Hope Still Flies

So the summer has gotten to me.

I am definitely not an artistic person. Never have been. I joke that I failed elementary school art. I'm better with writing and solving equations.

But joining Pinterest has made me wish I could be more artistic. So after seeing an awesome canvas print idea, I thought I'd try it. I'm really good at starting craft-like projects and leaving them halfway through, so I thought I'd spend my afternoon off doing it today. Then I decided I'd go ahead and write-up how I did it here. Not that it was difficult, but hey, why not.

So, along with pictures, here we go. These are the supplies I used.

* 4 10"x10" white canvases

* Small wooden letters to spell out whatever you'd like

* Acrylic paint in 2 different colors... one for the canvas, one for the letters

* Paintbrush

* Ruler

* Heavy duty glue

* Disposable plates

* Something to paint on, and to let the canvases dry on (I used old magazines)

So I had no idea what colors to use, so Michael suggested using our wedding colors, which I thought was a great idea (I knew I kept him around for some reason. :) ) So first thing's first... Paint all the canvases the right color... black in my case.

I had never used acrylic paint before, but I got my paintbrush a little wet and then mixed the paint around so it wasn't so thick.

Repeat for all 4 canvases.

After I got the canvases all painted, the letters came next. I only bought one paintbrush and it was a little thick. I ended up holding part of the letters and painting the rest of them. I did the front and as much as the sides as I could. After they dried, I went back and painted the rest... then after that I ended up going back and getting the little crevices on the sides with my fingers. Yup.

So after I finished up the letters, the canvases had already dried. (Acrylic dries quickly!) I started with my first batch of letters. To center them, I checked the size of the letters, divided the size in half, and subtracted it from five (half the size of the canvas). I went that many inches from the bottom of the canvas and marked it with a piece of string. I made sure it was the same length on both sides. This marked where the bottom of the letters should rest.

After arranging the letters where I wanted them, I used the ruler to mark where I had either the left side of the letter, or the right side of the letter.

Then I picked up each letter and used this glue on the back of it, and put it back where I found it. I pushed down a little bit, but if you push too hard, the other letters might come off. (Haha, ignore the paint all over my hand.)

Repeat the same sequence for all four (or however many) canvases. Just making sure to let the glue set. Here's how my four turned out...

They are by no means perfect. I'm no artist, after all, but they turned out all right. If I ever do it again, I'll search for a different font (not a huge fan of the letter style...) and definitely buy a different sized paintbrush for the letters. Or bigger letters. 

Now, if I could only figure out where to hang them up...

-edit-...figured it out (if only I could hang things up straight)