BeYOUtiful

Last night I got the best compliment in the world. A couple friends told me that I am the most creative person they know. Are you kidding? ME???? Holy cow. Granted, every time they come over my kitchen table is buried deep beneath a pile of project-ness so I can see how the perspective has evolved. I happen to know many people FAR and AWAY more creative than myself. Even still, I jumped up and down, squealed, and told the hubs they just made my entire day.

This blog has been rather lame. Well, lame AND neglected. I couldn't decide what I wanted it to be and in not deciding it became nothing. I've thrown the blog-post-of-the-day topics away and will be documenting my projects instead. That way I don't have to clutter my family blog with all the junk half our family doesn't care about.


You have probably seen ideas around pinterest that use wooden letters on a canvas and then are painted over. I liked that idea. Then you've probably seen the "BeYOUtiful" graphics floating around. I liked that idea too. Add the two together, use only supplies on hand and here's what emerges: new art for my bathroom.

I pulled out some scrap wood and a few packs of Thickers from American Crafts. I liked the shape and the natural feel of the plain chipboard. The black ones were there for brainstorming but I ended up not using them.

The board was already painted and sanded down for a previous project that fell into the "epic fail" department.

See? This is what you see if you look at the back. A lesson in properly sealing the edge of a stencil being painted onto a porous surface.

But back to the project at hand...to make it easy to line up the letter I placed a line of painters tape across the bottom of the board where I wanted the words to be.

Which worked famously, if I do say so myself.

Then a coat of ModPodge (which I actually regret), some drying time, and Voila!

A ten minute project made on my living room bench to artsify my bathroom just a touch.

Ok, now for the regrets: ModPodge tends to pool up around the edges of the letters. I kept brushing it away to keep it thinner but worried that if I kept doing that I'd end up leaving nasty brush strokes in the stuff. I let it dry and now some of the letters have gobs of ModPodge hanging around the edges. I may try to cut out the excess with an exacto knife, or I may just try to convince myself to not be anal. If I were to do it again, I'd use tacky glue on the back of the letters (the adhesive they have just doesn't stick to wood very well) and then spray the whole thing with clear coat when it was dry. Lesson learned.

Either way, I love it, and in it's own way it is beYOUtiful too! :)