Most of you know that when it came to "crafty" genes, I fell remarkably short. As a kid my art was horrible, I could never cut in a straight line, I had no creativity whatsoever. This continued on through my adult life.
My best friend is a craft goddess. I am green with envy every time I see her because she has created some new amazingly cute and beautiful piece. She can look at an old piece of furniture, repaint it, and make it amazing in one afternoon. She can take an old t-shirt, repurpose it and make her daughter an adorable new dress. I can't turn the sewing machine on, much less use it. I am not ashamed to say I am genuinely jealous of her talent.
I have been eyeing this "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster for a while. It was created by the British during WWII as a propaganda poster. The crown on the poster is the crown of King George VI. As I am sure those who know me best would agree, as of late, I should have this saying tattooed somewhere on my body as a daily reminder. My best friend got one, put it on her wall, and I totally fell head over heels for it.
In our new place we have this huge wall that needed something. Ted and I thought lets have the poster printed HUGE and put it on that wall. As we were pricing it out we realized that this was going to cost us a small fortune.
Ted suggested we make one. I laughed at this, and explained to him my life long failure in being the least bit creative. I told him he could do it, I would be of little help. He told me we were going to do it together.
So we went to home depot and got the supplies. We nailed three pieces of plywood together to get our canvas. Then we sized out the letters, printed and cut them out. (This was my job, which I did with a precision I didn't know I had). *Let me take this time to say that cutting out all the pieces to the crown was a royal pain. And my fingers were spasming for quite some time* We used a turquoise wash over most of the wood, and used spray adhesive and stuck down all the letters and pieces. Then painted yellow paint over the whole canvas. We let that dry and then peeled away the letters.
And the result was more awesome than I had imagined. I LOVE it!!!! And I, we, made it!!! It was the first time I have done something crafty and artistic that has turned out looking awesome. I am so proud of it! I know it was Ted's idea, and his vision. But I am still proud of it.
Its an amazing piece of art, that we made together, and a great reminder for me in my day to day.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
1 comment:
Hey Whit
I was asking Ted about this piece, and was quite intrigued by it, even more now that I know your story. Hope your enjoying blogging because whether your crafty or not, you are definitely spiritual and that's very special indeed! I didn't know you were doing this and have thoroughly enjoyed your musings, observations and insights, keep it up we're listening.
Uncle Pete
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