Copy Artiste

Earlier this week I was finally able to sit down and create two pieces I saw on Pinterest that I’ve been wanting to copy.  I feel as though I’m constantly plagued with undertaking projects that look easy but turn out to be difficult and result in a meltdown.  I’m actually pretty happy with how these turned out!

Project #1: Cute map.  Seen on Pinterest, pinned from this blog.

Basically you paint a background color that corresponds to a pack of scrap paper onto a canvas (I used a 16x20” canvas and cut up the U.S. map from the front of my free State Farm Road Atlas), trace the cut-out states onto pretty paper, and adhere the states, painted wooden letters, and buttons.

Getting the states to be centered on the canvas and fit together did take a few tries.

The original artist did this project to showcase all the places she and her husband had traveled together but I thought it would be cuter to demonstrate all the places we will live as we move around with the Air Force, so I was going to just have one button in MS and one in CA but they looked so lonely on the big map that I decided to add buttons for all the places we’ve lived so far, and as the places start to pile up, I guess I could always pull off the pre-marital buttons.  They’re only attached with hot glue.  I used Modge Podge as the original blogger recommended for attaching the states and shellac-ing over the top of the whole thing.  It is now my new obsession.  I even decided to use it in this next project, which did not call for Modge Podge.  (so fun to say! Modge Podge)

(Edit:  Apparently it’s actually called Mod Podge, not Modge Podge.  It probably should be called Modge Podge though; that’s a lot easier and more fun to say.)

Project #2: Crayons through a glue gun

I love love loved the way this piece looked the first time I saw it, through Pinterest, on this blog. I took this picture right when I finished, I think around 11 pm, when it was dark.  It looks a lot better in the light.  If you’re interested in replicating it, the above link explains thoroughly how to do it and also links to other links that explain how to do crayons through a hot glue gun.

I was going to take a picture of Caleb and me under an umbrella and try to transfer that image as a silhouette onto black cardstock but I decided that would be way too much work and he was already gone, anyway.  So I googled “couple under umbrella” and found this image that I think could be us, anyway.  Then, basically, you print and cut out that image, trace it onto black cardstock, and cover the original paper with tape on the canvas(I chose to do it that way instead of taping down the black cardstock image which is what the original people did but they said they had problems with getting the tape off without messing up the wax and the cardstock).  I ended up using about 15 crayons in shades of blue and gray(the original people said 20) and I thought even 15 was a bit much.  10-12 would probably be sufficient.

Running crayons(paper removed, of course) through a hot glue gun is a ton of fun.  I’m already combing Pinterest for some more hot-glue-gun-crayon project ideas. :-)