Running Out of Wall Space

For the past week I've been on a Pinterest project kick. I may or may not have spent $50 at Hobby Lobby....included in those purchases were 3 bottles of paint, 11 paintbrushes, a gallon container of jewels, 9 packages of beads, and an American flag bandana. #'mericaya'll. 


I had been longing to inscribe Proverbs 31:25 on something to hang on my wall in the dorms at OU. "She is clothed in strength and dignity and laughs without fear of the future." Sometimes I need a reminder to laugh; the future isn't only my responsibility. It's ultimately not up to me. I scrolled through my Pinterest boards looking for inspiration but didn't find anything I wanted to copy. So I made up my own project. 

Materials:
Canvas: I used a really big one. I'm not so great at the measuring thing.
Paint: I went with brown because I wanted it to have a wooden air.
Beads: I chose a pale pink in two different sizes because I wanted a more textured look.
Jewels (optional): I used jewels for my accent words, "laugh" and "future", for some variety.
Glue: I haven't tested gravity yet, as the finished project still has residence on my bedroom floor, but so far Elmer's glue hasn't failed me in this endeavor.

Step One: Paint your canvas. I'm cheap so I purchased paint that was on sale for $1.27 so it ended up being streaky. Several coats may be in order, depending on the quality of your paint choice.
Step Two: Pick out the phrase close to your heart. This part is important, WRITE IN PENCIL FIRST. Write out the words so that you know exactly how it will fit on the surface, and this way you merely need to trace the letters with the rest of your supplies.

Glue failure

Cover the letter with glue before placing beads

Step Three: Figure out the gluing method right for you. I originally started by painstakingly dabbing glue on each individual bead and placing it on the lines I'd previously drawn out. But that takes forever. So I got lazy and traced each letter with glue, placing the beads before the glue dried. The problem there is that you tend to get lost in the project (or at least I do) and make mistakes. Like a misspelling. I misspelled TWO words out of the fourteen total. "Laughs" turned into "Laua" before I realized my error and glue smears came out of the predicament. "Dignity" morphed into "digty" before I noticed I didn't have a sinus issue and my "n's" didn't need to be silent. 

The Final Product (maybe I should clean my room sometime)

Shari's birthday present. No mistakes! 

My second attempt, Shari's birthday present with the verse, "Many women do noble things but you surpass them all" (also a gem of Proverbs 31), turned out MUCH better than my original Proverbs canvas. So much so that I couldn't wait until August 7 to surprise her with it and had to give it to her early. About a month early to be exact...oops. Patience is a virtue that A Very Lucky Girl lacks.