Pinspired!!

So there have been so many things on Pinterest lately that I figured I would take this summer to explore. I have to say I have not been as productive as I would have liked to, but I did do some things that I figured would be worth talking about. I've tried to keep a board on my Pinterest profile of things that I did, but I hate that I can't use my picture and link to the blog or page where I got the idea from. So...I figured I could use this as the gateway to be able to use my pictures, but include the links to where people can find the recipe, craft, whatever.

Here is the latest...a "U & I" print.

I got this idea from this awesome lady who shows you tons of different easy ideas for DIY canvases. Hers is a little different from mine, and in hindsight there are a few changes I would have made. We went with some boards that had already been precut for various things for our wedding. So, the sizes that we used, I think, are a little too close in measurement. If you are cutting the boards yourself, I would recommend to have some more difference between the "U" and "I" and the ampersand. Other than that this was a pretty easy DIY, if you don't ask my husband. Lol. It took me forever to get this done, but mostly because I had to find the right paint color to match the bedroom. 

Here's how I did it...

You will need:

3 boards or canvases. 2 the same size, 1 bigger

2 colors spray paint

vinyl letters or I just used my projector to trace some on tagboard and then cut them out.

sandpaper (if you want the distressed look)

1. First clean the boards (if you have boards) and let them dry completely.

2. Then, spray paint each board or canvas whatever color you want the letters to be. I sprayed the entire board but that's only because at the end I sanded them down a little so the blue showed through.   

3. Let them dry. I let mine dry all night so I was sure the tagboard wouldn't stick to the board. (I'll explain that one a little later.)

4. Place the letters wherever you want them on the board and spray the border color over the entire board. If you are using the tagboard approach, be sure to press the letters down hard when you are spraying. I actually used Mike for this because it seemed to take two people to make sure there was no underspray. If you have vinyl letters it would be much easier. 

5. If you use tagboard, carefully pull the letters off immediately after spraying. During one of my trial runs I left the letters on because I was afraid I would smear the paint. When I went to pull them off they had stuck to the board. It was a pain in the butt and I still have remnants left on my finished product. If you use vinyl letters, once again you won't need to worry about that. I'm sure it won't be a problem if you are doing these on canvas either.

6. I used sandpaper at the end to kind of go over the whole print. It not only gave it more of a vintage feel but it also helped correct some of the imperfections.

That's it!! Super easy and all together it probably would have only taken me two days because of the drying time. The spraying only took about 20 minutes in all. :)