My little sister is all grown up, and will be going away to college next year, I can hardly believe it! It is also her birthday next month, so I wanted to make her a cute little décor piece for her room, something that is small enough that she can take with her to her dorm to give it some personality and color.  I was inspired by different recycled canvas art designs that have a masked quote that shows the colors of the canvas through the letters, but is painted everywhere else, kinda like these:

So after getting inspired, I set out to the thrift store to find myself a canvas to repurpose! The ones I found were not too colorful, so I ended up picking out a more neutral one and adding in the color myself for a similar effect. The canvas I found was pretty small, about 8 inches by 8 inches, and was already decoupage-d with pages from a book, which I though gave it a really nice texture as a background. And it was only $3! What a score!

I could not decide on a quote, and since the canvas was pretty small I decided to just go with a monogram instead- simple, and doesn’t change with your mood!

To do the lettering, you have a few options:

1. Letter stickers– This would be super convenient if you are doing a whole sentence or quote, as it keeps all the letters consistent. One thing to keep in mind is to keep an eye for wonky letters and uneven spaces!

2. Tape– you can use painters tape or washi tape to tape off a letter (or any shape, for that matter) and paint around it or within it.

3. Template– you can make your own by drawing out or printing out your letter or shape on paper and cutting it out. Either use that template as a mask, and paint around it or within it, or draw the shape on your canvas and freehand paint it.

I ended up using option 3, and drew out the letter “M” myself (my printer is broken!) and cutting it out. Next came painting- I wanted to have lots of bright colors, but I don’t have a bunch of different paint colors in my craft stash, so I had to improvise! Out came my nail-polish stash!

Using different color nail polish (including glitter and sparkle!) I carefully painted within my template. It did leak a bit around the edges, but most of it would be corrected later on.

To get a more modern look, I painted the background white with some leftover paint primer I had from our previous painting adventures. Since I wanted the texture to still come through, I diluted the primer with water to provide a more see through wash of color.

Painting the background also allowed me to go in and correct any small mistakes where the nail polish leaked around the edges, to get a cleaner look. I ended up with 2 thin coats of the primer-water-wash all over the canvas, including the sides.

This was a very quick project, and the whole thing came together in just 2 afternoons. Total cost= $3 how great is that! So happy I was able to achieve a very similar look to the inspiration pieces, without buying a bunch of supplies, and instead use what I had at home. I hope my sister likes it and displays it proudly an her dorm wall! ❤