I originally saw this quote on wood being sold in an
Etsy shop,
and totally fell in love with it. But I couldn't justify forking over $55.
After giving it some thought, I figured out a way to incorporate this quote
into my own home... but for less than $10.
All I had to do with buy a canvas!
I had all of the other materials needed.
I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the process!
I wasn't sure it was going to turn out as awesome as it did, so I
didn't even think to document the steps involved.
So I'm going to give it my best shot at writing out directions.
1. Paint your canvas. This will be the color of the words once you're finished.
I actually used several shades of gray, by mixing gray and white acrylic paint,
so it wouldn't seem so uniform.
2. Print your quote on regular paper with whatever size and font you care for.
3. Cut out the letters. This was the worst part. It was very time consuming
to cut out each letter, but it cost me nothing to make my own "stencils"
versus buying them.
4. Map out the quote on the canvas. Obviously, wait until your first coat of paint
is completely dry before doing this part. Once I had it mapped out, I used regular
tape to secure each letter to the canvas. This part was pretty time consuming too.
I rolled small pieces of tape, and stuck them to the back of each letter so they wouldn't
interfere with the quote itself.
5. Paint the entire canvas black (or whatever color you prefer). I used a small sponge
to blot the paint onto the canvas. I also made sure to do this in straight down motions
to keep the letters as crisp as possible. And by using a thin layer of paint, some of the texture
of the original canvas came through... which I really ended up liking. It also
seemed to give it an overall aged appearance.
6. Once the black paint was about half dry, I used a toothpick to lift the paper letters
enough so that I could pull them off with my fingers. It got a little messy, but I go exactly
what I wanted out of the project.
Happy Painting!
