Monogram everything!

Upon moving I realized that I wanted to completely reorganize and decorate my bedroom. One of the things I knew I wanted to incorporate were monograms because I just think they are the cutest! Originally I was thinking I wanted a large vinyl monogram above my bed but I wanted to add more color to it so I decided that I was going to use a canvas. So off my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, where I bought a canvas and wooden letters because originally I was going to wrap the canvas in fabric and glue these cute curly letters to it, but upon looking at it I realized the colors of the fabric where not what I wanted and the monogram looked weird with all the letters the same size.

Rethinking my current project I looked through my craft closet, yes I have a whole closet dedicated to crafting supplies, and decided to just use a stencil and some paint. 

Step one was painting the entire canvas a solid color. You can choose to do some shading or ombre or make it unique but since I was going to use a pretty busy stencil I decided to go simple.

Next was the stenciling. I am not a fan of the whole painting over the stencil so I decided to move it and traced the design and then painted it following the pattern. 

While that was drying I painted the two outer wooden letters a coral color and found a font that I liked and traced the middle initial onto some tissue paper. Once all the coats of my stencil were dry I placed the tissue paper in the middle of the canvas and using a sharpie, traced over the letter leaving a faint marking on the canvas. Using this outline I painted in the letter using the same color coral that was on the wooden letters. The final step was hot gluing the wooden letters on either side of the middle letter and Voila I have a pretty monogrammed canvas to hang over my bed.

Cooler painting part one

So a couple of months ago I met this really great guy. At first we were just friends, but not quite just friends you know that awkward pre-dating stage. But anyways after knowing each other about a month he asked me if I would be his date for his Senior Year fraternity formal, what they call the Red Carnation Ball, and I was thrilled because to me that was a sign to be more than friends. But enough about my love life the whole reason for this post is the crafts! As a sorority girl it's only polite that if a boy is kind enough to pay for you to go to his formal, basically a drunken weekend in which you spend one night dressed up and stay in a hotel room, you should paint him a cooler for the occasion. Thus began my project. 

The first step is to do some research about the person and figure out their favorite things. The great thing about cooler painting is that you can personalize it to that specific person making it a really memorable and useful gift. Personally I love the cooler connection group on facebook. It's a great resource where girls post pictures of cooler that they have done as well as useful tips and a great document that details how to get started (just in case you need some more info)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5377024169/

Personally I choose to do a Makers mark side, STL blues, some of his favorite beers and a side representing his fraternity.

Once you have your cooler planned it is time to gather your supplies you will need:

a cooler (you can pick any size you want)

sander or sand paper (if you are going to make several you can buy a cheap sander on amazon, it really is                worth it to save yourself the hassle of hand sanding)

Plastic primer (I prefer it in white because it helps the paint to pop more with less coats)

Acrylic paint and paintbrushes

Paint pens

Tissue Paper and Sharpies

Modge Podge (I prefer the outdoor kind), and a water-based sealant (I like minwax in the bright blue can)

Now you paint! I used the tissue paper and sharpies to transfer things like images and the lettering and I modge podged printed images of the beer bottles because I am not that good at small detailed painting.

Once your paint is dry and you like what you have done let the paint completely dry and do several coats of the outdoor modge podge making sure to let the coats dry in-between. 

Once the modge podge is completely dry put a coat or two of the min wax and then you should be good to go!

I don't have any of the process at this time but I am sure I will paint another one soon. In the meantime here is the finished product.

Not my best work but I did it all in a week so I'm still proud of it.

The pictures where taken while the modgepodge was wet which is why they aren't completely clear. Normally there are not white patches or streaks over the paint.