DIY Wall Art

Cheap and Easy! (Mostly.)

So, in this picture, it's rather dull looking. But in person, this wall art is really neat! The one on the left has sheet music in the letters, and the one on the right has itty-bitty song lyrics. Here's how to make your own wall art like this!

Supplies:
Canvas (or quark - see below.)
Scissors or exact-o knife
Acrylic paint of your choosing
Paint brush
Glue stick
Mod-podge (optional)
Vinyl lettering (optional)

1. If you have a canvas, you can skip this step.
Get a large quark board. Trace a sheet of printer paper onto it, then saw out your shape. I'm doing two pieces of art, so I cut two pieces.

  2. Print out two sheets of paper: one that will act as the filling to your words, and one with the actual words. (Here, I have sets for each board. I used the font "elephant" at size 96)

3. Glue you background to your board. I would suggest using mod-podge here, but if you're broke like me, a glue stick will suffice. Make sure you coat it well.

4. Now, start carefully cutting out each letter! I broke my exact-o knife, so I'm stuck using scissors, but if you have an exact-o knife, I would highly suggest using it.

5. Glue the letters onto your board in the order you want them to be. Don't glue these heavily! Just barely place them there, as you'll be taking them off later. The vinyl letterings you can buy at wal-mart or target would be a good alternative here.

6. Start painting your board. Cover the entire thing, being careful not to get paint underneath the letters you just glued down.

7. While the paint is still drying, ever so CAREFULLY start pulling up those letters.

8. After the paint has dried, flip the board over and place a nail in the top of it, slanting upwards. Then slip a paperclip onto it; this will act as a hook to hang your art.

And you're done! In the end, you should have a final product that looks something like this:

You can try this with so many variations! Magazines, maps, sheet music, book pages as back drops? The possibilities are endless. Make it yours.
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!