Audrey Art
Posted by Lee Hess
Cheap, easy, and very cool wall art project!Skill Level
Easy
Active Time
Weekend
Cost
Free
- 3/4" wood (from old wood pallet)
- white (or any light-colored paint, for background)
- brown (or any dark colored paint, for portrait)
- pocket hole screws
- wire picture hanger
Materials
- saw horses
- circular or jig saw
- light sand paper or sander
- pocket hole jig
- ruler/T-square
- screwdriver
- drawing pencils (both hard and soft leads)
- thin marker
- light table (optional)
- painter's tape (or drafting tape)
- Exacto knife
Tools
1. Cut boards to desired length.
2. Arrange boards to form a rectangle. The excess wood on the ends will fill the space on the opposite sides.
3. Use your thin marker to mark where the pocket holes are going to be. If you don't have a pocket hole jig, you can piece the boards together with glue or flat metal brackets.
4. I found some old whitewood boards I had from a previous project to make the back supports. These may or may not be necessary for your project. The 3/4" boards I cut from the pallet were warped, so the supports straightened them out when I screwed them together.
5. Sand and paint the front. I used an old can of white semi-gloss paint that was used on an old project.
6. Attach the wire picture hanger to the back.
7. Print the image to scale using any photo editing software and tape the pieces of paper together. This image will be used to trace onto the boards.
8. On the light table, use the soft lead pencil to trace the outline on the back of the image. If you don't have a light table, you can tape the image to an exterior window and get the same effect.
9. Tape the areas where the image is going to be.
10. Tape the image to the boards and trace over the edges with the hard lead pencil. This will transfer the soft lead pencil to the tape.
11. Remove the image. The pencil marks may have to be traced over again with your thin marker. I think had I used a tan drafting tape instead of painter's tape, the pencil would have shown up better.
12. Use the Exacto knife to cut out the areas where the dark paint is going to be.
13. It should look something like a picture negative when you're done cutting the tape. Afterwards, spray paint the blank areas. The tape will remove easier if you take it off before the paint dries completely.
14. Lightly sand over entire project to give it a worn, antique look.
