I am entirely guilty of impulse buying, and this project was the result.  Michael’s had some really funky canvases on sale one day for 70% off, and, long story short, they migrated to the bookstore with me.

This is the sad part of the story.  The only place that currently needs decoration is the bathroom…so yes…I made bathroom art.  But I figured it was probably the least complicated project ever, so I’d get over it (I already have).

The really clever part of this project, is actually the least clever thing in the world.  Have you ever needed to make giant letters for some reason and ended up freehanding them in goofy bubble letters because you couldn’t make MS Word print any larger than a page.

Know what you should use?

MS Publisher

Create a “Banner” and it will give you a giant sheet to work with.  You can then enlarge the font and print them out.  It will print onto multiple pages and then you get to puzzle piece everything together with tape and then cut them out.

I don’t remember what original font I used here, but I chose it because it was big and blocky.  I couldn’t find a font I like, so I used the fat letters to draw on, and eventually cut out, what I actually wanted them to look like.  So the fat letters were basically a canvas.

Then you put a letter on top of each canvas and trace.  The newsprint canvases were a bit easier to finish than the black.  Just trace and paint.

The black ones were a bit more difficult because I wanted the letters to be made of book pages.

I sacrificed a copy of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin for the task.  I finally gave up on waiting for someone to donate a classic, and there was no way I was going to use a Nora Roberts…so poor Ben got the axe.  Well, the scissors.

I traced the letter onto the canvas with pencil, and then began tracing pieces of the letter onto the book pages and cutting them out and placing them on what I had drawn on the canvas.  Eventually I got to mod podge the whole thing down, and then mod podge the rest of the canvas (making sure to carefully wipe off the studs on the sides).  I only did one layer, but it didn’t seem to need more and it is insanely difficult to paint anything while working.  You start painting when it’s slow, and then all of a sudden it isn’t slow anymore.  Great way to drive business to the store!

Lastly, I hung everything up in the bathroom…without a ladder…or a level…so we wont talk about that.

I realize it isn’t even.  Or level.  (And that they probably appear sideways in the post…sorry!) But in my defense I was trying not to fall into the toilet.  Or off the chair.  Or even (and I really don’t want to admit this) off the tiny little cabinet thing that holds the toilet paper and cleaning supplies that is entirely unsafe to stand on and really, really, really not meant to hold people.  Really, really, really, really.  Seriously, really.

They aren’t perfect, but I’m happy with them.  I’m not 100% sure that they make the bathroom look any less empty.  Part of me thinks that they just draw more attention to the fact that someone finally started to try and decorate it but didn’t get very far. You can’t say I didn’t try.

And it does look better than the troll boogers did. (The previous tenants had really questionable paint choices).

I’ll have the Ms. Marvel bracer done by Wednesday, AND I’m starting a new bookmark set.  With cats.

If you haven’t been to my Etsy Shop you should totally do that!