Monday, June 16, 2014

DIY: Three piece art display

Throughout my college career I have gone through a lot of firsts: my first day of classes, my first roommate, my first party, my first college friend, my first (and only) college football game, and more! Now that my senior year is approaching, most firsts are behind me. 

Luckily, there is still at least one first left for me in college...my first apartment! I didn't think it was going to be a big deal because I have lived in apartments while abroad, but those spaces weren't really mine. I didn't get to choose the location, the room, or really anything about it. Plus, with the limited space of two suitcases, I could barely bring any decorations.       

Now that I have the ability to decorate the way I want without any space constraint, I really want it to represent me! I want it to be a place where I can escape and relax. 

To customize without spending an arm and a leg, I have found a few DIY projects to do this summer! The first being a three piece art display from one of my favourite blogs, A Beautiful Mess. I am not the most artistic person so I was a bit nervous taking on this project, but once I got started it was quite simple and really fun! 


First, I printed off the supply list:

-Two 12x12 canvases
-One 8x10 canvas
-Mod podge
-Paint brushes
-Painter's Tape
-Maps 
-Paint 

Then, I headed straight to Michaels to pick up most of the items. I plan to paint my desk a bright mint color, and wanted something to compliment that so I chose to do this project in sheer lilac and new black from Lowes. I printed off a few maps of London from Google images instead of using newspaper like the original directions.


Now that I had all my materials ready, I began my project! I taped diagonal lines on one of the larger canvases (I chose to do diagonal so that I didn't have to worry about the lines being perfectly straight). I then painted two coats of the lilac color onto it and set it aside to dry. 

For the second large canvas, I used the top of a water bottle to create simple black dots. A little heads up, if you use a bottle cap like I did, make sure you dip the cap in-between every dot because they will be uneven if you don't. 

Last but not least, I cut up my maps into random shapes and then mod podged them onto the smallest canvas. To do this I covered the canvas with a thin layer of mod podge, laid out the maps, and then put another layer of mod podge on top. After about two hours of drying, I went back to add the words onto the canvas. I picked lyrics from one of my favourite Jake Bugg songs, "Simple as this". 


And that's it! In just an afternoon, I created three pieces of art that are totally unique. Now, I know they are not perfect but they turned out exactly how I wanted them to! They are fun, simple, and cost less than $25 to make all three! I just can't wait to hang them above my desk in my new room! 


Don't forget to check out my Apartment Pinterest Board or my summer to do list to see what crafts are coming up! Plus, click here to see the overall inspiration for this room. 

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