make: large lyric art print

Hi friends!  Sorry I have been a little MIA as of late... seriously life is just being lived over here.  Lots of settling, exploring, loving, living, thinking, dreaming.. you know?  I missed this little place and after a few concerned texts & emails I know a few of you missed me too, so thank you! Lets pretend I was on an extended spring break and forget it mmkay? =)

If you have seen this project as a canvas painting diy (examples here & here), but haven't gotten around to doing it yet, then here is a great excuse to get on it.  Not only is this a simplified version of the tutorial, but its also more affordable.  No need for a large canvas, paint or brushes!

Only a few supplies are required for your DIY: standard size white sheet of paper, pencil, black marker, ruler if you want the lines more straight (i just free handed it) and your lyrics or quote. 

First up take your paper and plan out the placement and size of the words you are using and draft  them in pencil.  This might take a few tries, but the imperfection of this is what gives it so much charm.  After its looking all fine & sexy make it permanent with a marker!  When you are done go back through and erase as much of the visible pencil markers as possible as they will show up when enlarged.

The artwork itself took me in all about 5-7 minutes and the longest part of the project was driving to the printers!  I headed over to Kinkos because it was closer than Staples, but they both run about the same price.  Kinkos (fedex) charges 75 cents per square foot and Staples about $4-6 total depending on size.  When you print these you will ask for a 'blue print copy'.  They will scan your artwork and print it out in black & white pretty quickly for you- I actually get a lot of artwork that I purchase made into blueprint size (with the artists permission of course) because I love huge art!

As you can see the size comparison of an 8x11 to the fullsize blueprint is quite different, isn't it amazing??  Now remember with blueprint copies, things can get a little fuzzy (pixelated unless its sized to be enlarged) and it shows all flaws- but like I said, thats the charming part!

For the purpose of the tutorial I hung this up by my couch, but I actually made another one after this and used lyrics from Iris by Goo Goo Dolls because I walked down the aisle to that. Awww!  I hope you like this revised tutorial of one of my favorite DIY projects out there, if you end up making something- share it with me! xo