Crafty Name Project

My niece turns 11 this week, and is interested in room decor. I thought about decorating wooden letters, hanging each one by a ribbon, for her present - but then decided that might look too nursery/little girl. After browsing around Pinterest, I became inspired for a project!

I bought an artist's canvas (40% off, love a sale), watermelon colored spray paint, three sheets of scrapbook paper, and plain wooden letters. Actually, I think they are made out of that MDF stuff. That sounds like an acronym for cuss words doesn't it.

She has a pink/purple, flower and butterfly theme going on in her room. I liked this paper because it has the flowers, but doesn't over-dose on pink and purple.

I spray painted the letters, and the sides of the canvas. I love how Doug's books from grad school have come in handy as paper weights.

Checking the paint color to the paper - I like it!

I didn't get pictures of the next steps, oops. I lined up the paper on the canvas so the pattern matched, and the entire canvas was covered. Used spray adhesive to glue it down. Then, put a coat of modge podge over the whole thing to seal it. Don't want those paper edges sticking up! I tried a few decorations on the actual letters, but nothing looked right to me; it seemed too little girly. I did think the whole thing needed a little something extra, so I put two pieces of trim (from my scrapbook supplies) on the bottom, using Aileen's tacky glue. Then, hot-glued the letters on, and......

....Here it is! The letters needed to sit "crooked" in order to all fit on the canvas, but I like the look. The flash makes it kinda difficult to see all the detail on the paper behind the name, oops!

Here's a closer look at the two pieces of trim. The top one is little chenille balls, I used that one on my sister's project too! I am very pleased with how it came out and can't wait to give it to her this weekend!