DIY Pop Art: Guest Post from Jenna at 2027

Today I get to be apart of the Bundle of Joy Series over at Nap Time Crafters while Amy gets to spend time with her new little one. Come check out the fun Spring decoration I made!

While I'm over there I've got a REALLY fun guest post for you! Jenna and I "met" when we were paired to be "package pals" and I have loved reading her blog ever since! She comes up with the cutest stuff and I love seeing how creative she is. She has a really fun guest post for us today-take it away Jenna!

Eeeee! I'm so excited to be here on Newlyweds on a Budget today! I'm Jenna and I blog over at 2027 about all sorts of things, but mostly crafting and DIY decor. I first met Kari when we were matched up as Package Pals and she sent me the cutest burlap pillow cover. I'm resurrecting one of my very first crafty posts for you guys today, my Pop Art Canvases. If you like it, I hope you'll stop by 2027 and say hi! Thanks so much Kari for having me today!

I'm a nanny and two of the kids I watch are twins. And their birthday is coming up at the end of September.  I knew I wanted to make them something so they will always have a reminder of me.  I thought about doing paintings of their names, but that's been done.  Then I had the brilliant idea to do Andy Warhol style art of both of them (and their sister too because I didn't want her to feel left out).  There are tons of Web sites that offer the service to turn your portrait into pop art, like mydavinci.com, for $64.85 for an 8 x 8 print.  I knew I could do it myself in Photoshop, mount the prints to canvas and BAM - expensive art for cheap!

I used the same 6 x 6 canvases from Michael's that I used for the seasons mosaics.  It's a lot cheaper to buy a pack of four 6 x 6 canvases than it is to buy one 12 x 12 canvas - whoda thunk it?

I painted the sides and about half an inch on the top with black acrylic and let them dry overnight.

I made the artwork 6 x 6 to fit on the canvases, then had them printed as 8 x 10s at Sam's Club.  I usually have prints made at CVS because there's one right around the corner, but the price for an 8 x 10 at CVS is $3.99, so for 12 prints, it would have been $48!  Absolutely ridiculous.  Walgreen's was only $2.99, but in the end, Sam's won with 8 x 10 prints for $1.46!  Sam's is definitely the best place to get prints done, for future reference.

I used my trusty Fiskars rotary paper cutter to trim the photos down to size.

I mounted the trimmed prints to the canvas using matte Mod Podge.  They looked pretty good just like this, but I felt they looked a little too much like plain ol' prints mounted to canvas.  They needed a little texture.

I covered all the sides and the top with the Mod Podge to give a uniform look.

This is how the texture looked when it dried.  So much better than the glossy look, don't you think?  I think it makes it look more like the photo is printed on the canvas rather than glued to it.

And the finished product.  I am so extremely happy with them!  I debated on attaching them using 3 inches of ribbon in between, but in the end, I decided I liked the clean look better so I left them separate.  And what's even better... the grand total came out to less than $20 for each kid's one-of-a-kind pop art!

P.S. Isn't my subject adorable eating her watermelon?

You can go here to see the other two completed sets and heck out the full Photoshop tutorial for how to create your own pop art images here.

Thanks so much to Jenna for hanging out over here today! I'm getting ready for the Breathing Space Retreat this weekend. I can't WAIT to met up with all the girls I met at SNAP again and to meet even more awesome ladies. We're also officially knee-deep in packing and getting ready for the big move! Wish us luck!