RTW: Subway Art TUTORIAL

If you like Subway Art, you are going to love this craft tutorial! Erin shows us how she made her own Subway Art that is super cute! enjoy! -Linda

Hello, I’m Erin from Decor Allure! I’m a Mom of six with a love of decorating. I love the challenge of trying to decorate for this crowd and yet be budget-friendly. I love garage sales, thrift shops, repainting, reupholstering and re-everything!     I have fallen in love with these vintage subway signs I’m seeing everywhere. But at prices like $785 for the ones from Restoration Hardware, it’s out of the question.

Subway Art

Then…I saw this family rules sign idea at http://www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/

Not really fitting my home’s decor, I still liked the concept. Then this crazy lady’s light bulb went off! I added the two ideas together to fit my style and created this:

How to Make Subway Art


Here’s what I did- I already had a frame that I had a piece of 1/4″ plywood cut down to size for me at Home Depot (they do 2 cuts for free and many cuts for batted eyes!) I then painted the border with off white craft acrylic paint. After dry, I taped it off and painted my center black.  Two coats later, I sanded down the whole surface until sufficiently “aged.”
I then typed up each phrase in a banner-making program and printed each out.  After cutting them out, I set them out on the board as I wanted and taped the edges down to hold them in place.  Now here comes the fun part; place a sheet of carbon paper between the wood and printed paper.  On the first phrase, trace each letter.  Take off the paper and carbon and you should have a nice copy of your lettering.  Using a paint pen in off white (I used the medium and fine tip “DecoColor” brand from Michael’s), trace again and fill in each letter. I kept a piece of cardboard handy to help blot the tip when it got a little too full. You can use the finer tip to define the edges of each letter a bit better. When done with the first phrase, move down to the next.  I just worked on the floor, laying on a pillow so I could really see what I was doing (and make sure I could really smell those lovely paint fumes!)

When all dry, I sanded the letters to help age them as well.  Since making this first one, I found another larger frame at Goodwill.  It was taller and had a chunkier frame that I painted black:


I even made a few on some ready-made pine boards from Home Depot and hung them without a frame. Here’s one that’s dark brown and cream:

This really wasn’t that hard, yet it makes such a fun, custom sign.  Not bad for just under $20, huh?  A friend suggested making a subway-style sign using street names from your life (your different homes’ streets, the street you grew up on, etc.)  I just saw this idea of writing a poem or saying on a large piece of plywood to make an inexpensive, but large piece of artwork for that big, empty wall:

Ooh, the possibilities!  Try it! Just send me your signs for future inspiration.

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Linda
Hi! I'm Linda, the craft addict behind Craftaholics Anonymous®, a craft blog. Crafting is cheaper than therapy, right? When I'm not DIYing something, I can be found taxiing around our 4 crazy kids or working out. Or shoe shopping... because you can never have too many shoes! Happy crafting! ♥
Linda
Linda

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