Sunday, August 1, 2010

"Create" Tutorial

Here is the tutorial for how I made my Pier 1 Inspired Wall Art. First I had the BF cut me a piece of MDF 10"X36". I divided my six sections, for each letter, and marked them with a pencil at 6". With this project you have to think from the bottom up. So the first color you want to paint is the color that your letters will be. I didn't worry too much about them being perfectly straight.
The next step I found out was not necessarily needed. So, you could skip this step if you wanted. I actually ended up liking how it gave some dimension underneath the flat black paint, but you could get the same effect at the end if you wait. But, for my picture's sake, and so you won't be wondering how those splatters got there, I splattered black paint across the whole piece.
I picked a font that I liked and cut 6" tall letters with my Silhouette. (Remember, you aren't actually using the vinyl, so use the color vinyl you use least in your projects, for me, it's baby pink!) If you don't own a cutter, you can just print out the font and size you like in Word and use those as a guide to cut out Contact Paper letters to adhere to your board. Also, if you're making a smaller version, you could just use store bought stickers.
So, thinking from the bottom up, next I wanted two of my sections to not be black. I used Scotch Decorate & Repair Tape (it has a real plastic texture and I knew it wouldn't pull up my letters or paint) to give a straight edge. I painted those two sections the colors that I wanted them, blue and white.
After the paint dried I then covered those two sections in freezer paper (dull side down), to keep them from getting spray painted.
Then, I used a fat black spray paint and covered the entire piece and sides. Once it was dry I removed the wax paper, tape, and vinyl letters. Then, using every color in my piece I coated a brush in paint and splattered everywhere, mostly on my garage floor and foot. (I tried to tape a small line between the "T" and "E", but ended up not liking how it looked, so I painted over it.)
I let it dry overnight, some of the splatters had a good dose of paint, and then gave it a light sand to smooth it down. I think it's a good addition to my craft room! I'm going to put it over my window, just haven't hung it up yet.
UndertheTableandDreaming

1 comment:

  1. This is too cute - I want to make one for my craft desk. You are too talented!!!

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