The Pinterest Challenge: Summer '12 Edition

Hi everyone! Today I'm linking up with Young House Love and Bower Power for their Pinterest Challenge!!

Now, you may be wondering what "the Pinterest Challenge" is, so I figured I would also include this video. Forewarning, you may just laugh so hard you pee your pants. My favorite is at the end when John says, "Two against one!" bahahaha

                    

Moving on, yesterday they hosted a link up party for the good ol' challenge and I missed it. I had my project complete, but, well, it was someone's two year wedding anniversary.

Yea...priorities people!

So, I'm back today to share my project! As I was selecting a project, I decided to try something that would cost me little to no moolah. You know what happens when you are renovating your entire house right? 

Yea, z-e-r-o money. NADDA.

So, I looked through my Pinterest boards and landed on what, I thought, was a project using Elmer's glue on a painting canvas. This was my inspiration post via Virginia & Charlie. Once I looked at the original source, I realized she actually used puffy paint, not glue, but I decided to try the glue anyways! 


I gathered up my three small canvas' and my Elmer's glue and got to work. 

I had decided that I wanted to use the letter "g" as my "painting" subject. You know, a subtle homage to our last name. So I took a pencil and drew three different gs on my small canvas'. Notice that I messed up on one. I erased it a bit and then realized it would be covered in paint, so it really didn't matter. Once I was satisfied with all of them, I took the glue and followed my pencil lines.

Now, this step was a bit difficult. I imagine using puffy paints would make this process a lot easier, but, like I said, I wanted to use what I had on hand. While outlining the gs, it was really hard to keep the line smooth. Your hands will get tired and you have to go slow enough to let the same amount of glue accumulate as you move along the line. I wasn't striving for perfection, so I didn't worry too much about this. But, if you want a smooth look, I definitely recommend using her original technique.

Once that was done, I let them dry overnight and then took out some acrylic paints I had laying around and mixed up a color that I liked. Then, taking a cheap sponge brush I painted a thin layer of over the whole thing and then used another brush to wipe all the excess off. Basically doing a dry-brush technique.

When I was done with that, I realized that I needed to cover up the edges somehow. I didn't want to paint them because I figured that you would still be able to see the staples. So I decided to use ribbon instead. I bought a basic gray ribbon (make sure to use one the same width as the edge of your canvas) for $2 and then used more glue to adhere it to the edge.

I cut four sections and glued them each individually. I would recommend doing one long piece though. This way you could easily hide a seam in a bottom corner, rather than trying to hide them all around the canvas.

Hey, we learn from our mistakes right?

And, here is the finished product!

I really like them and they seem to offer a bit (ha!) of color to the corner of our living room. My favorite thing is that the carpenter came home and loved them!

You know it must be good if it is husband approved! :)

And here is a cost breakdown for ya: 
      Canvas' : $1.50 x 3 = $4.50 (I had purchased these for another project I never got around to)
      Elmer's Glue: $1.00 (Had this on hand)
      Paint: $2.00 (You only need a little, so just head to wally-world and buy one tube of it)
      Ribbon: $2.00
      Total: $9.50 (This is what it could cost you, but I only spent two big ones)

I would love to hear about the projects that you have tried from Pinterest, so please, leave me a comment with a link to your post!!