{vroom vroom}

You know what's better than a good DIY project?

A free one!

By free I mean that I already had all of the supplies, most of them for so long now that I don't remember what I paid for them. So in my mind, that made them free. :)

Now on to the project. Ben's room needed some more art, and something to cover up the radio/intercom system on his wall. I wanted it to be graphic and bold, and coordinate with his car bedding. So I took a cue from the words on his comforter...

And I gathered my supplies:

• 16x20 art canvas
• light blue craft paint
• discarded CVS card (I'll show you how this comes in handy in a sec)
• paint brush
• pencil
• patterned paper
• white paper
• mod podge

I downloaded a free font from dafont.com that reminded me of the font on the bedding, and printed out the word "vroom" in the size I wanted. Then I cut out the letters, traced them onto my patterned paper {backwards on the back of the paper} and cut them out again.

To paint the canvas, I used a little trick that I learned from Melody Ross to speed up the process. I squirted a long line of paint across one end of the canvas, and used the side of my CVS card to drag the paint across it...

 This technique gives you an even and thin coat of paint super quickly, and it dries a lot faster. Considering I started this project when the boys were begging me to play with them, tricks like this are a lifesaver. I then used a paint brush to do the edges of the canvas and do the finish coat.

Once the paint was dry, I laid out my letters and some cute clouds I free-handed on white paper on the canvas. Once I had the arrangement I wanted, I used my new best friend mod podge to glue everything down, making sure I covered the entire front of the canvas with a thin coat of glue.

And here is the finished canvas!

It really gives his room the pop of color I was looking for. And I'm so proud that I was able to create this without going out and buying a single thing!

You never know what you might have laying around your house that you could turn into awesome art.

And I think Ben likes it too..

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