Life as a LEO Wife

These came about because I needed something new to go above our bed in the master bedroom. I had painted a large 30×48″ canvas in Tiffany blue, with white birch trees with navy in place of the normal black. I love it, but my husband kept knocking off the wall with his long arms & tall upper body! We needed something in place of a headboard. We live on one income, & a law enforcement income at that, so a gorgeous wood or tuft material headboard were out . So I began brain storming. I had a pack of 12×12″ canvases which I had previously used to make “Hello Gorgeous”/”Good Morning Handsome” vinyl signs. I considered making a wall of large paper flowers, but I didn’t have enough cardstock to finish a project like that. Thanks to social distancing, I needed to use what I had. I had no clue what the finished product would be, but I love it! Here’s how to make your own 12×12″ painted canvas with initials & rolled flowers!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 12×12″ canvases
• acrylic paint in color of your choice; mine was English Navy
• posterboard in white (you can substitute cardstock here) used for the initials
• cardstock in you choice of colors (I used 3 different colors, white, blush pink, & Tiffany blue
• hot glue & glue gun
• scissors or die cutting machine (I used my Cricut Explore)
• paint brush
• ruler
• free rolled paper flower template from Domestic Heights https://domesticheights.com/cricut-3d-flowers

First you’ll want to paint your canvases. I used English Navy on both of mine. I had to do about 3 coats. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time for them to dry while your making your flowers.

Next I downloaded the free SVGs of the rolled flowers from Domestic Heights. I love how they look! (She has amazing SVGs for the flowers. Visit her often because she regularly has new SVGs.) I uploaded mine into my Design Space software & used my Cricut to cut the flowers in white, blush pink, & Tiffany blue. Don’t worry if you don’t have a die cutting machine. She also has templates for cutting by hand. Follow her tutorial on how to roll the flowers. It’s basically starting at the outside end, then rolling them until you get to the circular end, where you’ll place a dab of hot glue & tuck it under to hold it all together. Go ahead & pull up your latest Netflix binge worthy show, because this is the part that takes the longest.

Then I found a font I liked (hubby got a say so here) from my Cricut Access membership. Feel free to use your favorite, or even download a free one on dafont.com. Again if you don’t have a Cricut, you can purchase vinyl letters from the Dollar Tree, or if you have a printer create a word document with each of your initials with a preloaded font or one you download free. I cut our initials out of poster board. I had plans to use them in a different way which called for the poster board. I didn’t, but it looked good so there was no sense in wasting more cardstock.

Now this part you may or may not want to do. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I used a ruler to place both of the initials in the same place on each canvas. I measured from the highest point on each initial & placed it 2.5″ & marked the spot with a pencil. Then from the widest point I again measured 2.5″ & place another dot. I carefully lined each initial up with the dots & glued them on. If you’re okay with eyeing it, feel free.  Once the initials were on, I played around with the placing of the flowers.  Lay yours out, play with the color & type flowers & once you like the way it looks, hot glue them on with a bit of hot glue.

Project completed! Find a place in your home to hang your masterpiece and appreciate your hardwork! If you like this diy decor project like and share my post on your favorite social media platform!

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