Here is what I saw on Pinterest.

Not sure where to buy it, but it does look like a nice print, yes?  The scrolling-font is so similar to my silly-doodle font.  I can sometimes be very, very scroll-y.

Here is what I decided to do: make my own.

I got the “canvas.” more of a boxy-type-thing, for free from Tara – an old art print she was getting rid of after her summer garage sale.  It started like this:

Dave painted the canvas red with leftover picnic-table paint.  Why would I paint my picnic table this *BRIGHT* red, you ask?  People, please ~ you know how I love conviviality.  But the picnic table is a wholly different project.   Let’s get back on topic.

I saved the the o-holy-night image from Pinterest to my pictures,  and cropped it close.  I re-sized to make it as “large” as possible (which only turned out to be 768 x 957 pixels), since I was going to blow it up,  and inserted it into a custom 2′ x 3′ blank document on Publisher.  Even though it was too “short” to actually fit, I just stretched it out to fit the space I had.  I think, given the fact that it is a very informal font and going to probably be hanging outside for the Christmas season, it didn’t need to be perfect.  Which is good, let me tell you!

Then I reformatted the image on the Pub. doc. to be just an outline.  Because I was printing it out to trace.  It does have some pixelation, but not so much as to bother me.

Then, I had Staples print my 2 x 3 “design” on an engineering print (costs about a dollar a running foot). Nice, eh?

I used good, old-fashioned carbon paper under the large print to trace the words.  This took approximately 15 minutes and hurt my hand like crazy.  I switched from a pencil to a red ink pen pretty quickly for two reasons: More defined line – cuts into that carbon!  And I could see where I had already been much more easily.  I did not go for perfection on tracing, either.  The beauty of this particular look is that it is informal,  and spontaneous.  To over-agonize would be to eschew the unconstrained congeniality of the entire project.  I just keep telling myself that.  :) And you may quote me.

So my advice, should you see how easy it really is and attempt to do it, too?  Relax and don’t fuss.

Which is an entirely different matter if you are doing a subway-style 30-some-foot runner for a wedding, though.  Yes, entirely different.  That included lots of fussing and I had forgotten about it until I started doing this.

Omygoodness…yes that was tedious and scary.  This is just a walk in the park by comparison. {{It was exactly a year ago that I was working on Tredessa and Ryan’s pending nuptials}}

Back to the o-holy-thing

I painted the letters.  By hand!  Where is Pearl when I need her expert and steady paint-skills???  Oh, yes – I know.  She is building sets for Dave’s upcoming play.

This took about 1 1/2 hours hours.  I did the first paint over in about 3 sittings of 15-20 minutes.  Then I took a few more minutes and went back over my work to fill in better, however, I did NOT fill it all evenly.  I can live with it looking like it was painted by hand since, you know, it IS!   I also did not follow the lines very well because I am not a painter and really have no skill.  So – the lines were there…I saw them.  I then went right on top of them or over them or way past them, as the brush seemed to dictate.  Not perfect…or even close.  Ok?  Ok.

This photo (above) shows some carbon that needs cleaned off and the first coat of paint on the letters: blotchy before the second quick coat.  Ready for the reveal???

Finished O-Holy-Night wall art ~

What would I change?  I’d have started the whole design up higher so that curly-q at the top of the “N” on the word “Night” would be touching the top of the canvas, leaving more open area at the bottom.  Too late now.

Total projected cost: free canvas + 1 bottle white paint $1.29 + engineer print $3.67 = $4.96

But actually:  free canvas + paint I already had + free print at Staples because it took them 20 minutes to get the machine to print correctly…so actually = free

 Voila.

I will let you know where it ends up.