Okay, so yesterday was my friend's birthday, and I was trying to think of a perfect gift for her that wouldn't break the bank for me. She had mentioned before that she loved the canvases I've painted in the past, so I thought it would be a great idea to paint her a little something with her monogram on it!
First, I shopped around for a cheap canvas. I found one for about two dollars at one of those cringe worthy super discount stores. I used to turn my nose up stores like this one, but they had some great deals on canvases, so maybe I'll be visiting them more now!
I started by painting the canvas a pretty shade of blue. I thought blue would go well with the interior of the birthday girl's (Lauren) room. (Hindsight bias, it would be easier to have painted the canvas white first, so I wouldn't have to add so many coats of a lighter paint onto a dark background. I used up quite a bit of white paint to cover up the blue.)
Next, I made a zig-zag pattern stencil with a piece of card-stock, so that I would know where to apply my paint later. Making the stencil probably took up more time than the whole project itself! I have never been good with shapes and patterns (or any type of math for that matter) so it took me forever to make the zig zag right!
I had to retouch a couple of areas-- at first I didn't trace the outline onto the canvas, and instead painted directly on top of it. I found that the paint was able to seep under the stencil and make my lines messy rather than the crisp lines I was hoping for. Definitely trace around the stencil lightly with a pencil, you'll be able to have more control of the paint if you do.
Once I had finished the background and ensured there were no pencil marks or paint smears visible, I moved onto the next step: the monogram. (Remember!!! a monogram takes the first letter of a person's: FIRST, LAST, MIDDLE names!) I've seen my share of weird monograms-- keep in mind a traditional monogram reads left to right, with the first name's initial on the far left, the middle name's initial on the far right, and the last name's initial in the middle. The last name's initial in the middle is typically larger that the other initials, but it's up to you if you want to make it bigger and stand out.
Okay, here's a secret I've learned how to always make a perfect monogram! Ready? First, type up on Microsoft Word whatever you want on the canvas and print it out. You can choose whatever font you'd like-- for this project, I went with a simple Times New Roman. I thought that a structured font would go along nicely with the angled pattern. I printed the: "L" in size 500 font, and the "A" in size 600 font. You can choose whatever size font you would like really, I thought that the 500 and 600 sizes fit well on the canvas, and allowed me to have a slightly larger initial in the middle, which is typical of a monogram.
Next, You'll have to cut around each of the letters in your monogram. You want to ensure it will fit on the canvas, but you'll also want to make sure you have enough white paper around each letter
Once you've figured out if you like the size and font of the letters, you'll want to get a small pin. (I couldn't find my sewing kit, so I had to improvise with one of those "button pins".
Next, you take your pin and punch small holes all around the outline of each letter. Luckily for me, Lauren has two: "L's" in her monogram, so I was able to save time by only having to punch around two letters.
You'll want to space each hole pretty close, because later, they'll be your template for where you're going to be painting over.
Once you've punched out an outline for each letter, you are going to want to tape it down where you want it on your canvas. I find that it's easiest to work from the middle and work your way outward to ensure even spacing. I started with the: "A".
Next, you're going to color over your pin pricks with a marker. I was going to color in each letter red, so I chose a red marker to color in the holes of my image.
The color from the marker will go through the holes you pricked on the image, and give you an outline of the lines you need to paint through later. (Unfortunately, you'll find if you didn't pin prick close enough to the outline of your letter, your marker will color over any stragglers and make your monogram a little wonky.)
Once you've finished coloring over each pin hole on your image, you'll be able to see a faint outline of where you need to paint later.
You'll repeat these steps for your other two letters in the monogram, and Voila! You'll have a very cute and extremely neat monogram! Cute right?
Have fun creating your own monogrammed canvas! If follow my trick of printing out letters and using their outline as a stencil, you'll make a much more clean and even looking letter than if you were to: "free hand" it.
