BABY STATS SUBWAY ART

This tutorial is available in my eBook "Top 20 Crafts from: The Winthrop Chronicles" buy your copy HERE

I made this subway wall art for Elly's room. I wanted to be able to always remember those important stats because I forget them so easily, especially with three kids! To make it, I used the same technique as the photo on wood wall hanging.

To make:

first. Create the subway art: I made the first subway arts in Picnik and PicMonkey, but I have found that it is easier in Powerpoint, so now I make them all in powerpoint, because that allows me to switch the sizes, colors, font direction and fonts really easy. Before I made it, I downloaded some fonts. Here are the fonts I used: "4.23.11" (steak), "Saturday" (georgia), "elly brynn" (arial black), "12:46 am" (ff confidential but you could use social animal which is similar), "19 3/4 inches long" (courier new), "pounds ounces" (epilog), "6" (king cool kc), "11" (love ya like a sister). Just google the font name and you will be able to find a free download, (except for the ff confidential, so I now use social animal which is free).

In Powerpoint, create a new blank slide. Switch the paper so that it is vertical. Create a new text box for each word. That allows you to have all of the words different fonts, sizes, and colors, etc. 

The size of the font will depend on the information you are entering in. You can also use an option in powerpoint that stretches the word to fit the space. I think it looks better with less white space. It is the "a<->v" button at the top, near all of the other font options.

When you are done, just hit print in powerpoint and it will print the subway art to fill the entire page.
second. Print the subway art on a thick card stock.
third. Cut a piece of wood to be 8.5 inches x 11 inches (the size of the paper). I just buy common board from Home Depot that is 12 inches x 8 feet long then I can make a ton. The wood is about 3/4 inches thick.

fourth. Paint the piece of wood white on all sides.

fifth. Drill a hole half way through the board on the back at the top so that you can hang it on a nail.

sixth. When the paint dries, use matte mod podge and apply a thin layer of glue to the front of the piece of wood. Then place the subway art card stock on top of the glue. Press it down with a dry cloth to get any bubbles out.

seventh. After the glue dries, use sandpaper to distress the edges of the wood. It will rip the paper a little but that just adds to the distressed look I think. I use a coarse sandpaper for the wood and then use a very fine sandpaper to lightly go over the letters. If you rub the letters with sandpaper too much, the colors will bleed, so go very lightly in a circular motion. You don't have to do this part, but I like the distressed look it gives.

eighth: When you are done sanding, apply a thin top coat of the matte mod podge. I make sure that I do this quickly and a very thin coat. And that's it!

I hung mine on the wall but you could also just set it on a dresser or mantel. I think I am a bit obsessed with this type of art work because it's basically free and so easy!

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