Subway Art Wishes

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If you have been following my blog lately, you know I am working on updating my son’s bedroom.  In his room I wanted to create subway art. Not typical subway art, but my wishes for him.  Art with meaningful words he can read every day. Words he can remember and carry with him everywhere he goes. 

I had seven signs complete, but didn’t have the perfect all encompassing “wish” or “quote” for the last sign.  That is when I posted on my Facebook page asking, “What quotes would you like your child to read each and every day?.”  Thanks to everyone that helped me out!

There were so many great quotes within minutes of my request. 

One that resonated with me was from

Krista from Porch Productions, 

she said,

“Be Yourself.” 

It was perfect!  Kids have so many pressures today.  I want my children to be secure with who they are and know it’s okay to be themselves. 

Cindy”s Notions also said,

“Be Yourself, everyone else is already taken.” 

If you would like to see more quotes, head to my Facebook page here.

Below is the Subway Art my son can read every day…

Let me show you how I made them.  It is very similar to the Atlanta Subway Dresser

I did last year.

I wanted a worn, vintage look here, so there are several steps to get the end result.

I chose (2) 1×8 pine boards that were cut down to eight 1′- 9″.

Then painted with Annie Sloan Pure White.

Once dry, I sporadically painted Old Ochre – Annie Sloan with a dry brush.

When I say sporadically, I rolled my brush in circles, dry brushed everywhere

and had fun with it.

Then I got out a very old (yuck) toothbrush. 

Dabbed it into some Annie Sloan Graphite paint and dry brushed everywhere. 

Splattered a little here and there too.

Again, created some messy art.

As you probably know by now, I love to layer paint.  It gives dimension creating a

one of a kind look.

I tried not to strive for perfection here as this is just a layering effect, not the end result.

Yeah, definitely not perfect at this point.

Moving on to creating the vinyl letters…

Thanks to my sweet friend, Terri, who was kind to offer me the ability to use her Silhouette Cameo.  I can see how this machine can be an addiction.  It cuts vinyl letters to perfection and quickly.  It also allows you to use a font of your choosing.  Love that!

Once the letters were cut, I laid them on the board to get proper spacing.

I wanted to keep an inch border, so I drew a straight line an inch from the edge around the perimeter of the board.

I also used a straight pencil line for the letters.  Then peeled the backing off of the vinyl and set the letters gently on the line.  This can be the most time consuming.  Definitely a place to take some time.  As you can see, the letter ‘N’ is upside down.  I looked at these boards over and over and didn’t realize it until after they were painted.  Argh! 

Sometimes I just have to live with the imperfect.

After all of the letters were secure on the boards, I lined Frog Tape next to the border lines.

Creating a border will make the letters pop.

This is one of the boards with the tape border complete.

Now it’s time for the paint, but before jumping into it, I had to make sure

the letters were secure.

I used a brayer for this and it did the trick.

Excuse my brayer, it is worn with dried glue and paint, but still works like a charm. 

I made sure to push hard when rolling those letters and gave the edge of the Frog Tape a rolling too.

Now it’s time for the fun part.  Painting!  This part may also be a little scary, but this is where I had to dive in and go for it.

Using Annie Sloan graphite paint, I painted right over everything.  A little scary, right? 

I used 2 coats to make sure I had good coverage.

No worries though, once it is dry it’s almost like opening a present.

Peeling off the letters and tape was instant gratification.

Next, I wanted the edge of the board to have a graphite – black trim.  When they hang on the wall the sides of the boards will be graphite like the body of the board. 

Below you can see the end result.

To create that look I used tape around the perimeter of the board like this.

When turning over the boards they will look like this.

This was the last step. 

Painting Annie Sloan graphite on the edges of the boards.

Once everything was dry, I removed the tape and had 8 Vintage looking

Subway Art Pieces for my son’s room.

My wish is that he reads them every day. 

Do you have quotes you would like your child to read every day?  If so, do tell! 

Thanks so much for visiting today.

Enjoy!

Angie

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