Wednesday, June 6, 2012

You are my sunshine...

One of my youngest daughter's favorite songs is, You Are My Sunshine.  I've been wanting to make a piece of subway art using the words to the song for the top floating shelf in her living room.  The shelf needed something taller and in her yellow accent color.  Sometimes it takes me time to mull over how I'm going to do a project before I can get started.  Normally, it doesn't take a year to figure it out...

I went out to my honey's wood stash in the garage and found the perfect size piece of birch plywood for the art work along with some small pieces to raise the wood up off the plastic I placed over the counter top.  I also grabbed the Kilz 2 to prime the wood on all sides after I sanded all the surfaces.




Tip:  Line your paint pan with foil for quick and easy clean up.  I used a small foam roller for the project.

After two layers of Kilz 2 dried, I chose my favorite words from the song and began putting them on the board with letter stickers.  The letters on the edge actually go off the edge 1/4".  It looks more interesting!  Once I got the words where I wanted them and smoothed them down with a bone folder, I painted the front and sides yellow.  Then I used a Victorian stencil to put a light yellow design on the front with a stencil sponge brush and acrylic paint.







Once the yellow dried, I mixed some white and turquoise to use as an accent color for the piece.  I borrowed a technique from my oldest daughter and put some of the turquoise on a piece of bubble wrap with a brayer and laid it on opposite corners for some added textural interest.





For the next step, I used an old paint brush.  I dipped just the ends of the bristles in the paint then dabbed most of the paint off on a paper towel.  I then dry brushed the turquoise over the front working top to bottom. 




I removed the letter stickers and dry brushed the edges.




 I also used a pallet knife and the turquoise paint to add some crosshatch marks.



It turned out better than I had hoped and my daughter loves it!


I think I'll have to make a piece of subway art for my craft room.  With pink and gray, of course!

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