Tutorial Thursday: Painter's Tape Art!

I have a large supply of canvases at my house for some reason, and they've been just lying there uselessly for months now.  I did do a few experiments with transferring photos to them, which was fun but got old quickly.   I'm not at all what you would call talented in the art department, so painting something of my own creation wasn't really an option.  My fourth grade teacher once told me that my drawing of a horse looked like it was walking on little boxes instead of hooves, and then she called it garbage.  (She may have been having her period that day, I'm not sure.)  And my skills have not improved since then, apparently.  My two-year-old niece told me to draw a dragon for her a couple weeks ago, and when I attempted it, she pointed at it and said, "Poop!"  Ouch.

So I got desperate...and asked Google what I should do with my canvas.  And it took me to the Casa Sugar blog , where I found a really sweet DIY project involving a canvas, paint, and tape.  Really!  That's it!  I'm sure you could use any masking tape, but painter's tape pretty much ensures no leaking through of the paint.  The painter's tape I used was way too thick for what I wanted, so I had to cut each piece in half.  Basically, you just cut strips of tape and place them across your canvas in whatever artsy pattern you desire.  I chose a crazy, modern looking pattern, but you can do stripes, chevron, whatever!

When your tape is where you want it, you can go as crazy as you'd like with the paint.  I chose a light turquoise color that I found in our basement.  This project is great because it costs next to nothing:  you hardly need any paint at all, depending on the size of your canvas.  If you paint the sides of the canvas, be sure to rest it on something else as it dries so it doesn't stick to whatever you're painting on (I rested it on a paint can).  Once the whole thing is covered in paint, peel your tape off while the paint is still wet - this will reveal the cool strips of white.

I was planning on leaving it all turquoise and white, but it looked a little blah.  So I decided it needed some sparkle!  ...I used gold sparkly nail polish to paint random spots on the canvas.  No, nail polish is not paint, but whatever, it was pretty.  You can use however many paint colors (or nail polishes!) you'd like!  Some people suggest painting over the white strips with acrylic, but I just left it as is.  Fun and SUPER easy!

Happy crafting! 

xoxochelsea