Wednesday, July 10, 2013

DIY Canvas classroom sign

I saw several weeks ago one Etsy one of those great subway signs that puts a spin on the "family rules" sign. It laid out the rules for a classroom. Being creative and knowing how I like to make it my own if I can, I made a plan. Rather than pay the $40 something dollars for one of the premade signs, I went out and made my own.

I copied down some of the basic text, tweaked a few to suit my secondary students and put them into a word document. Then, I simply changed the text around to a few that I liked and made sure the text filled the page. Oh, make sure your text is bold before you print. You will see why later.

At the craft store, I found one of the canvas sizes I liked and waited for it to be on sale and/or a coupon to emerge. If you watch the papers or check your email, this wasn't a long wait. :) For my choice, I bought an 18x24 inch. If you notice, printer paper is 8.5x11 which fits almost perfectly inside the back part of the canvas frame. 

Again, I tweak and try to make things better. Thus I adapted my idea from the Love Map I made for Mr. Husband back in November and put the papers behind the canvas. Rather than try and tape the paper behind the canvas again, I tried something different. 

I used a stapler! Shocking, I know. 

Place the paper on the backside of your canvas with the text facing towards the canvas. Staple the paper to the canvas so the legs are sticking out the other side. Then simply place your canvas in front of a light or in front of a set of glass doors. If doing the latter, preferably do it on a sunny day so the light shines behind and illuminates your text. *note, if you did not bold your text, it will be hard to see the text through the canvas.

Once the paper was attached, I got out my Painters' Pens from the Love Map project and went to work.

About two thirds of the way through, you can see I switched pens. My red paint pen was running low and needed to recharge after writing up right for so long. By doing the different fonts, I got some variance. 

My plan now is to add a border or doodles around the edges in order to make the piece brighter. Also when my red pen has recharged, I will fill in some more of the bubble style letters.

What pieces do you hang in your class to make it your own? Or do you let students direct the pieces in the classroom?

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