DIY Weekend!

Very excited to have two nursery projects under my belt! 

As I said before, we can't justify splurging for a $150 set of 3 canvases.  So I figured, why not try?  And plus, with my handy-dandy iPhone app from Michael's, I learned all acrylic canvas paints and canvases were 40-50% off in store!  Score!  We went with 10 x 12 canvases.  I spent approximately $30 on supplies for this project.

So, I made a pattern of the whale and spout outline, and cut out the paper in order to create a stencil.  I'm always afraid to trace an outline with pencil, so I taped the stencils I made onto the canvases themselves and took a fine brush, with little paint, and traced.

One coat of paint:

Just with outline, ready to fill:

Ta-Da!  So excited with how this turned out!  Can't wait to see it all in the nursery!

I loved this sign, only after many attempts to contact the person who made it to purchase it, I was left with just this picture to go by:

I loved it, and especially with our beach-themed nursery, it was PERFECT!  

So after much searching, I stumbled upon these letters at Michael's:

I also bought a sponge brush (as not to leave brush strokes on the letters) and plain white acrylic paint.  I realized after painting all the letters I didn't actually need the word "star."  Oh well, pregnancy brain only cost me an extra $2-ish (so far).

Now, I had NO clue as to how to get this wood for the background!  I showed the project to my dad, and he told me Home Depot sells boards of wood already glued together.  Yay!  So after looking at every single pine board (trying to find one without knots), I finally picked one out:

I placed out the letters, marked it with a builder's square with pencil, and my wonderful husband sawed it to the right size and sanded it for me!

And after one trip to Lowes and another to Home Depot, I settled on the right color.  The first was WAY too gray =(  Pregnancy brain add another $10 wasted.

After the first coat:

Two stains, a pre-stain treatment and a satin finish later:

Can you see my stalker in the background?  He's been so helpful all day.  He's probably sorry for leaving teeth marks in one of the "I"s.  

I found a piece of scrap wood that was level and even to place out all the letters before gluing.

Letters all laid out, ready to glue.

The finished product, all glued and with the star in place!  LOVE!  Can't wait to see it on the nursery wall!

The price to DIY this was approximately $80 ($20 letters, $1 white paint, $1 sponge, $20 plank board, $20 two stains, $10 wood pre-treat, $10 satin finish).  Hey, no one ever said DIYing was always cheaper!!!  It would have been nice to have some of these items lying around, but alas, no.