How to modernize a 10-year-old color scheme.

On Monday, I got an idea for some wall art. Mostly in an attempt to do *something* with our family room. The room we spend ALL our time in.

Back in 2003, we bought some couches that are an olive green color with red piping. This was back in the day when I thought that I was most defined by deep, dark colors, red tones, ginghams, large florals. You get the picture. I must have seen the look in some 75-year-old woman's home and thought it looked hip and current.

Though, in my defense. I know LOTS of you have previously decorated in deep greens and reds and khakis. Some of you might even own a plaid couch in those hues.

Now. There's no need for name calling.

But, I am finding it hard to update that color palette without a budget that requires selling myself into prostitution (or some other suitable job that pays in currency other than poop and boogers).

And this is, once again, where the holy spirit spoke to me in Hobby Lobby. With the 30%-off all artist canvases sale. Bright light. Cloud of smoke. Fabric. Black? Acrylic paint. Freezer paper.

Enter chorus of angels. Behold! The freezer-paper-stencil-canvas.

Now, I am no freezer-paper expert. But I bought a whole roll/box of it at our local grocery store last year, and it will last me for the rest of my life. Basically, it is waxy on one side, and like paper on the other. This allows you to draw and cut a shape or letter as a stencil on the paper side, and then iron the waxy side onto whatever item you want to decorate. Google freezer-paper stenciling...you'll get a million tutorials that explain it in coherent sentences.

I wanted to stencil some twill fabric with LARGE letters and symbols. So I jumped into Microsoft Word, typed the single letter I wanted and enlarged it to size 600. Then I hit print, and cut the letter out, to serve as my stencil template. I used a scissors, but if your font or object is small or precise, you may think about an X-acto knife.





Once my letter was cut out, I placed it on the paper side of the freezer paper and traced it. Then I cut it out, and VOILA! My stencil was ready to be ironed on to my fabric.



Once it was attached by iron, to the fabric, I painted it with black, acrylic paint. Since these are pieces that are going to hang on my wall and never be washed, I went with acrylic, but if this were a wearable item, I'd probably be safe and use fabric paint.

Then I waited (impatiently) for it to dry.

Once the paint is dry, you can peel the freezer paper off...it comes off smoothly, like butter. And I have heard rumor that you can use the same stencil multiple times.

Next, I centered my letter on to the blank canvases. I left plenty of space on all sides of my newly-painted letter, so that my fabric could adequately wrap around the canvas frame. For reference, I am using an 8x10 canvas for the letters and a 16x20 canvas for the "&" sign.

Once the fabric is in place on the canvas, staple that baby down. You will need a staple gun, and here's where you go crazy, tacking the fabric to the wooden canvas frame. Watch the corners!!! The only place you want to really pay attention to is the corners, and the way you fold the fabric...you'll want to keep it tight and neat, because it will affect the look a little. Think of wrapping the ends of a present...try to keep it all tight and uniform. Pay ZERO attention to the way the back looks. Unless you are super anal, and cannot handle not having straight lines and 90 degree angles on the back of a picture that no-one-will-freaking-ever-see. Then you have problems, and I cannot help you because I am only clean and tidy for the sake of appearance. Hence, the basement that feeds sewer rats and eats small children.

When it's done, it looks like this:

I'm putting the couch color scheme in there, so you get a feel for what I'm working with. I *think* the start white, black and gray brings something modern to the table. But who knows.

Tomorrow, I will show you where I am hanging these bad boys, because that is the second half of the plan. Which involves me and nails and MATH. So you know it has disaster written all over it.