My hubby and I play words with friends... a lot. So when our anniversary came up this year, I thought a great way to say "I Love You" would be with a personalized scrabble-ish wall hanging. He liked it so much that he put a hook for his cowboy hat right next to it. Yeehaw you all -
Stuff I had laying around:
touch up paint
wood stain
black sharpie
hot glue
small & large jute rope
Stuff I got at an outlet store:
canvas painting $4.14
pack of cork-backed coasters 3.30
light & dark fingernail polish $1.00ea
3D hearts(cut off a junk jewelry necklace $1.64)
Total cost = $11.08
First, get an idea of what you wanna say & how you'll lay it out using your letter tiles. You'll get a good idea of how big to cut your tiles. Here's my original draft. I ended up omitting "always" because it didn't fit my canvas. It couldn't be that I made the tiles too big, right?
Prep the canvas -
I picked up my canvas painting at an outlet store. It was cheaper than a fresh canvas plus it gave me a great color scheme to work with. Using a crumpled up paper towel, I streaked paint across a good portion of the pre-painted canvas. In hind sight I wish I'd used a lighter touch. I left the perimeter and sides in tact. Let that dry.
Using another crumpled up paper towel, I dabbed dark stain around the canvas. I added extra around the corners to give it an aged look. Mine took 2 days to dry. If I did this again, I'd use a dark watered down paint instead of wood stain. But hey, use what you have on hand to save money.
While the canvas is setting up, it's time to make the letter tiles. This pack of coasters were cheap. They're paper on the front and cork on the back. The back is what I'm interested in. I cut them into quarters and rounded the corners.
Time to draw the letters using a black sharpie.
I drew hearts instead of o's... cuz I heart hubby :<)
Since I want this to look rustic, I roughed up the tiles by scraping parts of them with open scissors. I painted them with a light brown fingernail polish($1.00 ea). Then dabbed the rust polish around the edges and into the rough parts. I used my finger to tap the paint around a little... Any excuse to finger paint.
Remember that junky necklace? Take the hearts off and put a small just thread into the eyes of them, tie a bow & hot glue them into the center of the heart tiles.
Now the fun part... assembly. Lay the tiles out and hot glue your heart out. I chose to place mine crooked to look like a real scrabble game. But if tidiness is your thing.. I'll look the other way.
Attach a jute rope for hanging. I used a slip knot instead of a bow hoping it would look more manly man. TADA!
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