Song Lyrics Artwork

Have a favorite song? Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is a favorite of Jason and I. (Video's at the bottom of the blog. Watch out it's catchy and gets stuck in your head!) We love the lyrics and usually catch ourselves singing a line or two... or whistling it. So I thought I'd make some artwork.

You don't need many materials for this project: A piece of wood,
some lyrics, paint, exacto knife and contact paper.

I had this piece leftover from my Scrabble Board project

I typed the lyrics out and designed them to fit within the right size.

I taped off my border

I laid down the contact paper and then the lyrics

I started by covering the back of the lyrics page with
graphite and then traced over the letters.

You can see it transferring over here. But I soon learned
just cutting out the letters of the paper with an exacto
knife will transfer the graphite too. For an easier way
to transfer your lyrics view Living with Lindsay's blog

I'm pretty sure I just about broke my fingers cutting
these letters out.

And if the last step didn't break it then going back
over the contact paper to ensure the cuts were all
made correctly definitely broke my fingers

The fun part... peeling the contact paper off to leave the letters

I ran my brayer over the letters to make sure they
were nice and snuggle against the wood before
I started painting

I brushed paint on but I think I would use spray paint
next time, for one, it would be a faster way to paint. But
also I noticed the paint I used was a little too liquidy
and ran under my letters

I wanted the black paint to pop so before I pulled up in letters
I sprayed the board with a glossy clear coat

Here you can see where some of the paint seeped
under the contact paper.

Definitely like it though. Now I just need
to figure out how I want to frame it.

My Scrabble Board Project

Words with Friends is going crazy and there's a sudden popularity with using scrabble letters as art so I thought I'd make an art piece that works for us in the house.

Here are my materials:
Scrabble game; old Dictionary ($1.00 at Goodwill!), magnets,
24"x24" sheet metal, frame

I glued the magnets to the back of each scrabble letter

I used some Mod Podge to glue some dictionary
pages to the sheet metal

One layer of pages done. I added a 2nd layer to make sure all
of the sheet metal was covered.

I created my own scrabble board and printed it out. I didn't
see any free printable scrabble out there though so maybe
 you can make a photo copy of the board if you don't want
to make your own. I then went over all of the pages with
a coat of Mod Podge to protect the pages.

I bought a frame you can put together yourself. It's a little thin
so I may still look for a 2'x2' frame or maybe make my own.

Hang it up!

Then write your own message or have an ongoing game.

Letter Art... with a twist

The alphabet letter art is huge right now. I wanted to create a more personal one with my soon-to-be new last name! ;)

I realized how light the H and M are once I stepped back and
snapped a photo. I'll have to go back and redo those.

I took pics of some of our important items

W - Our first engagement gift! A large W to display
O - The logo from my Christmas boots Jason bought me. I love them!
O -  I kept a charm that was from the first wedding Jason and I went to.
D - From our WorlD Series tickets from 2011. Go Cards!
H - Stole this image from my Beach Table.
A - From one of Jason's National GuArd bags.
M - Go Mizzou! Jason's favorite college team.

From a previous project I had an extra board and an extra dowel
rod. I purchased a smaller size board to glue to pictures to. I
cut them down to 4x4 inch squares and also cut the dowel rod at
varying lengths.

WEAR EYE PROTECTION! I'm not sure if I didn't have a good
hold of the rod when I was cutting or if there was a bad spot but
my saw kicked this piece up at me. Luckily there was no injury!

Let a piece of Steel Wool soak in Apple Cider
Vinegar overnight. Then scrub your board and
let it dry. Instant aging

I used Contact Cement to glue on the 'nubs'
but eventually I switched to an epoxy. I was
afraid the contact cement wouldn't hold the
weight. It was soaking into the wood too much

Missing a photo here but I printed out my pics and
glued them to my 4x4 pieces of wood. I then glued
the 4x4s to the nubs.

Almost done!

I drilled two holes (equal distance from the sides)
in the top of the wood

Screwed in two eye hooks

And thread some twine through. I went back
and forth 3 times but that adjustable.

Ummm... back to work. Need to fix
the H and M. It'll drive me nuts otherwise.

Wooden Letter Quote

I combined a couple techniques I've found. Trying to decide if I like it...

Thoughts?

I found a quote I liked and bought some wooden letters

I also had a couple of flowers I had doodled

Sorry for the lack of the next few pictures. I grabbed an
extra canvas and mod podged some phone book pages to
the canvas (I have to use the Yellow Pages for something).
I then painted over the phone book in white. Don't worry
about trying to smooth the pages down.

Once my paint dried I went over the canvas with some sandpaper.
The wrinkles of the phone book will ware off.

Glue down your wooden letters

I enlarged my flower doodle

And traced a copy onto the canvas

I then went over the flower with white paint

Almost done!

A little hard to see but I watered down some brown
paint and covered the canvas in small sections. Before
the paint dried I wiped off the excess paint. This will
give it an aged look

All done!