Custom Vinyl Plaque & Other Vinyl Sayings

A good friend of mine that I still keep in contact with even though we now live many states away and have not worked together for over 7 years now had several requests for vinyl sayings. She is so good at finding bargains and turning old, out-dated items into new, one of a kind, awesome art pieces. I wish I had her eye and imagination to do the same for in my house!

One of the requests my friend had was to make a square sign that said "YOU CAME ALL THIS WAY MIGHT AS WELL COME IN" in brown vinyl. I made the sign where each line was a different size but all the same font and a perfect rectangle. My friend found an old plaque that was literally covered with pilgrims, sanded it down, painted it and roughed it up to provide an antique finish. When all done, my vinyl saying was applied and this is the final product!

I love how the sign turned out!

My friend also needed in brown vinyl, a saying of her last name "Ayala" and another that said "Once Upon a Time...". She used these sayings to complement a gorgeous wall filled with family pictures and other pieces of art.

Like I said...I wish I had her imagination and eye for decoration!

Super Hero in Training - Custom Canvas

I am STILL working on my son's Super Hero room and came across a perfect idea that would fit right next to my son's bed. The idea was great, the cost was way too expensive so I made my own!

From Red Envelope I ran across this canvas which starts at $79. I decided to take one of my 16 x 20 inch canvases (bigger then the $79 finished product) that I purchased for under $5 at Michaels and started from there. Even though the canvas is already white, I decided to add several coats of white paint on it. The paint adds extra texture and I wanted the canvas to have a brush stroke effect where you could see brush strokes when looking at it from different angles. I then added one coat of Modge Podge to give a glossy finish AND to add more texture. This will make it easier to attach the vinyl onto the canvas. I do have a little secret up my sleeve which is the best idea my husband has ever had! It is this!

I know it doesn't look like much, but this is a piece of drywall that my husband cut to fit perfectly inside the back of the canvas. You could use any type of wood or board, we just have tons of extra drywall in our garage so my husband used that. By having this inside the back of the canvas you do not have any sag when applying the vinyl to the front of the canvas. It's now as solid as a hard cover book or a table.

Now that my canvas is painted and prepped to add vinyl, I needed a special logo. I could use Captain America's logo which is what is shown on the Red Envelope site, but I have that sign further down the wall where I want to put this canvas on. I searched the Internet for ideas and found the perfect solution! From The Lady Wolf's blog I found this set of files that had the perfect Super Hero logo for my son! This is the Superman's logo but instead of "S" for Superman, I can replace it with "B" for my son's name. My canvas now looks like this!

The 2 red lines are just markers as I layered my image prior to putting it on the canvas. I also need the markers to line up the text on the bottom half of the canvas. I now followed the same theme as Red Envelope for the bottom half of the canvas. I used red and blue for the bottom half as that is also the same colors for Superman.

The picture above shows the bottom half lined up by using the markers and taped on. After taking the transfer tape off and removing the temporary markers, we have the finished product.

At this point, all I did was add one more layer of Modge Podge to secure the vinyl on the canvas. I also did this because I used glossy vinyl for the red but the blue and the yellow had a matte finish. After using Modge Podge, the entire canvas now has a glossy finish. Here is the canvas in my son's Super Hero room!

Excuse the top of my son's head in the picture, I was tucking him in for bed and didn't see he made it in the shot! But...for literally pennies on the dollar I love how my son's new canvas turned out! And if you like Super Heroes then please check out the rest of the blogs in October as nearly all of them are about Super Heroes!

Graffiti or Custom Art???

I typically do not blog only on my son's room but that has been my main focus this last month! I know this will be my only chance for the next few years as it's only once that your boy outgrows a twin size bed and moves up into a full size bed. It would have been so much easier to just purchase full size Disney Cars bedding to match his room decor but instead we have completely taken out everything associated with cars and switched over to Superheros.

Nearly every blog this month has been on Superheros so what is one more??? Well, you will still get a few more but this is a nice, short and sweet blog on graffiti. In previous posts I cut out different Superhero logos out of styrofoam, painted them and then framed them onto the wall. While doing this one of my scrap stryofoam pieces was the Batman logo.

The piece wasn't perfect enough to just hang on the wall so I decided to temporary place it on the wall, just long enough for my husband to take a can of spray paint and over spray the Batman logo. We then removed the stryofoam piece from the wall and now have this!

I then went to my loyal Cricut and cut out a bright yellow vinyl sign that simply just said "Batman" to place in the middle of the graffiti. And now I'm hoping this "graffiti" can now be called "art"! :)

Oh...and I have to mention...when we showed my son the new "sign" the very thing he notices is the sign just to the right of the door of this!

I had also cut that out earlier in the day...so he doesn't notice a 2 foot wide spray painted sign of Batman but a 6 inch wide, little tiny sign of "POW"... Once my son did finally notice the Batman he did love it!

NY Cityscape Vinyled - Superhero Room cont.

My son's Superhero room is still a work in progress. The major stuff is done now it's time to add little things throughout the room. This blog is a simple project that made a big difference to one wall of my son's room.

I found online different cityscapes and decided on New York city since I know at least a few of the superheros protected that city in their prime. I wanted to make the cityscape as big as possible, which meant I had to piece the sign together. I have the height as 11.5 and then the width is 63 inches wide. I could have gone wider but then I would also need to piece together the vertical parts of the puzzle too since I'm past the height of my Cricut mat. With the current width of 63 inches I had two cuts in my one-piece city-scape that I had to line up on the wall just perfectly to make it appear seamless. Because I lined it up directly above the chair rail and having the vinyl all black, it was relatively easy to ensure everything lined up perfectly!

Here is a before picture of my son's room without the cityscape.

And now a couple pictures of the newly added cityscape!

You may notice that I have new blue cubbies underneath the cityscape. That came from my youngest son's room. And the garbage can is new! That is going to be my son's new laundry basket. I haven't decided if I want to paint it or not as I have seen some cool looking painted garbage cans converted into laundry baskets. And by the way...the lid is my son's favorite piece of the entire room as it's also a SHIELD! I also have new green and blue baskets. I purchased those from JoAnn's Fabrics a few months ago at 75% off, the total cost of 5 baskets was under $10! More pictures to follow on this room very soon!

Custom Captain America and Superman Custom Signs

In a previous post I explained how to make a Batman sign out of stryofoam and then to frame it out of floor trim.  This post is very similar but is for Captain America and Superman.  And I also want to give credit to where I found this awesome idea from the blog, All Things Thrifty, specifically this post (for Captain America) and this post (for Superman). 

Just like in the Batman sign, the biggest difference in my signs compared to the one on "All Things Thrifty" is that I'm using stryofoam and she uses mdf board.  The mdf board would be far sturdier and easier to paint but with limited tools on hand, I chose to use stryofoam.  The total costs of the projects between the two materials is probably pretty similar. 

I am combining my Superman and Captain America signs into one blog as I realize I did not take many pictures of Captain America.  To start, I cut out the Superman logo with my Cricut and pieced the vinyl sections together onto the stryofoam.  I then cut out the black and red vinyl sections.

The next step was to paint a cherry red and many coats onto the stryofoam.  The stryofoam takes many coats and you want it to dry completely between coats.  Spray paint works much better but only a few colors are available in the type of spray paint that is safe to use on stryofoam. 

The next step is to add bright yellow felt to the back of the Superman logo.  I decided to cut it into sections to ensure a secure fit.

And here is the front of Superman after the felt is attached!

As I mentioned before, I failed to take many pictures of Captain America.  However, now you can see what Captain America looks like after being cut, painted and having the blue felt attached. 

I used blue felt and white felt for this sign.  I did paint the star white and the rings a bright red.  The blue felt is already attached and I'm just getting ready to attach the white felt.  The next picture shows where I am at with all three signs.  Things are starting to look pretty good!

And now we see all three signs with the back styrofoam piece attached.

For Captain America I chose a silver/gray color so that the white will stand out on the logo.  If you have already seen my Batman post then you know we still have one more step to do.  The picture below shows what my awesome husband did to really make the signs stand out in my son's room.

My husband took extra floor trim that we had, cut all of the pieces and painted them a semi-gloss black.  Then he attaches the Superhero signs on the wall and with a staple gun, he frames the signs to the wall.  The finished signs are below!

The room is starting to look pretty sharp and my son is so excited to see all of the Superhero stuff in his room!  There are more Superhero stuff in the room that you can see my checking out my other posts and there is more still to come!  When everything is all complete I will make sure and post all angles of the room until then I hope you like what you see! 

Custom Batman Sign

This project proved to be a little more time consuming then I expected but I love the end result!  If you have read my previous posts this last month you can probably guess I'm still decorating my son's Superhero room.  I found this idea to make Superhero logos from the blog, All Things Thrifty, specifically this post.  I used the same 3 logos from the blog and the same dimensions.  However, I did not have a scroll saw, projector and some of the other necessary tools to complete a project of this magnitude.  That is, until I discovered the many uses of stryofoam!  I think by the time I have finished my son's room he will have more stryofoam then anything else and no one will even know it!

Because I did not have a projector, I cut out the logos in vinyl with my cricut.  This was also not as easy as it sounds because my cricut is limited to sizes of 12 x 24 inches but my logos were more like 24 x 28 inches in size.  So I had to piece together the logos onto the stryofoam and then I used a specialized stryofoam knife to cut out the logo.  The knife is plugged in and heated to a very high temperature and smells horribly when cutting; however, it cuts the stryofoam like butter!  Super easy!  Just have to take it slow and follow the lines!

The picture below shows the vinyl pieced together of the Batman logo that I want to cut.  I want to keep the section in white and cut out the black.

And the picture below shows the stryrofoam cut out!

 By following the post on "All Things Thrifty", I cut the piece a bright yellow!  This is where my trouble starts.  With stryofoam you need to have very specific paint or it will eat away the stryofoam.  The same holds true for glue!  Most craft or acrylic paint will work, it's best to brush it on and not use spray paint (which would have been much easier) but it's best to read the bottle to ensure the paint will work.  Here is my new yellow Batman logo!

 The next step was to pin and then glue black felt behind the yellow piece and then attach everything to a black painted board (in my case stryofoam).  The next picture shows everything glued together!
 

And here is the sign above my son's bed!

Because, the sign is made out of stryofoam the edges are not as smooth and finished as I would like.  I love the look but up close, it is rough looking.  So I had my husband use extra floor trim that we had and frame the entire sign.  Before he did that, my husband painted the trim a semi-gloss black.  And this is the finished look!

I think the frame just makes the entire sign stand out!  AND I have finished the Superman and Captain America signs as well!  My husband framed and painted and put them all on my son's wall.  Sometimes I am really happy to have a rained out weekend as my son's room went from nearly all bare walls to an almost finished Superhero room in less then 24 hours.  I will post the other 2 signs and an updated picture of the entire room very soon!

Friends and Brothers are Better then Superheros!

In a previous post, I showed how to make photo canvases by using stryofoam and fabric.  Now, you will see how these canvases look on the wall!  With a special, vinyl sign above it!

To attach the canvases I used a product I bought at Walmart called Command Strips, very similar to velcro but does not hurt the wall (or paint) when you want to remove it.  Because my canvases are super light this seemed to be the easiest way to attach it. 

As you can tell by the picture above I used tape as markers to ensure the bottom was straight and that all pictures were the right distance from each other.  At this point I wasn't sure if I wanted to put the sign above or below the canvases so was placing them temporarily on the wall to determine the right location.  The next picture shows the final product!

Now you can see the entire wall!  It's still not finished but getting very close!

Custom Photo Canvas - Sneak Peak

A new project for my son's Super Hero Room is almost complete!  In previous posts I have shared the window valance we made out of stryofoam and 2 custom fabric canvases all in the Super Hero theme.  For this project, I found the idea from the blog, Tales From the Crib, specifically this post. 

For this project I used many of the same supplies as listed in the Tales from the Crib blog but not all of them.  I already had 1 1/2 inch stryofoam on hand as I had used this to create one of the big super hero fabric canvases in a previous post.  I also used black fabric, various crafting pins, a t-shirt, stapler, adhesive glue spray and tacky glue.  Because my prints were different sizes I ordered the photos from Ezprints.com.  I decided on 10 prints ranging in size from 4x5, 4x8, 12x12 and 12x18.  I graphed out how I wanted the pictures to be displayed on the wall and determined the entire size will be 40 inches wide by 32 inches tall.  When finished I am going to make a vinyl sign above the canvases.  

Just like the Tales from the Crib blog, the hardest part of my project was deciding on what photos to use and what sizes would work.  I wanted pictures of my son with his friends and his brother but it is difficult to find ones that will work in black and white.  I found that outdoor pictures or ones against plain backgrounds worked the best which meant that I couldn't include all of my son's friends but should be able to interchange the pictures out as he matures.

Once I had the stryofoam cut to the specific sizes I needed, I doubled layered the fabric to ensure no white showed through from the stryofoam and then secured it with different pins on the backside.  Then I went back and stapled the fabric to ensure the fabric stayed nice and tight.  Here is what the back of the canvas looked like:

 
Then on the front of the canvas, I sprayed Elmer's Craft Bond which is a multi-purpose spray adhesive.  Once sprayed, I placed the picture over it.  The picture secures very well so you have to be very careful when lining the picture on top of the canvas.  If you do mess up, it is possible to remove the picture and start over.  Once the picture is aligned I took a t-shirt and just pressed the picture into the canvas ensuring that it's nice and flat.

And here is a sneak preview of my 10 canvases!  Notice that 4 of the pictures the boys are in Super Hero costumes!

This project was so simple and very inexpensive!  I paid $35 for the pictures, the stryofoam I already had but would have been about $5 or so based on it being a 1/3rd of a big sheet of stryofoam which costs $15.  The fabric was $7 and all other supplies I had on hand.  I will post an updated picture when it's on the wall with a brand new vinyl sign above it but wanted to show a sneak peak of my almost complete project!   

Vinyl Halloween Luminaries

I love Halloween and I love finding new things to make!  A few weeks ago I came across a blog called "Sugar Plum Delights" and fell in love with this idea to make Halloween Luminaries!  The project was simple but very messy!  The main reason why it was messy is because I used too much Modge Podge and did not allow for enough dry time in between the layers of tissue paper; however the end result still turned out great!

For this project, I needed different colors of tissue paper, Modge Podge, 3 glass jars, a lighting source and 3 Halloween designs for the front of the jar which I used vinyl to adhere to the jar. 

The first step is to cut the tissue paper to the approximate height and width of the jar.  Then brush on a thin layer of Modge Podge onto the entire jar.  Quickly, wrap the tissue paper onto the jar before the Modge Podge dries.  The picture below shows the jars with one layer of tissue paper attached to the jar.   

Now, after the tissue paper is on and the Modge Podge has had a chance to dry, apply a second layer of Modge Podge over the tissue paper.  Then wrap a second layer of tissue paper on the jar.  Once that dries, you can apply the Halloween design onto the jar.  I used vinyl but one could paint a design, cut out construction paper and glue it on or I'm sure there are many other possibilities.  Once the design is on, add a couple more layers of Modge Podge to the jar.  This will provide a nice shiny finish and protect it from rain, snow or any other outside elements.  The picture below shows the jars drying upside down (only way I could figure out how to do it without having the Modge Podge stick to the table).

And here are the finished Halloween Luminaries! 

I do not have the lights in them which you wouldn't be able to see anyway since it's too light out.  Battery operated Candle Votives work but I would prefer more light for the darker colored jars.  I also found some battery operated lights that I placed upside down onto the top of the jar from Walgreens.  It was a package of 3 LED puck lights from First Alert for $5 and these provide much more light!  The back of it looks like a lid on the jar which finishes off the entire look.  I tried to take a picture of that in the dark but it didn't turn out, I'll play around with that and if I get it to work I'll post another picture. 

Custom Super Hero Valance

Lately, a good portion of my projects have been to convert my son's bedroom from a Disney Cars room to a Super Hero room.  I decided to create a custom valance for the room made out of styrofoam.  The only reason I knew that this is possible to do is from a very good friend of mine, Ali, who is so creative and inspiring.  She had created custom valances for every window in her house out of stryofoam so I had to try it out. 

I did not take pictures while creating the valance but will be working on another valance very soon and will ensure pictures are taken then.  But, it is relatively simple to do especially if you have an extra set of hands to help.  I went back to my very creative and inspiring friend, Ali, for tips and what "not to do" and also used this website for a step by step tutorial.  I used 1/2 inch thick styrofoam and then went to Michael's to find some glue that will work specifically for stryofoam as most glues will "eat it".  Toothpicks, T-pins, tape, a stapler, batting and fabric is the rest of my supply list. 

When putting the pieces together we did a very thin line of glue and then inserted toothpicks to secure the pieces of foam together.  That was it, after letting it sit for maybe 30 minutes we wrapped the stryofoam with batting which I actually secured with clear, mover's tape.  When attaching the fabric, we secured it with T-pins but then also the stapler.  The hardest part was the corners, wrapping it so no bulges appeared.  Realistically, the stapler was not needed and on my second canvas, we did not use the stapler at all.  I don't think it matters either way, my thought process was by only securing with T-pins it would be easier to remove the fabric and re-wrap when you wanted a new look.  However, you could just wrap new fabric over the existing fabric too so I think either way is fine.  And, I even went up to 1 inch thick stryofoam now to test on the third valance that I will be completing very soon.  I doubt it will make any difference but just wanted to see for myself.

My final super hero custom valance is now complete and my son loves it!

To the right of the Superman valance is a canvas of Spiderman.  That is also made out of stryofoam and you can read all about it on the blog right below this one!  : )

Custom Super Hero Canvases

This is a personal project I have been working on for my 5 year old boy who is in love with Superheros!  For the past 3 years his room was decorated with Disney Cars and as part of that decoration, my husband built a big frame and we wrapped it with a panel of fabric that was of Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen.  This simple and very inexpensive project was my FAVORITE piece of the entire room.  So I was a little sad on having to transition his room into Superheros and thus losing this custom piece until I realized that I can easily change it by re-wrapping it into a Superhero canvas! 

The only reason we had to redecorate my son's room is because he outgrew his twin size bed and we upgraded to a full-size bed.  So when shopping for a new bedspread my son had to have 6 different Superheros on it!  And believe me...finding a bedspread with Incredible Hulk, the Thing, Wolverine, Captain Amercia, Spiderman and several others on it was almost impossible.  However, Bed Bath & Beyond was my hero and literally the day I found this bedspread with bedsheets and extra pillow cases/shams, I received a 20% coupon in my inbox!   Perfect timing! 

Now I'm back to redecorating his room and wanting to fill it with as many unique and custom Superhero pieces as possible.  I still plan on buying a few wall stickers of the Superheros; however, for now I am working on many different projects to provide a personalized room that fits my son and will last for many years.  Back to that custom piece my husband helped me with in the Disney Cars room...well this is what the piece looked like:

I purchased a panel of fabric at Hobby Lobby on sale for under $5 and my husband built the frame.  We then attached poster board on the front of the frame for added support.  For under $10 we had a huge piece of art that was so vibrant and sharp looking!  The picture does not do it justice.  Now, all of the Cars stickers are gone and a new, bigger bed is in the room so we need to redecorate.  I went searching for new Superhero panels of fabric that would work and found several on Ebay.  We decided to use Batman since that was one of the Superheros not included on the bedspread and we now have this new piece of art!

As you can tell, we rotated the canvas for Batman and it looks super sharp!  The problem is that we really now need 2 pieces of art at this size because of where we had to hang Batman.  So back to Ebay I went and I found Spiderman!  But now I need to ask my husband to build another frame.....except for I came up with an even better idea!  Instead of building one...I decided to go to Home Depot and buy a 4 x 8 foot piece of 1 1/2 inch thick sheet of stryofoam.  This cost about $14 and I had the guy cut it to the exact dimensions of Batman for free!  I did not waste the rest of the styrofoam as that is for a different project that I will post soon. 

Now with this super light-weight piece of styrofoam I wrapped Spiderman around it and secured it with t-pins.  So the back of the artwork looks like this:

To hang the stryofoam I found a product from Walmart called Command by 3M.  It is like velcro but will not damage your walls when you remove and was super easy and cheap to use.  Just place one piece on the canvas and the adjacent piece on the wall, just like how velcro would work.  And Spiderman next to Batman looks like this:

You cannot even tell that one is framed out of wood and the other is stryofoam...unless if you lifted them as the weight difference is significant!  And here are the 2 pieces of art in my son's room on the opposite wall from where the Disney Cars sign used to hang.  I still need to put something under my son's name but I wanted to show how it looked on the wall. 

I apologize for such a long post but this is so cheap and easy to do and the finished project really stands out in a room.  I have found that the easiest way to search for something and to find items that you would not find in your local store is to search for "panel fabric" plus whatever specific theme you are looking for as both Batman and Spiderman come in the exact same size, as well as the Disney Cars one I had previously made.