Showing posts with label Subway Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Subway Art. Show all posts

April 26, 2012

✥ Easy Restoration Hardware Subway Sign "95th" Knock Off ✥

Life has been kinda busy- you know, with having to read the whole Hunger Games series on top of real life commitments! So this week will be an easy peasy little project! Good news is- it will be easy peasy for you guys too, if you plan to make your own!!

Back when Z had a real office, ahem- before the living in the condo-ness- I had a bunch of black frames up in there. Since then, they've lived in a box in storage. When I saw this subway art on the Restoration Hardware site I knew my frame was a dead ringer for theirs! Perfect! 
Well, almost perfect, see theirs is ginormous. Like 8 feet tall or something. So, I guess mine is the "mini-me" version of their awesomeness! 
Buuut, mine was almost free since I had the frame on-hand. Even new it was less than 10 bucks at Walmart {of all places} The subway art print cost me 10 cents {seriously, 10 cents!} to print up at Staples. Just tell'em you want an engineering print. They can print just about any size you'd like! 

HOW TO: I used the background for my one of my other knock offs, for Z Gallerie subway art. In that post you can see how, using Microsoft Publisher, I make the background look like it has some dimension. Then you pick a few fonts and add the names. E. Z.
I made mine an homage to Boston. I grew up in the suburbs there, and I'll always love that area! This one took almost no time at all- super doable project. By using a little creativity with Word you could make an exact duplicate- if you wanted to!

What do you guys think? Not too shabby for a 10 minute project, no? Beside, I hadn't made myself any "art" in awhile- and it felt good to get back in the saddle. Thanks for reading!

February 2, 2012

✥ Restoration Hardware Eye Charts {Hack} ✥

Hello dearies, remember a few weeks ago when I shared an eye chart  I made?  It was inspired by this one from Restoration Hardware?











And I mentioned that I wasn't stoked with it's placement on the gallery wall. I feel like the black was too heavy for the wall. It kept pulling my eye to the bottom corner like a black hole or an eye chart magnet!

I know, I know- you couldn't tell from the pics I posted. Well, that's cuz I totally moved some frames around and intentionally only took pics of half the photo wall. Sooo sneaky, I know! But now you know the ugly truth- so this is how I fixed it.
After some thought I figured the perfect solution would be to move the eye chart to the opposite wall from the gallery. {see? ☝} I figured I'd turn my print into some canvas art and, while I was at it, I'd make something larger scale to fill up that blank space. 
I felt my "Tumbling E" eye chart would look lonely and kinda sad by itself- so I whipped up another eye chart. This time it was Restoration Hardware's more traditional "Letters" chart.
 
For all you newbies my lil blog- I made my eye charts in  Microsoft Word Publisher- which is awesome cuz it's free, yo!  I wrote up all the nitty gritty details here-when I showed how to mimic Z Gallerie's subway art.
Back to the eye charts-here's the abbreviated directions-

Making an eye chart is a piece of cake. 
1] Select a font. I looked for fonts here.
2] Create columns on both sides of the page. This is where you will put the distances on each side.
3] Fill in the numbers/letters you want.
4] Choose background colors to create a worn/distressed or weathered look. Again, the tutorial for that stage is found here.

-TIP-When I made my 2nd eye chart {the "letters" version} all I did was adapt my 1st "Tumbling E's" eye chart. I replaced the "E's" with the right letters, using the sizes and spacing as a guide. I also changed up the shading effects for the background- to make sure the two versions wouldn't look like clones of each other.

5] Print'em up. I had my posters printed up at Staples cuz they're the cheapest. They only cost me $3.50 since I had them printed up in black and white.
6] Attach them to a canvas. I use Mod Podge to do this-mostly because I like the glossy finish when it's done.

7] The letters on RH's eye charts are tan-ish. Since I didn't want to pay for a color print {they're crazy expensive}, I painted over top of my letters. I used craft paint mixed with a little glaze to turn my letters off-white.
I really like that it makes the signs look hand painted and it creates more dimension to the finished piece.
You can see the eye charts from every angle in the entry/ living room/hallway. One of the benefits of condo living? {yeah right}
My canvases are 18"x24" and cost like 5 bucks for both. The prints cost me $3.50.  Now Restoration Hardware's canvases are 24"x30" and cost $345 EACH for that size!! Aye! That's a savings of $682.50!!!! Don't you just absolutely lurve when that happens! That's all folks- DIY eye charts and saving some dough!
So, what do you guys think?!
What have you hacked lately?

December 29, 2011

Restoration Hardware Eye Chart Hack

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas {or Happy Hanukkah for that matter}! If you want to check how things looked around here, feel free to pop over and check it out. We had a silver, white, turquoise and apple green holiday!

August 13, 2011

✥ Z Gallerie Subway Art Knock Off ✥


I've been longing for some subway art for awhile. I didn't want to do a stencil or paint project because I wanted it to look legit! I wanted to basically have this Z Gallerie piece that costs hundreds, but of course I'd like to pay umm, nothing 40 bucks.

One day I came across this tutorial from A Thoughtful Place. Courtney has done a smart remake for this well loved project. She uses Microsoft Publisher to create a template which she has made into a poster and then attaches it to a canvas.

I thought to myself, self, you can do that.
So I did. I have a Mac and don't have Microsoft Publisher, but if you have Word 08 you don't need it- your program has two uses, one of which is the publishing layout view.
I found it to be just as easy as the regular word program.

First, you want to format your text box into the same dimensions as your canvas will be. For example, if your canvas has a of width 3 ft and a height of 5 ft you want you text box to be in a 3/5 ratio.

Second, content, decide what you're writing on your canvas. Rather than copy Z Gallerie's canvas exactly, I choose to write the names of all the vacation spots that Z and I have LOVED. I want it to make us happy every time we look at it, especially because it will be across from the couch and next to the TV, prominently displayed you could say. 

Third, pick your fonts. For mine I used 4 fonts that I switched back and forth to create interest. I mostly picked fonts that had a typewriter/newspaper print feeling about them.
Fourth, layout, I tried to keep the overall visual flow the same as my inspiration-specifically the L.A. canvas. Z Gallerie has like 6 different posters and I found the spacing for this one to be the most visually pleasing, of course this is all personal preference. To adjust the spacing horizontally go into your tool box, then your "Fonts" and click on "W" to change it. To change the vertical spacing go into "Alignment and Spacing" and find "line spacing" to make the changes.

Fifth, matching the black background using shading effects. Before I finished I wanted to change the background to look more worn and varied. To do this, just click on the text box then go to your toolbox. Go to "Colors, Weights, and Fills" and click on Colors, then hold down the arrow to see more options. There you'll find "Fill Effects", this is where the good stuff happens. In "Gradient" you have several options to blend two colors. The variant I chose was "Diagonal Down", for "Colors" I picked two shades of grey, and for "Transparency" I put in between 0 and 20%.

OK, you're done with your poster!
I had my poster printed up at Staples and it cost $3.40. Staples was a lot cheaper than all the other places, and yes, I called everywhere.  This size poster would've cost 64 dollars if it was done in color! Crazy, right? So, you want to do black and white- which allows for grey tones as well.You may want to print it up a little larger than the canvas dimensions, so it will be able to wrap around the edges, too.

I purchased the canvas at Michael's. I planned on using a coupon, but they were on sale for 50% off. So I splurged on the  more expensive, thicker and higher quality canvas instead. I'm super happy that I did that, as it make a huge difference. It make the piece look much more expensive and substantial. My inspiration piece was 30 x 60. The canvas I purchased is 30 x 40. That's the closest I could get with the pre-made sizes.
Sixth, adhere your poster to the canvas with Mod Podge. It's easiest to begin with the poster rolled up. I painted decoupage on the canvas in 6-8 inch high sections across the entire width of the canvas. Then laid out the poster on the painted portion so that I could unroll it after I painted each section You'll get a lot of wrinkles and for this look you want them. I adhered the top first, then the sides. 
If you rub the Mod Podge when it's wet the black ink will smear over the white print. You can see the difference between where I rubbed the A and where I hadn't yet. If you want the distressed look you'll want to do this in several places, if you don't then be careful!
Seventh, distressing  to match the worn look of the inspiration piece. I worked with three different grits of sandpaper, a Dremel with a sanding bit (optional, but very helpful), and a level for a straight edge. I distressed the edges of the canvas, the tops of the wrinkles I mentioned that we wanted, and I highly distressed the two corners that were lighter gray vs the two that were darker {due to the "diagonal down" lighting gradient I chose}. Lastly, I used my straight edge so that I could create the look of worn lines using the Dremel and sandpaper.

Eighth, matching the distressed lettering using paint. I used craft paint to create the dark spots over the white lettering. I mixed white and black paint so I could match the varied background in the different poster portions exactly. 
I used a sponge brush and several techniques to match Z Gallerie's look, including tapping the brush, blotting it, and dragging it in different directions.

Ninth-Seal up your work cause you did it! Use whatever type of sealer you like, except Mod Podge! ;)  I thought I could just Mod Podge over the poster one last time to seal the sanded edges- obviously this was more action and impatience and less forethought and planning. A lot of the paint I had just applied came off. 



Do I ever get a project right the first time, come on!
So use whatever spray sealer you want, just make sure it works with paper and will not yellow over time.
All in all, I paid $35.50 for this knock off {well actually, 23.50. I made 10 bucks off of the poster because Staples first printed the wrong size, causing me to have to return to the store and then wait for 45 minutes for the right one to be printed off.} Even without that I would've saved 365 dollars!
Now go make some subway art and save yourselves some dinero!




Update: Please check out these lovely sites who've featured my Knock Off! {yay!}
Cherished Treasures”=
The Shabby Nest