Happy Friday once again! Every year, August flies. This year, August has been all about cheap art -- so welcome to another installment of seriously cheap art solutions. This week, it's all about the handmade.

I might normally think of handmade art as a pretty obvious way to go if you're short on funds, but if you have as much artistic talent as I have (none), it might not be the first thing that jumps to your mind. I'm not being coyly humble. Lou's art has recently surpassed my own. I'm pretty sure there's a strong inverse correlation between traditional artistic skill - painting, drawing, singing, sculpting, throwing pottery, dancing - and a need for a creative outlet by converting mason jars into adorable teacher gifts. My mason jar need is pretty high.

Nonetheless, I've been able to craft a few things I'm not ashamed to have on my wall, and you can too!

1. Watercolor

Easy DIY Watercolor for the Artistically Challenged

Though I don't think even regular watercolor is very difficult for most people, I made the process even more beginner by using watercolor pastels, like these. You use them like crayons that you then cover over with water to blur the colors a bit. Lest you think that I hand painted that whale and wee diver, I didn't. I printed it out from this site (which has fascinating information about sperm whales) and then essentially colored it in. It's not something I think is going to end up in a museum, but it's cute bathroom art. I love the diver next to the whale. And watercolor is completely democratic. Anyone can paint with it, or use the watercolor crayons, to halfway decent effect.

2. Chip Letter Word Art

Chip Board Letters to Spell a Favorite Expression

I used these cardboard chip letters from Target's dollar section (a while ago) to spell out a saying I love for Lou. The letters were a dollar per pack, and I used them to trace out the extras I needed from scrap paper, then glued them all down on polka dot wrapping paper (also from Target, for $0.50 per roll). In the end, it was a tad busier than I was going for, but I still dig the idea, and the expression itself, especially paired with the sweet hot air balloon. It requires no talent whatsoever, though some patience is needed to sort and place all those letters.

3. Gift Tag Art

Tape Pretty Gift Tags to Paper for Inexpensive Homemade Art

This little frame is one of my favorite "art" pieces we've got going on right now. It's from a $5 set of watercolor gift tags that I cut the tops off of (but which also looked really cool with the tops on), taped to a sheet of printer paper with double-sided mounting tape and framed in a $10 frame from Marshall's. (If they look familiar, I also used these tags as labels in our closet). This look could easily be recreated without the actual tags, by making your own ombre water colors, cutting them into squares, and framing.

4. Chalk Pen Art

Finally, there's the easy peasy chalk pen art, of which I am a huge fan. I'm into expressions, and I see no reason not to tag my entire house with them, especially when they're in erasable form. To wit:

So these are, obviously, not your perfectly-lettered chalk pen art. There are some great tutorials on perfect chalkboard lettering in the land of Pinterest, and one day, I may try one out. For now, I'm content to use my own free, quick and easy handwriting to jot down expressions. These aren't the sort of thing I like having around forever -- I tend to move right up the Billboard Charts, expression wise -- so I have yet to really invest my time in a lettering strategy. But I'm always happy for the handwritten note in the short term. It's easy, it's very personal to you, and it requires no talent. Not even nice handwriting: I have it on good authority from hipster Brooklyn coffee menus that childish scrawl is all the rage.

So there you have it - another edition of very cheap art. Hope you're enjoying the series (here's more on gift bags, party supplies and paper store creations), and if you have your own iterations, we'd love to see them. Thanks as always for stopping by.