give your kids a fun, colorful room and make their room the envy of the neighborhood!

Step 1. On your ceiling draw a line or snap a chalk line from corner to corner to create your center point
Step 2. Take a 12" diameter paper plate and cut it in half to create a half circle for your scalloped edge. You can also trace a 12" diameter circle onto a piece of cardboard and cut that in half.
Step 3. Place the paper plate agains the top of the wall in the corner with the flat edge up against the ceiling. Trace around the bottom of the plate to create a scallop. Slide the plate to the right until the left side meets up with the right side of the previously traced scallop. Continue sliding and tracing until you have a scalloped edge all the way across the wall. Repeat on remaining walls. 
 
Alternate Method: Tie one end of a piece of string to a nail. Tie the other end to a pencil making sure the distance between the two is 12". Place the pencil at the very top of the wall in the corner of the room. Place the nail to the right of the pencil up against ceiling and pull it taut giving you the 12" distance. Then, while holding the nail firmly in place draw the scallop with the pencil while keeping the string taut. Continue across the wall.
Step 4. Draw a pencil line from the intersection of the scallop to the center point on your ceiling. Continue all the way around the room. Then you can choose a couple of colors and paint every other stripe/scallop a different color. 
Murphey's Law - hopefully your walls are in 12" increments - such as 10' x 12' or 11' x 13'. If they are - you lucked out big time and will have a perfectly striped circus tent!
If your walls are something like 1'-6" or 12'-3" you will have to adjust the size of the scallops on each wall so you don't end up with a super skinny or super wide stripe. You can add a tiny bit more or lest in the corners of the room and then add "curtains" in the corners to camouflage the difference. You could add real curtains or you could use our Just Curtains Wall Mural to keep the hand-painted wall mural effect going. 
NOTE: If you would prefer different colors - that's easy!
There are only five colors in this mural. Three for the curtains and two for the bows. For the curtains you need a base color for the curtains, a lighter shade of that color for the highlights, and a darker shade for the shadows. For the bows you need a base color and a darker shade for the shadows. That's it!
For this and many other creative ideas go to:
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Take your next coloring project to the next level!

Coloring books are fun and easy, and even quite therapeutic, but who is going to see your hard work in a dinky little coloring book? Why not show off your talent?

We say - Go BIG and go HOME and paint a GIANT Paint-by-Number wall mural where your hard work and creativity can be enjoyed by all. And what's a better place to start than with your kids room wall decor - then you can work up to doing your bedroom.

We've got you covered. Most of our murals are designed to fit onto an 8' tall wall with a variety of designs and varying widths from 1' wide up to 18' wide.

Change the mood in a room and set the scene for your little pirate with our Ahoy Ye Matey! mural. Go really big with our Forest Friends wall mural - all 18 feet of it! Make a wild statement with our Zebra Stripes or a bold statement with our Paisley MuralOr you can make it soft, subtle & sophisticated, like our Bamboo Silhouette or add a bit of humor with our Shark Doorhugger!

 

And it's SO easy!Just TAPE the pattern to the wall, mindlessly TRACE the design, remove the  pattern & carbon paper, and then PAINT inside the lines like a giant coloring book.

No decisions or talent required! We also provide a color guide so you don't have to make any decisions whatsoever, but feel free to choose your own colors for a perfect match. If you are feeling super creative, you can also separate or repeat the mural and/or the elements as many times as you like to get even more bang for your buck! 

Kudos to YOU! Once you are finished, stand back and take in all the compliments. Here are a few comments from our customers:

"I've had several comments from friends that think it looks professionaly done as well, they just don't realize how easy it actually was thanks to Elephants on the Wall!!"

"Everyone thinks it was done professionally."

"Everyone that has entered our kids room has commented on the mural.  Usually they ask how much we paid to have it done and when we tell them that we actually did it ourselves, nobody believes us."

"Very easy and what a huge impact it makes. Everyone always compliments us on the mural as soon as they walk into the space!"

"We received so many 'ooohs' and 'awwws' over the finished product."

"Everyone has commented that it looks like a professional job and I think that is thanks to your easy-to-use murals!"

"We have received tons of compliments and our daughter LOVES her new room!"

"My mother, grandmother, cousin and I painted this and it was amazing to watch it transform! We had a blast and it turned out amazing! Definitely my favorite room in the house!!"

 

HAPPY PAINTING!  : )

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How young is too young to paint our murals?

Well, that is rather subjective on many fronts. Most of our murals are painted by the parents, but kids can do them too. We suggest that kids over 8 years of age will probably do the best, maybe even up to 10 years old. It pretty much depends upon the child and his level of talent, patience, and hand/eye coordination. 

I once asked my daughter-in-law what the talent level of our 4 year old twins was. She thought for a moment and said "Well, let's say they are in their abstract stage." Beautifully put. So I would say proceed with caution.

If you do let younger kids try to paint these or at least "help" paint these. I usually suggest the one of the parents paint the outlines and let the little ones paint inside the areas - that is probably safest.

BUT.... I had one customer call me to tell me about how her mural was coming along. She said her 5 year old daughter was just dying to help and kept asking her mom if she could paint over and over again. The mom finally gave in and let her daughter paint some areas. I asked the mom how it looked and she said "Well, I'll just send you a picture". She sent me a picture of the mural with the little girl standing in front of it. To be honest, I couldn't tell one way or another if the mural was perfect or not, but the picture of the little girl standing in front of her mural with the BIGGEST smile on her face said everything. She was SO darned proud of painting the mural - you know what... it really didn't matter if the mural was perfect. She was just beaming with pride!

 

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Coloring Is Good For You!!!

Ever since I started this business 11 years ago, I have found that when I actually got to paint one of my murals it was really relaxing and quite therapeutic. I used to joke with people that once you got painting, you could solve all of your problems and the world's problems. It seems to let the frivolous stuff fall to the  wayside, while you could calmly deal with any problems you might have. Although I am no psychologist, it turns out I was actually onto something!

According to Ben Michaelis, a psychologist, he says that “There is a long history of people coloring for mental health reasons. Carl Jung used to try to get his patients to color in mandalas at the turn of the last century, as a way of getting people to focus and allow the subconscious to let go. Now we know it has a lot of other stress-busting qualities as well.” 

As it turns out, Ben & Carl and I aren't the only ones who have picked up on this phenomenon. Currently the new trend is coloring books for adults. As a matter of fact, some of the top selling books on Amazon are adult coloring books!! 

Who woulda thunk?!?!

So go BIG and pick up that brush and get started on a mural and solving all of the worlds problems today!

See more at: http://www.the-open-mind.com/according-to-psychologists-coloring-is-the-best-alternative-to-meditation/#sthash.5i5CCl07.dpuf

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3rd Annual World Elephant Day

Today, we are helping to celebrate the 3rd annual World Elephant Day. Founded by Canadian filmmaker Patricia Sims and the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation in 2012, the day is dedicated to bringing awareness to the preservation and protection of elephants. Today it is supported by more than 65 wildlife organizations and has been promoted by celebrities like Yao Ming, Stephen Fry, Alec Baldwin, and William Shatner, who lent his voice to narrate "Return to the Forest," a film documenting the reintroduction of captive elephants to their natural habitat. It was released on the very first World Elephant Day three years ago. http://bit.ly/1ElyfnD
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