DIY Song Lyric Painting

Before I dated J, I always thought couples who had “a song” were super cheesy. And that’s probably because most couple songs are cheesy — all about love and romance and how you can’t live without the other person. But of course when you’re in the relationship and it’s your song, you don’t see the silliness of it. It’s sweet and significant and endearing.

J and I have two songs: I’ve Just Seen a Face by the Beatles and You’ll Always Be My Best Friend by Relient K. I hear either of these songs and am whisked away to the very beginning of our relationship. They bring up all kinds of happy memories and emotions. (Main emotion: thank goodness we are not at the very beginning any more. I know the romance of it all is very exciting, but I MUCH prefer this steady friendship than the uncertain excitement when you first start dating. That’s just me.)

The other day I decided to make a little song lyric painting of the Relient K song. I got the inspiration from Elise Blaha and Elise from A Beautiful Mess, and thought it would be a dark moody addition to my normal cheerful, colorful style.

Here are the steps I took to create it…

1. First, I wrote out the lyrics on a sheet of paper so I had an idea of how long it needed to be, (maybe some people can wing it without guidance, but I needed to visualize it before I started painting). I intended for my handwriting to be very scripted and a little messy. Then I took a 16×20 canvas I had on hand and spray painted it white. I measure and marked with a pencil where the 12 lines should be on the canvas, which ended up every 1/5 inches.

2. Next, I wrote in pencil the lyrics across the canvas. It was very light, but gave me a lot of guidance as I was painting.

3. Then, I painted over the lyrics with dark navy acrylic paint. I didn’t focus on how it looked the first go round, but just made sure there was paint on each line. (Most of the examples I’ve seen are black, but I already had navy paint and didn’t want to spend any money on this project.)

4. Lastly, I went back a couple of times and touched up the paint, making sure each word was dark and didn’t have any paint streaks. I also decided to connect some of the words so it looked more arty and less choppy (similar to the  A Beautiful Mess version).

And here’s what the final product looks like:

It’s certainly not perfect, but I’m pleased with how it turned out and like the way it looks from afar. It was a great activity for a rainy Saturday afternoon, and I love that it cost me nothing.* Plus, it’s nice to have a little personalized art that holds special meaning for us, even if it is a little cheesy. :)

Do you and your significant other have a song?
Have you ever decorated with song lyrics?
What things have you been crafting lately? 

*I had the canvas, acrylic paint and paint brushes on hand, but it probably would cost under $10 to create, depending on your canvas size.