Home State Art

In May of 2010, my husband and I moved from Georgia to the St. Louis area.

I grew up in Southeast Georgia and have never lived anywhere else. 

So this move was  traumatic for me.

Charlie and I moved to Atlanta in 2005.

THAT move was QUITE the adjustment.  

Charlie and I also got married on top of a mountain in Georgia almost one year ago.  

In short, I have a soft spot in my heart for the peach state. :) 

So, I decided to make something to signify that.  

I wish I'd come up with this idea all on my own, but I didn't.  

I saw some home state art on a blog (can't seem to find where, though).  

I did find an example on etsy.  

I also saw this blog post from Taylor Made, and was inspired.  

So, I decided to give it a shot.

Random side note:

Every time I go to Michael's I always scour the clearance section. 

I have found a lot of good deals in there! 

Yes, something maybe be slightly wrong, but the item will still work most times.  

Example:  these canvases.

A pack of two canvases for $1.50! Yes, one of them has a hole in it, but the other one was just fine! I figured I could use this for a project where I was going to attach something to the canvas.  Like the project I finished last night! So, here's how I fixed the hole.  

I totes just put a piece of tape on the back of the canvas. That was all! 

You can still tell on the front, but I'm going to cover it so no one will even know! 

Ok, well now you all know, but that's ok. :)

Just so you know, that's how I am in real life.  I'll start talking about one thing and randomly switch in the middle.  At least I give you guys warnings! 

End random side note.

I knew I wanted to go with the ever popular grey and yellow color combination. 

Now, I just had to figure out how to set it up and what to use.  

In Taylor Made's post, she uses the freezer paper method to pain the state on the onezie she made.  I thought about this, but then decided against it because I didn't know how I'd paint stripes (I was thinking chevron) and paint the state.  

Then I thought about painting the stripes and putting vinyl over them, but I only had ivory vinyl.  I didn't really want to have to go out and buy anything, because I usually don't think that far ahead and try to do projects after I get home from work. :) 

SO, I decided to use card stock! I had one light yellow piece.  So, I got to work.  

Taylor Made shows how to take a picture of the state, and with your silhouette machine, make into an outline.  I've had my machine since Christmas and had no idea it could do that! It was awesome! 

Ok, so here's a list of things I used for this project.  

-8x10 Canvas

-Black, White, and Silver acrylic paint

-foam paint brushes

-masking tape (there will be a note about this later) 

-Silhouette machine

-Ink pad

-yellow card stock

-grey card stock

-Mod Podge

First things first, I measured the canvas and put marks in one inch increments down the canvas.  Then, I taped the canvas to create grey and white stripes.  PLEASE DON'T USE CRAPPY TAPE! I did because I was trying to use what I had on hand.  

You'll see why in a moment. 

Ok, so here's the canvas all taped up. I didn't have any grey acrylic paint, so I mixed some up. 

Here's the canvas before I pulled off the tape. 

Here's the canvas after I pulled off the tape.  I was a little disappointed, but I figure the non-clean lines give it some character.  This could've been avoided if I'd used painter's tape.

Also, you can barely tell where there was a giant hole in the canvas! 

YAY! I let this dry overnight.

The next step was cutting out my state with my Silhouette machine. 

This is where things got a little ugly.

The only yellow card stock I had was Bazzill and it's textured on one side.  I didn't really want my state to be textured so I put it on my thick cutting mat textured side sticking (or not sticking as in this case) to the mat.  Well, I was a little concerned it was going to shift around so I used a little readjustable adhesive to attach it to the mat. Turns out that didn't even matter right then because my machine wouldn't cut anything.  It would slide to one side and say "cut was successful" grrrrrr... I was annoyed. I scrapped the saved file and started over and it FINALLY cut the shape.  

Yeah, it also shifted and didn't cut my last piece of yellow paper correctly. 

So, I'm freaking out thinking I have no more yellow paper and it's a lost cause.  I'm tearing through all my scrapbook paper violently searching for some yellow paper. I finally fine a solid piece from BasicGrey's Urban Prairie collection. YAY!  

So, I was afraid it was going to shift around again on the mat, but it didn't. YAY!

Here it is all cut out! 

I was going to put a heart over my home town, but decided to put "on my mind" on it instead. You know, like the Ray Charles song. :) 

Originally, I thought about writing or painting "on my mind" on the state, but I chickened out. I decided to cut it out with my Silhouette and used the "Georgia" font.

So, then I had to find a piece of grey paper. I had one REALLY light piece of grey paper. I knew it was too light, so I found my Tim Holtz Distress Ink. It was given to me by a friend (Thanks!) I used the end of my sponge paint brush to tap the letters on the pad. 

Once I had all the letters done. I attached them to the yellow paper. To do that, I podged the whole canvas and then attached the state and added another layer of mod podge.  Then, I placed the letters on the state and pressed lightly and covered with another layer of mod podge. 

Now, let it dry! 

My husband was SO not pleased with me last night.  We were supposed to watch the season 4 finale of BSG and this took me FOREVER and I had to go to bed shortly after. So, I still don't know who's a sylon! Goodness!

Here's the finished product!

I know it's not perfect, but I love it! 

I put it in my office at work. :) 

Whew! That was another long post! Hope you guys enjoyed! 

Oh! Something I wanted to mention to those that comment, please leave me your email in the comment form! I love each and every comment and respond to all of them, but I can't if I don't have your email address.  If you don't want to leave it, that's fine. I'd love to talk to you guys, though! 

Thanks for reading!

<3,

Marlie

P.S. How freaking cute is this cat?!?!!?

I'm linking up to these great parties!