Let It Be...

This project took a bit longer to complete than anticipated. Not because the project itself took a long time, but it took me a long time to decide on paint colors and letter design. So finally, I decided to stop over-thinking (if you have been following me, you know I struggle here!) and just decide on something - even if it is not the perfect choice. And in the end, I like it a lot.

Oh, and I chose the phrase "Let It Be" because I love the words, I love the song, and I need these words constantly reminding me to just let thing be, to not over-think, to let go of control, and just roll with the unplanned punches of life sometimes.

Here's how I did it:

1. I printed out some large black letters - I think they were 650 font. Then, I cut those out.
2. I picked scrapbook paper I liked, and traced the above black letters on to it. Then, I cut those out.
3. I painted the canvas. I couldn't find the color of blue I wanted, so I mixed a bright turquoise I already had, with a blue-grey color called Blue Jean. I painted 2 coats, including the edges and allowed a few hours between paint coats. (The color in the pictures looks quite a bit brighter than it does in person)

4. I figured out the placement of the letters and where I wanted them on the canvas. You could measure this for precision - I am too impatient though and prefer to eyeball.
5. Then I mod podged them on the canvas.
6. Once the letters were on, I  mod podged over the whole canvas and letters to finish it.
7. Let dry (this is is the stage where you look at it and think you just ruined the whole piece with mod podge - don't worry, it is supposed to look like that and dries clear.

**So if you look close in my finished piece, there are some streaks that did not dry clear on the middle right and I have no idea why. I am a veteran mod podger and have not had this happen before. If anyone can fill me in on what went wrong, or better yet, how to fix it - I would be thrilled :)

Pinterest Crayon Art

If you are on pinterest, then I'm sure you have seen this or something like it a bazillion times by now. From the moment I saw it I knew I was going to make one for the playroom.

I gathered my supplies (crayons, canvas, glue gun, hair dryer) and got started.

I hot glued all my crayons on in a rainbow-ish order...

And then, I broke out the hair dryer. I gather my kids around for the show...and had no anticipation that it would take SO long! After 2 minutes, my almost 2yr old of course lost interest and ran off to something else. My almost 4yr old lasted about 15 minutes and then she got antsy too and was off to something more interesting. I envisioned this project with my kids, their little eyes in awe at the melting crayons... Instead, I was sitting by myself on the kitchen floor over a large piece of cardboard, holding a crayon canvas and a hair dryer for what felt like hours. 

First I didn't do it right - I didn't know there was a "right" way and none of the tutorials mentioned there was. Apparently I was supposed to just know this, so incase any of you are not experts at crayon melting I will share what I learned. First, do not put the hair dryer at an angle. This created splatter everywhere. I am ok with some of it, but I quickly realized that was the very messy way to proceed (turning the hair dryer on high vs. low makes this worse...I kind of knew that would happen but I was getting impatient). It also made the colors want to go off to the side and not straight down from the crayon. I figured this out quickly luckily. You want to aim it directly straight on at the crayon and hold it close...like pretty much ON the crayons.  Holding it this close will also make it go MUCH MUCH MUCH faster. I think I was 30 minutes in before I discovered this and it made a world of difference. The other thing, I originally focused on the crayon tip. Don't do that. Focus a little lower than center of the crayon - it really made things flow better. 

I had started on the right side of my board and by the time I got to the left side I had the system down. So much so that I decided to try going back to the starting side and re-melt some of the crayon to make it look better. Well, that was a great idea...except my hair dyer quit. You can see where there is a tiny bit of white space between the drips and crayons on the purple and part of the blue...this is what I was trying to fix. I thought it had over heated, but nope, the crayon melt project ended up being a bit more expensive and cost me a hair dryer. Oh well, we got a fun piece for the playroom out of it. I love how it turned out and the kids had that awe in their eyes I had been hoping for finally... once it was done. I will not likely be doing this project again, but I am really glad I did it once. How many dripping crayon art canvases do you need anyway? 

Playroom Art

I saw this idea on Pinterest (of course) and loved it! It seemed easy enough and a great project the kids could do. They loved every second and are still asking when we can make another one.

First, I applied the letters to our canvas. This sounded easy, but the letters kept peeling back up. I knew they would not survive the kids painting on them that way, so I improvised...broke out the hairspray and sprayed those bad boys down. Problem solved...for now.

Next, I set the kids up with washable tempera paints and they dove into the fun part.

I told A (almost 4) that the goal was to cover all the white spots with paint. She took on the challenge with flying colors. G (almost 2) preferred painting thick globs in one general area. His sister was kind enough to help him spread it out a little, and together they coated that canvas and had a blast doing it. During the process, the colors ended up sort of mixing together into a mess of green and blue, but that's ok, we like those colors.

After the paint dried overnight, I took on the {seemingly easy sounding} task of peeling the letters off to reveal our masterpiece. Maybe it was the hairspray I used to keep them on originally, or maybe it was the letters I used, the type of paint, or a combo...but those letters did not want to come off! I tore up my nails digging at them (good thing I'm not an 'I care about my nails' much kind of chic) to get little slivers of them up and peeled them up in many many super small unsatisfying little pieces. I used an exacto knife very very carefully so I didn't pierce the canvas, to get the edges up but that didn't help much, if at all. It was a royal pain to put it nicely. And a total b$^3h to be honest.

When I finally got all the letter pieces off, I was not left with clean white letters like I expected, but luckily for this project, the messy edges were perfect. In fact, I'm not sure it would have fit the painting if the letters hadn't come out like this. The kiddos were way proud of themselves over their little work of art and it hangs in the playroom, quite appropriately. I love seeing this hanging in there, knowing their little fingers made it so proudly.

As much as I adore the way this turned out, I would love to figure out how to make this decal removal process easier and cleaner for future projects. If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them!