(Un)Crafty - Subway Art

A few months ago I embarked on the journey of creating my first piece of subway art.  You've seen all kinds of subway art all over Blogland lately and I was dying to try it on my own.  Well, the journey was not exactly blissful.  This quickly became the project from you-know-where.  Yikes.

I started with visions of creating something like Vivienne or Ashley at Lil' Blue Boo.  In the end, mine doesn't really look like either of theirs...oh well.

I started with a simple word document on my Mac.  I added words that are meaningful for my family in different sizes, but all in the same font.  I spaced the words so that each line filled the page to the edge.  I printed the page on a regular letter size piece of paper and then took it to FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinkos) and had it enlarged to the size of my canvas (24 x 30).  I spray painted my canvas white.  Then I used spray adhesive to attach the large paper to contact paper and cut the paper into strips, as you can see below.

I laid the strips out on my canvas to check the spacing.

Then I marked where each line should be and where each letter should be.

The next step was to cut out each letter.  It took me forever.  I would recommend a different strategy!  It took lots of patience and a sharp scissor to get all those little letters nicely cut.  Keep in mind, everything had to be done while the kids were napping, after bedtime, or some other rare time when I was "off the clock".

Finally I got all the letters cut out and stuck on the canvas.  Because I attached the paper to contact paper, I was able to pull the backing off and stick the contact paper to my canvas.  Here's the bad news: it didn't really work for me.  The sticky part of the contact paper didn't want to adhere to the canvas - I don't know why.  So, I ended up spraying each letter with a removable spray adhesive (3M, of course) and sticking it on the lines I drew.  Even with the spray adhesive, the letters weren't adhering as well as I wanted.

Here you can see the letters stuck to the canvas and the original word document I used.

My intent was to get the letters stuck on really well and then roller-paint a dark grey color over the whole canvas.  I envisioned nice neat and clean words on the canvas.  However, I could tell right after I stuck the letters on that they wouldn't stay stuck with a roller going over them.  Bummer.  By this point, I was desperate to finish the project and checked the cabinet for spray paint.  I had a full can of black, so I decided it was my best bet.  I sprayed the thing like crazy and was happy with how easy it was to get it covered so quick.

After the spray paint...

and with the letters pulled off.

The lines were really not clean, so I tried to touch up the edges with a white paint pen, but it was just too daunting of a task.  There was so much to do and I didn't have any patience left.  So I started thinking of what I could do to rough it up a little and make it look like I wasn't trying for it to be so perfect.  Keep in mind, its a canvas, so it pretty delicate.  Sanding wasn't really an option.

I decided to use a metallic glaze to see if I could give it a more vintage look.  This is the result.  It looks like a white-washed canvas after several coats of the glaze and then wiping it off with a wet rag for texture.  I feel like the project was a failure so the canvas is hiding on a wall in our bedroom for now.  Hubby says he really likes it and he likes the white-washed look much better than the contemporary look of the black and white.  I would like to see if I could get Hubby to build a vintage-y frame for the canvas, then maybe it would look more complete.

Overall, this project was SO MUCH WORK...especially for feeling a little like it failed.  But, as always, its fun to have a project and see it through to completion, even if its a different result than I first desired.  For someone UNCRAFTY, like ME, I think my next subway art venture will include vinyl letters or chipboard - something less committal!

If you would like more information about the products used or more about my method (and my recommendations for changing the process, contact me!).

I linked up to the Subway Art Party at Tatertots and Jello!