I'm in the process of decorating some new shelves and really wanted a pop of turquoise in a couple of spots. I'm also trying to add meaningful items as I spruce things up so these state canvases were the perfect solution. I'm an Oregon native (my ancestors were among the first 50 wagons on the Oregon Trail), but we truly love living in Arizona (even though the move 20 years ago was supposed to be temporary) so I included both states on my shelves.
I got these 2 slanted 8 x 8 canvases at Michaels and they are terrific because they can sit anywhere on the shelf without having to lean against the back of the shelf. They were 7.99 each (but I had a coupon). The acrylic colors I picked are plain old white (in satin) for touch ups, Apple Red 2901, and Patina 2951. I got a few new paint brushes too.
First I found silhouettes of the states on Google images and sized them to around 6 inches across using Adobe Illustrator (you can probably do the same in Gimp or any other graphic editing software). Then I used some tracing paper (the kind used for tracing sewing patterns) between the canvas and the printed page and traced around the state with a pointy pen).
Here's the canvas after I traced on it.
I carefully painted within the lines and ended up needing 3 coats of paints to get it really covered.
I traced a little heart over our cities and painted the hearts red.
I love them! They look perfect on my new shelves and make my heart happy.
Yay! Such a simple and fun project.
