I am all about filling my home with my own art. For one reason, I’m cheap. For another reason, it’s my home-it should reflect my family and I. Don’t get me wrong-I believe in other people’s art-it’s often a glimpse inside someone else’s world, but making beauty from scratch is so rewarding!

A few weeks ago I ran across a home tour from one of my fave blogs, A House In The Hills. In the bedroom was this jaw dropping picture of pinkish/orange smoke among a rocky/sandy terrain. The pop of color was so incredible. The photograph looked so modern and tied all the colors in the bedroom together. The photographer of this masterpiece is Lou Mora-so glad I discovered him. Anyway, I started googling smoke bomb art and found this is actually a pretty popular thing in the photography world. You can even buy smoke bombs on Amazon!

With July 4th drawing near, all the firework stands are booming where we live. It’s the perfect time for this DIY so I stopped by a stand, grabbed a few $1.50 packs of smoke balls and a couple of large white smoke bombs and headed to the backyard. I employed my oldest daughter Sofie, who had my cell phone, ready to point and shoot. I had my professional camera around my neck, lighter in hand and my youngest daughter Heidi, had a handful of smoke bombs. Yeah, I’m that mom. Anyway….. I started lighting one bomb at a time, throwing them into the greenery as we went to town shooting pics! Only once did it start a fire but I was prepared with the hose on and near! It wasn’t long until my husband had to get in on the action too! Talk about a family affair! I’m not sure whether he was concerned or intrigued. After about 3 bags of bombs we headed back inside to dump our pics on the computer to see what we had captured. HOLY MOLY! What beauty! Between the I-phone pics and my camera, we had so many gorgeous pics to choose from!

To Make your own Color Bomb Art You’ll Need:

Color bombs (find online HERE)
Lighter
Camera
A water hose near by (ha, ha-no, really have it near by.)
A way to print the pics.
Mats
Frames

Tips & Tricks

For some pics, I used 2-3 smoke balls at a time to get a thicker smoke.
Choose a background free from houses and cars. Choose concrete, grass or trees.
It really helps if the wind is not blowing. I had many pics where the wind laid the smoke flat which did not look good.
If you are going to a firework stand-they have large smoke bombs, usually these only come in white, but they are amazing. You will get HUGE billowy smoke that looks so good on film.
I don’t know much about photography and lighting but all my photos were shot at dusk. This way I didn’t have sunlight competing with the color of the smoke.
If you are really serious about this project I would get the real smoke bombs that have color. If I had started this DIY earlier and had the time to order them, I would have. They are totally worth it-much thicker smoke and much more color!

I snapped the pics, now what??

Once I had my pics downloaded to my computer I used PicMonkey to add filters and crop. It wasn’t necessary on some pictures but I enjoy playing around with this program. Most of the tools are free and it is very user friendly. As you can tell in my pics, there are some that I have brightened the colors or added a filter. You could even just Instagram them-Instagram offers some great filters and tools!

When your pics are ready to go, I suggest using Walgreen’s 1 hour photo if you live in the US. You can upload your pics to their site, choose sizes and pick them up within the hour. They were not able to process my 11 x 14’s or my 12 x 18’s within an hour but I was able to pick up the 8 x 10’s and the 16 x 20’s. They are reasonably priced as well.

Next, head to your local craft store or IKEA (RIBBA frames are the bomb, no pun intended), pick up the appropriate mats and frames and you are ready to put together and hang!

This was such a fun DIY. I’m so excited with the way they turned out! This could not have been easier-you don’t have to have an expensive camera or be a professional photographer either-The biggest and best pic came from my I-phone and was taken by my 5 year old. You better believe she’s pretty proud right now!

Rush off to your local fireworks stand and grab some color balls! You’ll be amazed at how fun this is. This truly was a memory maker DIY for my family! Good luck and be sure to leave a comment about your experience and of course your art!

xx, Jenni

P.S. Out of 3 bags of smoke balls, only once did a bomb catch on fire-by the time I got the hose on it, the fire was out. Of course all fireworks are a fire risk, but I didn’t feel like it was too much of a hazard! Just be cautious!!

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