Monday, February 6, 2012

LOVE Sign

This is a project that is a long time in coming (a few months that is), PLUS this will help fulfill my mommy craft for the month!


I originally saw this project on I Heart Nap Time's Blog, made by Tam over at Sew Dang Cute Crafts. It's a knock off Pottery Barn NOEL Sign. I fell in love with this and knew that I wanted to make it for our home. I bought all of the supplies to make it. Then the months started slipping away from me and before I knew it, it was the end of January! I debated making it now and having it ready for NEXT Christmas. Although the thought of being prepared next year intrigued me, I was lacking Valentines decor for our new home. So I opted to change this up a little bit. The best part, I already had everything except the red glitter spray paint and a letter V!


First I gathered all of my supplies. I hopped on my computer and googled a top 100 list of love songs. Found a few of my favorites (or at least some that I knew), then I printed out the first page of the sheet music. I also added an extra personal touch, by adding the sheet music from mine and my husbands song!




Next it was off to our unfinished basement (The garage just seemed to cold) to spray paint my letters. Lucky for me, we are lazy enough that we hadn't removed the large box from our water softener we had installed. One side of it worked perfectly! Here's to procrastination! I do not spray paint, there are many things in life that I can do, and do well, but after this experience I decided spray painting is not one of them. I was desperately wishing my youngest brother (who is a spray paint expert from wanting to paint anything and everything he could get his hands on when he was younger) lived closer. That way I could have gotten a lesson, or better yet, he could have just done it for me!




In the end, I used the whole can on my four letters. Luckily I used my 40% off coupon on the paint, so the cost wasn't horrendous.


While I let those dry, I started to Modpodge the sheet music onto my canvas.


I'm a planner, and so I laid all the sheets out first and arranged how I wanted them to look when the project was complete. Making sure our song would be visible once the letters were attached.



Next came the fun part. I mean, who doesn't like Modpodge right? I coated the bottom half of the canvas and then laid the sheets on top, making sure to go back and recover the pieces that would overlap. Once all were secured down, I did one final coat over all of it. Just remember that if you cover over the print outs to much the ink will start to smear a little. At this point you will have some bubbles, but don't worry, as it drys you can poke a push pin into the bubble and then flatten it out with your finger. If you continue to do that while it's drying, you will hardly notice them once it's dry.


While I let this dry, I had the pleasure of picking the Modpodge off of my hands and fingers. Ahh, it brought back childhood memories of putting glue in the center of your hand, spreading it out and trying to wait long enough for it to dry so that you could pick it off. I know I'm not the only one who did this!


I was originally planning on wrapping the sheet music around the canvas, but in the end decided that I wanted a little accent color and would paint the edges black instead. I used a scissors to do this, although an exacto knife would have worked better. That laziness in me, and the fact that my children would be up from naptime soon, made me just use what I had in front of me.


Next it was time to paint. I had dug out my very old Making Memories black paint from my scrapbooking stash to use for this. It hadn't been used in so long, I was sure it would even be any good. But alas it worked wonderfully! I ended up needing to put 3 coats on the canvas, as it was soaking the paint in.



I also put two coats of black paint around the edges of my letters. I had planned on these being all red glitter, but when I failed at spray painting and the edges were very spotty, I had to go another route. In the end I was very happy I did. I loved how it turned out!


I found some fun ribbons in my stash and choose one to ad to the E for an added touch. Next I fired up my trusty glue gun and went to work gluing down the letters.



When it was all complete, I hung it on the wall in our entry! I was very pleased with how it turned out. And now our home finally has a photo hanging on the wall! We have lived here 5 months, and that still hasn't been completed.



I linked up to: I Heart Nap Time Sundae Scoop.

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