Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Lyric Art...Cheap, But NOT Easy.

I'm sure some of you have romance on the brain since Valentine's Day isn't too far away.  And because of this, I figure my sappy lyric art would be a fitting post for today.

A while back I made some cheap and easy art to hang on the walls of our master bedroom.  It looked great, but it didn't last long since I decided to go and re-arrange things.  That meant I neeed to get my butt moving to fill up my walls again...leading me to my cheap and easy, part 2 post.  There was supposed to be another piece of art I revealed during that post, but I just never finished it.  Part of the delay was due to my apprehension of screwing it up, and the other part was me dreading the tedious time it'd take to complete the project.

Well, finallyyyyyy I am done with it.  So it's time for me to spill all the deets of how I made some lovey, dovey art for our bedroom.

I started out with a piece of wood from Home Depot that I had them cut to size for me {basically I asked them to cut the board into two equal pieces}.


Then it was time to get my stain on.  I used Minwax's Dark Walnut stain, because it's pretty and was leftover in my basement. ;)


I reallyyy wish I had some sort of machine that enabled me to make stencils, but I'm just not that fancy. :-/  So instead, I played around with some fonts on the computer and printed out the lyrics I wanted in a large font, on some 12 x 18 paper.


Then I cut out each line and taped it onto the board.  {I used my iPhone level app to make sure things were pretty straight.}


And thennnnnn, the "fun" began.  I used a ballpoint pen and pressed firmly into the paper while tracing the outline of each letter.  It left a faint line and imprint of each letter.  I tried to photograph it, but you probably cannot tell via pictures.  Sometimes I had to hold the board a certain way so the light just hit perfectly, and then I could see.



After all that was done, it was time to use a tiny paint brush and fill in all the letters.  I found the best technique was to dab a short, stiff paint brush around the outline of the letters, and then go back and fill things in.  Of course, it wasn't alway the easiest thing to do {especially on letters that didn't have straight edges, or ones where the outline couldn't be seen 100%}, but I made it work the best I could.

For the final word "sweetheart", I turned to a gold sharpie.  I knew I wanted that word in a different color, and we all know I'm obsessed with gold lately...so instead of torturing myself with gold paint, I just traced with a marker.  It was easier than a paint brush, but it still wasn't "easy".




Okay, so maybe "easy" isn't the right word to be using.  It was pretty "easy", but man, it was a major-pain-in-the-bootay to do.  I'm all about little, tedious jobs, but this one takes the cake.  You need patience up the wazoo to finish something with this many letters.

But I am super thankful I stuck to this project because the words ring so true for me and hubby, and it's a wonderful reminder to have on our bedroom wall. :)

46 comments:

  1. This looks amazing. I love te finished product and all that tedious work was totally worth it. Awesome job.

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  2. wow ... look very nice , i like the words style , keep update your blog , regard

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  3. It may have been a pain in the butt, but it came out amazing! I love it! And the last word in gold was a great touch. So pretty!

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  4. Now I have this song in my head. It's ok. I like it.

    It turned out so good!!!

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  5. i love the touch of gold! your hubby must be in awe of you and your craftiness!

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  6. Such sweet art for the bedroom. It looks great.

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  7. Ahhhhh, but so worth it! It is perfect. Love the lyrics, and the touch of gold is great! :)

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  8. Well worth the tediousness! It came out great!!!

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  9. I adore that song! Looks great, and I love that you chose to do the last word in gold.

    Did you know that you can buy paint pens? That might have made this a little easier!

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    1. Thank you so much, Ashley!

      Hahaha...can I just say that I came across them in Michael's a day or two AFTER I finished painting this? Needless to say, I bought 3 of them on the spot.

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    1. Thank you very much, Tracie!! I'm so glad you stopped by! :)

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  11. I love that! It came out so great! Plus it is an awesome song ;)

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  12. Wow, that looks so professional!! You have so much patience and it really paid off!
    -Katie

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  13. This turned out so well Gabbi! I absolutely LOVE it! Now I want to make some for our bedroom! :)

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    1. Thank so much!! Do it...it'd look beautiful in there! :)

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  14. I just found your blog through Apartment Therapy's Homie awards. I'm a fellow ranch owner/blogger and was glad to see you on the list. This project is so cute! :)

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    1. The Homie's...wow! That's so cool. I'm so glad you found me...thanks for stopping over! :)

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  15. This is adorable!! I love the gold word and it looks so perfect. Worth all the tedious work! That song is definitely in my head now! Haha

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  16. That's such a sweet idea and even though it took forever it looks so good!

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  17. It came out perfect! I was thinking of doing something very similar in my own bedroom ... We'll see if I can manage to surprise the hubby for Valentine's day!

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    1. Thank you, Jaimie! It'd be a perfect Valentine's day present. Send me the link if you get it done! So glad you stopped by! :)

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  18. Pretty pretty pretty!! I wouldn't have thought tracing the outline on top of the paper would work, but it looks perfect!

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  19. Amazing! You as so awesome at the tracing thing. Mine always turns out horribly.

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    1. I'm shocked it went as well as it did. I was so nervous this project would end terribly haha. Thanks Melanie! :)

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  20. Awesome! I think the way you did it was much better than using a stencil. Stencils move and get all messed up; this was perfect. Well done, and it looks great!

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