DIY Nursery Art - Let Her Sleep

I've been getting a lot of questions about where we bought the canvas in Rooney's nursery. Truth is, it's DIY nursery art.

I'm always a little sorry (and a little proud!) to tell them that we made it. I don't consider myself a DIY-er, but paint and stenciling I can do!

Here's a little tutorial so you can make one yourself!

What You'll Need

• 3' x 4' canvas from art store
• acryllic paint (we used two colors of gray)
• paint brushes
• two maps (I used Iowa and Minnesota...the states in which we were born)
• ruler or yard stick
• 2" and 6" stencils
• scissors
• mod podge
• pencil

Make Your Own!

1. PAINT the canvas. Eric painted the canvas for me and then I decided it was too dark, so he went over it with a lighter shade. I love that it's not perfect and you can see the dark gray through the light gray in many spots.

2. TRACE and CUT out the letters from your maps. I paid special attention to the cities and included all the ones we have lived in, vacationed at or were born in. I love that it has that hidden meaning. I also tried to avoid the folds as much as possible. The small letters were made using 2" stencils, and the large ones were made by printing off large (almost 6") letters (Arial font) from the computer and making my own stencils for that, because I couldn't find what I wanted at the craft store.

3. MOD PODGE the letters onto the canvas. This is where the ruler or yard stick comes in handy, to keep the letters straight. I used the mod podge to glue down each letter, and then Eric put a coat of mod podge over the entire thing. This adds some gloss and texture to the project.

Let me know if you try this! Or if you come up with a better way! I bet you could also put down the map and then paint over it, but I wanted more control over which cities on the map were showing. Good luck!