Tuesday, October 22, 2013

A SASSY DIY

Hi there! Hope everyone had a great Monday! As I promised you last week, I have a fabulous DIY in store for you today! This came about because I have been wanting to add some sass in my life lately. Also, I had a collage of art and notes to self above my desk on my wall, and the tape I have has not been adhering well to the wall so my collage has been falling down. When I took everything down, my poor wall looked so sad! So I grabbed a canvas I had not used yet, bought a tube of metallic gold Folk Art brand paint from the mart for a whopping $1.97 and got to town. 



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The canvas I used was 30" by 30", but really any size will do. If you want to use something that big I suggest going to jerry's artarama when they have their canvas sales (I got this one for about $15, when usually its about $60 - $80). You may also find a decently priced one from dick blick art store online. I am not a huge fan of purchasing art supplies from non-art specific stores because believe it or not- the items are so much more expensive elsewhere. 



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You'll need a pencil, and a few objects that create the size circle you'd prefer. Or if you're real fancy you can use a template. I wanted to keep this project as inexpensive as possible (ie- almost free).  You can find the Folk Art brand paint at any craft store, and you can probably find it at your Wal-Mart (thats where I found mine). As I said before, it should cost you less than $2. I also used a paint brush with a pointed tip but you can buy pouncers for relatively inexpensive. The 'mart had a pack of different sized ones for $5. 


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Place your template/object down on your canvas and very very lightly trace around it with your pencil. Pencil is difficult to erase from canvas so be very light-handed with this. 



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Correct the edges/lighten them up with a moldable eraser. I prefer these as they are the best and they don't rub off a layer of the paper/ canvas you are erasing from as traditional erasers do. You can get these at arts/craft stores and are less than $1. 

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Get you some paint on your brush. 

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Paint! I like to trace the edge of the circle first with the paintbrush very slowly to start with. Then I fill in the dot. 
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I trace out everything first and fill in the circles. I go form top to bottom, right to left so I am not stuck painting at a funny angle to avoid dragging my hand through circles I've already painted. Also, you'll want to paint a very thin layer and smooth out the paint as much as possible so the circles are not too textured. Once the first layer has dried, go back over it with a second layer, smoothing the paint out again. 

If you accidentally drip paint on the canvas where you did not want it to go, quickly grab a cloth rag and wet it and wipe off the wet paint. It should come right out. 

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Check and see if you want to add any more circles. 
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Once it is totally dried, you can hang it! For the time being I rested it up against the wall over my desk. Once I find some washi tape that sticks well ( what I have is really cheap and not good), I'd like to tape my art and photos up onto the canvas. But I do like the way it looks now. 

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The thing I love the most about this project is that it took so little time and effort and it adds so much to my plain-white studio. I get irritated when I see a "free" or "super cheap" DIY when really the person used a TON of things they already had from previous projects - and the project really would cost a lot to make if you don't have the things on hand. If you can't find a large canvas on sale- you can go to Home depot /Lowes and get a piece of pre-cut plywood and paint it white prior to adding dots to it. That will run you about $14 for the wood (or a canvas on SALE), $5 for white paint, $2 for the gold paint, and about $5 for a brush or pack of pouncers. And if you do have a canvas- you can omit the white paint. 


Hope y'all love it! I would love to see how yours turns out and how you style it! I got super excited when I finished and ended up making another one for myself- which you can see here.


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