Project Inspiration from Pinterest

Remember how I told you that I love paint by number paintings?

I love adding to my collection but some I love more than others. This one was one I loved less than others.

It's a scene with a barn and a wagon and a little creek. It has very pretty tones with blues, and neutrals, but the orange was throwing things off a bit when it was in the room, and it was not nearly as well done as some of the others I had, so when displayed it just looked kind of blah.

So I decided I could use it for some repurposing experiments. My first was to hand paint "Home Sweet Home" on it, to kind of reference this picture I had seen from Mutt, an add agency my cousins work for.

Well it was a total fail. The red was ugly, my handwriting was poor, it wasn't centered well and so I put it aside for a while. Then I saw this beauty on Pinterest, which apparently comes from this cute gal's work.

I actually didn't read the tutorial until after I'd finished my project, but it seems like we did basically the same thing. Here's how mine went

Started with painters tape around the edge, wanted to make sure to avoid my sad red writing.....

I chose to tape the edge because I wanted to get a better peak at all the colors in the painting than just the letters.

I had picked up two different scrap booking font sticker sets at Joanns, they were on sale and came to about $1.39 a piece. I had to decide which I would prefer, I went more traditional and look forward to using the fancy font with a  later project.

I came up with my own arbitrary measurements based on how I wanted the letters to be centered. It's definitely not perfect, but using the edges of the paper made my eyeballing that much more consistent.

If you can see the little hash marks on the left hand side I used those as my guide for the different lines of the paragraph.

All was on there so I just had to make sure it was all pressed down well before I went out side to paint.......I forgot to take pics of the painting but I chose to spray paint. I used a glossy paint at first but it looked messy with all of the texture underneath, so I went to the garage and found some very matte, high heat black spray, like you would use on a barbecue. I sprayed everything including the frame.

Now the fun begins! I decided this would be a great craft to do with kids because the reveal is SO FUN!

The final product came out so great! It's a bit messy if you look at it close up, so my suggestion is to really make sure you've sealed the tape and letters down and don't spray too close, just multiple dustings until it's covered.


My original plan was to use at the entry wall I was creating....

But that felt a bit crowded so as the day wore on I moved things around.

Hard to see, but it's a welcoming view from the living room sitting area and the dining table.

And the entry way is now a random collection, a bit granny chic, but fun.

Those weird red hooks are Bridle Hooks I originally saw on The Museum of Useful Things website, but I was able to find at Wilco Farmstores for $4 each.

So I ended up with a fun entry area I love and a unique, graphically pleasing piece of art that I love in my main space, from something that I only liked.  

Looking forward to making more, thinking these painting may make great Christmas gifts for under $10!