Sunday, November 4, 2012

DIY State on Canvas (Chevron Twist)

Many of you may have seen the adorable DIY's for home state art on pinterest.
I wanted to do something similar but in a way that was easier for me to coordinate with my room and I decided to incorporate the chevron background to keep it a little more up to date. Here's what I came up with...(excuse the picture quality, my camera was low on battery life so these are all from my iphone.)
This is pretty simple, but I'm not going to lie..it was also pretty time consuming, and not just because I started and then forgot about it for multiple weeks before remembering to finish. Then again I've lived in four different states, so if you aren't planning on making four it'll be a lot easier. On the other hand, if you're an army brat..good luck ;)


Step 1: Gather your supplies. I used black, white, and yellow Basics acrylic paints that just happened to be buy two get one free at Michaels, but you can obviously use whatever colors you'd like. You will also need: 1 sheet of notebook paper, printed outlines of the states you plan on using from google, painting tape, scotch blue painting tape (I believe mine was 1 inch), scissors, canvases (I used 12 x 12), a pencil, thick paper to make a template, and newspaper if you need to cover the area you are working on.

Step 2: Cover the area with newspaper if needed.

Step 3: Cut a triangle out of your notebook paper (or a square, then fold it in half diagonally) this will be used to make your chevron template, so cut it to be as big or small as you want your chevrons to end up being.

Step 4: Line your triangle up on your thick template paper (I used a page from a brochure). Trace it over and over as many times as it will fit and then cut your template out.


You should end up with something like this that you can line up along the bottom of your canvas to create your chevron pattern later.

Step 5: (I didn't get a picture, sorry) Cut out your state along the outline (I didn't worry about mine being perfect) Stick painter's tape around the edges of the state and cut out again leaving about a centimeter of tape past the paper cut out of your state so that they tape now forms a state outline.
Step 6: Use your taped outline to stick your state to the center of your canvas.

Step 7: Begin using your template to create your chevron pattern by taping around the edges and cutting off the excess at the tops to create perfect zig zags. You will only need the template to create the first row, after that you can just use the previous line of zig zags to line up your next row. One you have three rows of tape lined up right on top of each other you can pull out the middle tape so that your canvas alternates between taped and not taped rows.


Your canvases should look like this when you finish with the previous step :)

Step 8: Combine a few pieces of tape so you can cut a heart out the size you desire (this will be used to mark the city you called home in each individual state.) You will use both the heart and the piece you cut the heart out from, so don't get rid of either! 

Step 9: If the city you lived in is on the border of you state, you will need to press the heart itself onto this area now to make sure you do not get paint in the area during the next step.

Step 10: Mix paint if you need to and then paint over everything (you don't have to avoid painting on the state, I just didn't want to waste paint). Wait for this to dry completely and then peel off all of the tape used to make your chevron pattern but keep your state and outline attached.

Step 11: Trace the edges of your state. Again, if your city is on the outline of your state, leave a gap here. I liked the way it looked with the line thicker in some places and thinner in others, but if you don't like that you can attempt to be more careful with your outlining. (PS sorry for the change in state, haha) After this step, peel the state outline off.

Step 12: Tape your heart stencil down over the city you consider home.


Step 13: Fill the heart in with the color of your choice. Wait for the paint to completely dry and remove your tape. Touch up the outline so it meets the edges f your heart exactly.

Step 14: Take a step back and admire your art!

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