Easy Wall Art

Back when I first started this blog, I would often write about my admiration for the CBC show Being Erica. I regularly watched the show as it aired on CBC. After four seasons, the show ended and I was left without the adventures of "Erica Strange."

One of my favorite things about he show was Erica's apartment. I loved the set and the way the set designer decorated the apartment. On the wall of Erica's bathroom was a poster that read "Keep Calm and Carry On;" this message was very fitting for the theme of the show. I had never seen the poster elsewhere, this was before the Keep Calm trend took off. I went on the internet to research the poster and find a place to buy one. It was interesting to see the origins of the poster and how they were used in England, fun history, really. I have found various copies of the print online. I even have a mug and a journal with the message printed on them. However, I have never found a version that I really loved. I have kept an eye out for what I wanted and nearly gave up. Then, I went to the Dollar Tree and found wall stickers made by Main Street Wall Creations which had the Keep Calm message for you to stick on your wall. I bought the wall stickers and decided to be creative...

I happened to have stretched canvas, white latex wall paint, a paint brush and lavender acrylic craft paint on hand. I used lavender and lilac acrylic craft paint to tint white latex wall paint; which I used to coat the entire surface of the canvas.

I painted 4 coats of lavender paint, waiting for each to coat to dry before applying another. Once the paint was completely dry, I then placed the stickers onto the canvas. I used my journal, with the Keep Calm phrase printed on the cover, as a guide as to where the place the stickers. I also used a ruler to locate the center of the canvas; this enabled me to eyeball the approximate placement of each sticker.

I really like the end result. It was very easy to do and a very inexpensive project. Considering I already had most of the materials for the project on hand, I only invested $1.00 to make this wall art. Now, I have the poster that I always wanted! If you find this sticker, or another sticker that you like, at the Dollar Tree, this is very easy to do. You can purchase acrylic craft paint for $.50- $1.00 and if you can't find a stretched canvas, you could buy a cheap painting at a thrift store and blank out the painting with white or black craft paint before adding layers of the color that you want for your poster. This project could be made with a very small investment. So, keep an eye out at those summer yard sales for fun future projects and have fun! Until next time! Toodahloo!