DIY Subway Art for about $10 bucks!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012




Is anyone else out there in love with subway art like I am?! I guess if you've never taken the subway in New York you may not know what I am talking about, of course. Anyhoo.....I have been spotting these beauties in all the home goods stores for months now, but I am loathe to pay the hefty price tag for them.  I knew I could figure this out, I am a fairly smart gal, right? So, a bit of a search on the web turned up a great tutorial for it. Score! I love when I don't have to reinvent the wheel and someone has figured it all out for me. I love those kind of people! 

The tutorial for the actual art can be found here. I did follow her instructions to the T. Easy peasy gals! I used PicMonkey to edit a high resolution photo. Then I blacked it out and started the process of adding the text. That was the fun part, playing around with the different fonts and sizes, coming up with your favorite family sayings or Bible verses.   Then I sent the file on over to Staples where it is printed on blueprint paper--genius! For $2.99 they printed this up.  It has different shading on the print just like blueprints do, giving it a vintage or aged look. If you don't have a Staples any office supply store with a printing department should be able to do this.

Now for the frame. Another easy project. Errr...well, easy for my husband.  Sasha has a tutorial for the frame, darling girl.  Here is the link to her frame as my poster was the same size as hers, and I used her measurements exact. Again, hubby did, he's my hero. The actual tutorial for the art also has directions for the frame, but Sasha's had pics, I like a good visual, thanks.



 Here is the back of the frame so you know that it is nothing spectacular to put together, or fancy for that matter.



Here is a side shot. I used a very black flat paint and then I distressed the edges and print after it was all dry with a very fine sandpaper. Gave it more of an aged look.


Now this print above I did with a red background simply by following the same tutorial, just making the background red and the text white also. This I had printed at Walmart quite reasonably, I think it was $8.00 for a 16X20. Did you know Walmart now does canvas prints! So this one may go on a canvas if the price isn't too high. Each kiddo is getting one for their room--I want them to see these rules when they wake up , go to bed, sit on the bed, change their underwear, do homework, read a book....you get it--all the time!

These prints will just spiff up your nest quite nicely for not a whole lot of cash to boot! I love having inspiring quotes in my rooms, don't you?

*This post linked up to The Scoop.

3 comments:

  1. Love it! I'm all about subway art these days!

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice post thanks for sharing...looking for to visit more...blessings...soraya

    ReplyDelete

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Have yourself a darling day,
Suzanne a.k.a. Not Quite Donna Reed