“It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” Of course it is. Holiday songs like “All I want for Christmas is You” are everywhere, streets and roads are beautifully decorated with festive lights. This is the best time of the year to walk around when the sun goes down and enjoy looking at twinkling lights on Christmas trees with a cup of hot cocoa. I love that and I want to bring that vibe to our holiday decoration this year. Last year we used a 3D deer head as our focal point in the living room. For this year I wanted to use a big typography signage as the main decoration in the living room. With me having a specific look, color and style, it was not easy to find what I am looking for. Either it was too small or the size is good but it was too expensive. So I thought I was just going to create it on my own.
Supplies:
- Print out template – design and print out any fonts, words you like then print it out.
- Canvas – many sizes to choose from.
- Acrylic paint – any colors
- Paint brushes – depends on the size of your canvas. If use a big canvas goes with a wide paint brush or vice versa
- Transfer paper – there are 2 colors, black and white
- Paint pen – It comes in various tip. Pick a point/tip that will work with your design.
Really big canvas
1. Pick a canvas – this DIY can work on any canvas size but for my mantel, I needed an extra large size canvas. I bought a 36″x 48″ canvas at $35 from Blick art supplies store which is a really good price.
From light to dark
2. Paint it with your choice of Acrylic color – For the background, I used Phthalo Blue (Red Shade) and a black acrylic. I wanted to create a signage that felt cozy and calm. I went with midnight blue with a darker tone glaze. Similar to how the sky looked like at night. It will also make the writing in white that will be painted later on stand out. I have not painted on a canvas since college and it’s been a while, so I started off with a really light blue then proceeded to the darker shade.
Tracing process
3. Position the print out and start tracing – After the canvas dried position the pre-printed template on the top of the canvas and inserted the transfer papers in between them. Don’t forget to tape the pre-printed template to the canvas so nothing will move. Then, start tracing by using a ball point pen or using anything with semi sharp point. In order to get a strong trace line on to a canvas surface, it needs slight pressure while tracing with the pen. But not to strong because the pen can dent or damage the canvas.
This is how tracing with white transfer paper look like
4. Ready to paint – Carefully remove the tracing papers and a pre-print template out of the canvas. I used a white transfer paper because my background is dark. There is also a black or charcoal version of transfer paper for a white or lighter background.
Paint pen made my life easier
5. Fill the tracing line with paint pen – To make the painting process easy by using paint pens from Craftsmart in white color. I used a really fine tip to make an outline and a bigger point tip to fill in the rest. While this paint pen is easy to use, the formula is not as thick as acrylic color, and also a light color which is white is on the top of a dark color. I had to put 2 coats to make the white look really white.
Done
6. Done – Finally it’s done and ready to go up on a mantel.