DIY Canvas State Tutorial

I'm obviously going to start by saying, "I saw this on Pinterest." *Cue eye-rolling* I know, I know, enough already! I.just.can't.help.it. It's like a never-ending supply of ingenious ideas that make this DIY-girl jump for joy! And it's so fun to see the differing tastes of your friends and family. For example, my friend Lauren pins the best recipes. I've made at least three recipes that I originally pinned from her in the last month. Krissy pins the coolest house ideas (her and her husband Alex are redoing their house!) and has turned my attention to great ideas for the wedding.  Nicole (my soon to be sister-in-law) has a killer sense of style. I seriously swoon over everything she pins (and re-pin a lot of them). My mom pins adorable craft ideas (and has her own board for my wedding!).

So, anyway, back to what it is that I saw on Pinterest:

Yep, I pinned it 15 weeks ago. Actually, this was THE very first thing I ever pinned. I'm so glad I didn't waste it. ;) Anyway, a few weeks ago I was cleaning out some old boxes to make my monthly Goodwill donation (I mentioned in this post that I was going to donate a box of items to Goodwill every month, both to give me some breathing room and to pay it back to the people donating awesome stuff to my Goodwill for me to buy!), and I realized I had an extra 8x10 canvas left over from a previous project. I remembered this pin and set it aside. Annnnd....it's been sitting on my dryer for around six weeks now. Go me!

Anyway, I finally finished it, so here's how I did it:

(1) Tape a piece of contact paper down (sticky side/peel-off side down!) to a cutting mat.

(2) Tape your state outline down on top. I got mine from here.

(3) Trace your state outline using an exacto knife. Be careful around the curves and make sure you're pressing down hard enough to cut all the way through both the tracing paper and the contact paper. Trust me, this will make the rest of the project much smoother! (I just wanted to type smoothlier...just for the fun of it. Alas, my inner grammar nazi won. Meh...smoothlier. Take that, Monday!)

(4) Now that you have an outline cut out of contact paper, take the backing off and lay it down where you want it on your canvas. It was much easier to figure out placement while the backing was still on. That way, I could make a few pencil marks (since those would be painted over) before peeling the backing off and I only had to place it down once. Placing it down once = better stickiness = better job the contact paper will do. (P.S. I spray-painted my canvas white as a base layer so that the state would look painted [rather than just bare canvas], but that step is not necessary!)

(5) Pull out some caulk. (Remember when I picked up these caulk singles for 35 cents apiece? Do you also see where I mention having a plan for those? Yeah, that was this project. In April. Dios mio.) 

(6) Put a little bit of caulk on your finger and "seal" the edges of your contact paper outline. Spread out any excess so that everything is a nice, smooth and thin layer. You don't want this to dry and leave an unintentional pattern behind your colored paint. ;) Leave it to cure for at least 12 hours (I left mine for nearly 24 hours). I know...killer on the patience...but this step is vitally important to how well your caulk will do its job. Let it cure!

(7) Once your caulk has cured (!), it's time to paint! I did one more coat of white over everything to make sure to seal everything one more time (and to make sure any "seepage" would be white). Once that dried, I did three more light coats of my colored paint. (Side note...I did not intentionally position Texas upside-down. My sincerest apologies to all Texans out there!) ;)

(8) Once your colored paint is dry, it's time to peel off your outline! Be careful as you go, making sure that nothing is sticking and peeling paint off with it around the edges. 

(9) Technically, you're done here, but I wanted to add a little something more. I went to my "craft scraps" drawer and found some scrapbooking paper that had a shimmery gold/pink back to it. I hand-cut and mod-podged a couple of hearts over my hometown (Lubbock). The left heart represents Lubbock and the right heart represents all of the friends and family that live in surrounding towns/suburbs. 

I love how it turned out! Despite all of the steps and waiting time, this project was really simple and not time-consuming. I'm so glad I haven't been waiting to do this project since before April or anything. ;)

Happy Monday, friends!