I think we had a moment of insanity back in the fall when we asked different family members all to come to visit us for the holidays.  His mom and her husband came to visit from December 22nd until 26th.  His brother came to visit from the 24th through the 29th.  Our family from North Carolina came for the night of the 23rd.  And finally, my mom, dad, and two brothers came from the 29th until January 3rd.  Crazy, right?  

It was all fun and although hectic at times, it was less stressful than we thought it was going to be.  Plus, everyone survived!  Always a good thing.

Before everyone came, though, I felt it a good idea to destress as much as possible.  So I got a little crafty.  :)  

While making a Michael's run for black frosting dye for Bub's Mickey Mousecupcakes, I checked out the canvas prices.  I really wanted to do a Mistletoes canvas that I had seen on Pinterest here and it looked easy enough.  Then I saw the sale!  4-5 canvases (depending on size) for $19.99!!  I didn't even have to ask the Hubs.  He saw my face and said yes!  So I threw in the pack of 5 16x20 canvases!  

Ok, so I just lied a little.  I didn't exactly grab the 16x20 canvas pack quickly.  I actually stood there at the rack of canvases for quite some time.  Remember back on my Liebster Award post?  I'm indecisive!  I hemmed and hawed over the 12x12, the 9x12, the 16x20, and some much larger... well... let's just say ALL of the size offerings.  The Hubs had time to go back to where the other single canvas options were and picked out a 12x12 just for the Mistletoes piece and left me to my thoughts and lack of decision making skills.  In the end, I knew in my head the art piece I wanted to create... so I laid them all out.  Yes... I made different sized groupings of 4 so I could see how big or how small my final product would be.  All in an aisle.  A few employees were nearby and kept staring at me.  What can I say?  I have to make a decision somehow!  In the end, the grouping of 16x20s won.  :)  And THEN I threw them in the cart... while the Hubs rolled his eyes at me.  

A few days later, I wandered to the acrylic paint section and laid out different groupings of paint colors... because again... I could not make a decision.  I knew the color yellow I wanted... and the color red.  But did I want a greenish aqua color?  Or maybe a more bluish aqua color?  I even texted my mom some pics of the groupings... but she was busy and didn't respond.  After 5-10 minutes of standing in the aisle surrounded by little groupings of paint, I made my decision and purchased the paint.  

NOW... I was ready!!  So the next day during nap/quiet time, I laid out my painting sheet on the floor in my living room and got to work.  It had been a LONG time since I had painted anything... so I can't really give a good tutorial.  I'm not even sure any of you would look at my finished work and would say, "I MUST make that!!"  So I'm not going to go into a lot of details.  

First, I covered all 4 canvases in two different tones of yellow, one more gold and one more mustard.  I didn't want one flat color, so I made sure not to mix the colors completely.  

Once they had dried, I put some of the aqua on my palette and began the lettering.  I free-handed an "L," a "V," and an "E" each on their own canvas.  I added a little charcoal grey to the aqua paint and added some shading along the edge of the letters to give them a little dimension.

After the letters, I painted a heart on the 4th canvas.  I had the same charcoal grey paint and some white so that I could add some dimension to the heart.  Then I let them dry!

Being this was the first large art piece I have made, I was super excited!!  I even ran into our room to wake the Hubs up to tell him I was excited!  He was not as excited as I was.  :)  Once they were completely dry... and the Hubs was completely awake... we he hung them up on the wall!!

In real life, they are straighter than they appear... they move every time Bub shuts our bedroom door.

I really love how it turned out.  I think it fills the wall nicely!!  What do you think?

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