LOVE Canvases

LOVE Canvases!

I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm obsessed with the Pinterest DIY/Craft boards. Last summer I tried to replicate at least four pins that I found there involving canvases. All failed miserably. Probably because I rushed them too much and wanted instant gratification with results. Well, I needed something to do with the leftover canvases from all those projects; This is what I came up with! 

I mod podged newspaper onto the old canvases, and it covered up the leftover spray paint and acrylic paint very well. Also, mod podging is far more at my level of expertise!!

Since I am incredibly cheap (or value-oriented as my mom would say) I refused to buy stencils for the canvases so I made my own with printer paper!

Here they are close up! Yes the hanging is a little crooked, but you can't tell from far away so it'll do!

 Unfortunately, I don't have a bunch of pictures to follow how I made these, but here are the supplies and steps anyway:

You will need
-  Four canvases (8x10" I think)
-  Newspaper
-  Mod Podge
-  Little Paintbrush
-  Printer Paper 
-  Acrylic paint 
-  Foam tipped stenciling brush
-  Wall hangers
-  Clear coat spray paint

Newspaper-ing

1. I used old canvases from failed Pinterest attempts. My canvases were either heavily spray painted or had leftover paint from other projects. But it doesn't matter for mod podge!!
2. Mod podge recipe - All I did was combine 1:1 water:Elmer's glue in a mason jar and shook it up - voila!!
3. Then I ripped my newspapers up into small strips and put a coat of mod podge onto each canvas.
4. One by one I mod podged strips of newspaper onto each canvas in different directions to make them look more random. I tried to have a little bit of newspaper sticking off the edges so that I could deal with the edges later.
5. Let them all dry for a night!
6. The Next day I flipped them all over and put a coat of mod podge onto all the edges and part of the back of the canvas (where the actual canvas is stapled to the wooden frame). Then I mod podged the overhangs onto the edges onto the back of the canvases. If there were any spaces left on the edges I just added in another strip of newspaper to fill them in. 
7. Let them dry for a night!
8. Finally I checked once more for any spaces I might have left behind, after fixing those I was done!!

Stenciling

1. As I said, I am WAY too cheap to buy my own stencils. Instead I wrote the word "LOVE" in a word document on size 60 font or something ridiculous and printed the letters out one on each page. I also printed out a little rose stencil that I found on Google images for two of the letters. 
2. I cut the letters and the rose out of the pages using a razor blade.
3. For the letters, I lined them up on each canvas and outlined them with a pencil to make sure they were in the places that I wanted them on each canvas. I'm sure there is a more scientific method, but I like the eye-balling method!
4. Next I painted the roses onto the L and the V. The paint I used was a pink from the Americana brand. I used the paper cutouts just like regular stencils with the foam tipped stenciling brush you can get for ~$2.00 at the craft store (seen here). The paint ran a little underneath the flimsy printer paper stencil, but I'm okay with that because I wanted a more rustic feel.
5. I let the roses dry overnight and the next day I stenciled the letters on the same way in brown (also Americana brand)

 Clear-Coat-ing

1. My boyfriend told me that the canvasses would look better if they had a sheen. He was right!
2. I used the triple-thick crystal clear glaze from Krylon (seen here - got it at Michael's) and did a quick coat over each canvas. 
3. Let this dry overnight!!

 Hanging

1. I got some simple picture hangers from Lowe's and pounded them into the back of each canvas. Again, I used the eyeball method because I couldn't find the ruler...
2. Then the boyfriend did the dirty work of hanging the canvases on the wall so that they would look nice - because I am FAR too impatient for that! We used only the nails from the little picture hanging hook things because the hooks looked ugly.

Here's a shot of the hangers I used:

Lastly, a close up of the L and V with the rose stencils. Not too shabby!

That's all!! Hope you enjoyed this post even without the pictures! I was just so excited about this project that I kept forgetting to take them!!

Christmas Tree Gift Tags

Felt Christmas Tree Homemade Gift Tags!

If there are two things I love in life, its giving gifts and procrastinating from studying. SO, what's better than combining the two?! Yes, I should surely have been studying neurobiology.. but everyone deserves a little break, right??

And yes, posting these 2 months after Christmas! Oh well!

You will need:

 - Green Felt

-  Scrapbook paper - a neutral color

-  White thread and a needle

-  Elmer's glue stick

-  Ribbon

-  Pen

-  Superglue (optional)

Step #1: Cut out a piece of felt in the shape of a semicircle:

Step #2: Practice folding the piece of felt on your piece of scrapbook paper until the little tree looks the way you like! This way you won't have to take any sewing out later to fix things:

Step #3: Start sewing the bottom of the semicircle onto the piece of scrapbook pound paper. I had already punched my scrapbook paper:

Step #4: Fold the free part of the felt semicircle to the right and start sewing on the next tier:

Step #5: Fold the next free part of the semicircle to the left and start sewing on the next tier:

Step #6: Now there are two choices… I sewed up into the tip of the tree a little bit before folding over the last tier to keep the tree more secure on the paper. You could also just fold the tier over and then add a bit of superglue under that flap to keep it secure on the rest of the tree. I’ve found that superglue does rather nicely on felt. 

 Step #7: If you’re anything like me, there will be an absolute mess on the flip side after sewing the tree on:

 Step #8: Not a worry!! Just take another piece of paper and glue it on the back! I used a white index card because I was running low on pound paper, but the same color paper would make the tag look a little more professional:

Step #9: Write on your “To:” and “From:”, add the ribbon and you’re done!!!

The whole project took me about 10-15 minutes. And the trees kept getting better looking the more I made. This was definitely a fun, easy, and cheap way to make tags for gifts!! 

Hope you liked the step-by-step!