NUMB3R Wall Art

I first shared this project over at my dear friend, Jaime's, blog, Crafty Scrappy Happy, when I co-hosted her wonderful new linky party, Crafty Scrappy Happy Me. Thursday...

Each row of numbers on this canvas is important to the members of my family (they are all of our birth dates & our wedding date)...but what I like best is that the meaning isn't overtly obvious...in fact, it's subtle enough that I don't feel weird about hanging it in my living room...

First, let me show you where I got my initial inspiration for this project...

from source via  Pinterest 

As soon as I saw this art from Andrea Steed, I knew I wanted to do something similar...

So here's what I did...

I found an old canvas that I bought a few years ago...mine was 24"x30"...grabbed some white, black & grey (not shown) art paint...and got to work.

First, I quickly (really quickly) painted the entire canvas with a coat of grey paint. It wasn't perfect, and it didn't need to be...you'll see why in a minute.

When that dried I went over the grey with white - this coat was even sloppier than the first...I didn't worry about completely covering the grey, because I knew I wanted the grey to show a little...

Then I marked off the canvas into equal parts with a ruler & pencil, making sure I had enough room for all of my dates...don't worry about the pencil lines...they'll be covered...

Next I used my Silhouette to cut out the numbers I needed from vinyl...but you certainly don"t need a Silhouette for this project. You could free-hand the numbers or print them out in a font you like, then cut them out for the next step...or you could buy the numbers from a craft or home improvement store...

I took my numbers and placed them onto my canvas...making sure that all of the edges were firmly pressed down...

Then I took my black paint and went over the entire canvas...I made sure the black completely covered all of the grey/white areas, including all of the edges of the canvas, but you could choose to give it a little more worn/shabby look by just doing a sloppy coat over the numbers...

When the paint was completely dry, I simply peeled off the vinyl numbers...

I love the way it looks in my living room...it reminds me of the old arrival & departure boards at the airport...I think it gives just the right "urban" touch to this space...and it's wonderfully personal...bonus.