Monday, March 26, 2012

Some Gifts

I finished two fun gifts this past week for 2 of my girlfriends! 

One just had a new baby.  It's actually been a few months and I've been trying to get this to her but finally decided to mail it off so I had to take a picture before it went.  I absolutely LOVE this toile minky print!  It's been hard to come by (at a reasonable price).  I've saved a little for myself just in case there's another little girl in my future :-)
And my other friend had her birthday!  I've continued my theme of giving table runners.  This friend requested this type/color.  I added the monogramming!  I love that this is exactly what they are selling in Pottery Barn right now but I made it :-)  Hemstitch is still very 'in'.

Typography Wall Art Tutorial

I finally finished this long awaited project- some new wall art!  I actually have a couple to complete but here's the first one.  I saw an adorable version of this on Barn Owl Primitives. (if you don't want to make your own, I highly recommend getting yours from her.  awesome stuff!) But the price was a bit steep for me so I figured I could make it.  Here's a tutorial on making wall art:

-I used a blank paint canvas.  I got it at Michael's with the 50% off coupon for about $12 for a 2 pack.
-Instead of using Vinyl and transfer paper (like silhouette recommends), I place contact paper on my sticky mat and use my silhouette to cut out the letters.
-If you want your letters to be white, just leave the canvas as it is.  If you want the letters to have a color, then paint/spray the whole board now.
-Measure the board and using a pencil draw the lines of where you want the letters to go, or at least the spacing.
-After cutting all of the letters on the contact paper (I use the same cut settings as the vinyl), I peel the letters off and stick to the board.  This method makes the edges a bit fuzzy.  It will lay down flat but it will kinda peel up a little after you paint.  I like this look.  But if you want perfectly crisp letters, you'll probably have to use the vinyl.
-Once you have all of your letters positioned on the board, take it outside (or some place safe), and spray paint it.  I just used the cheap kind from Walmart, nothing special.
-  Once it is completely dry, peel off your contact paper letters.
-I wanted a kinda vintage look so I took soft sand paper and sanded over the whole canvas.  I love how it turned out.  I could probably even do some more sanding.  I'm just afraid of getting too much.  But this definitely helped finish off the look.

So, total price for canvas ($6), a huge roll of contact paper ($6, but I'll be able to use for lots of projects), and a can of spray paint ($2)-  $14, and I still have plenty of spray paint and contact paper left!  Not too shabby!!

I'm going to use this same method to make some wall art for my boys room.  I'll let you know how it goes :-)  And I'll take some pictures as I go next time to add to this post.  Hope it helps!