Lucky in Love 3D Shamrock Art {Tutorial} [Create with Me March Project]

I am excited to show you my Create with Me project for March!  Here it is!  I will show you how I made it. But first I have to tell you a little about it.  I am not a lucky person!  I don’t win things, I don’t find money, I just don’t have great luck! But, there is one thing I am extremely lucky in….Love!  I am so stinking lucky to have found myself the world’s BEST husband!  Seriously.  He really is the most wonderful husband imaginable.  He treats me like a queen! He is so kind and loving to me.  He never says mean things to me, even when we are arguing.  He always supports me in the things I want to do.  He tells me I am beautiful all the time…like every day…and he means it.  He helps me around the house tons!  He would do anything to make me happy.  He is absolutely wonderful to me and I am the luckiest girl in the world to be married to him!  So, to commemorate my unbelievable luck when it comes to love, I made this:

Here’s how to make it:

Step 1. Prepare your canvas.  Mine was 12x16, and I got it at Joann’s Fabric and Craft.  I painted it with white acrylic gesso.  I knew I didn’t just want a bare canvas because it would probably end up getting dirty over the years. I wanted something a little more wipeable.  You could just paint it with any white paint you have on hand.  Allow to dry for 24 hours.

Step 2.  Measure out where your stripes are going to be and make tiny guide marks on the sides.  Mine are about 1” wide, with the top and bottom being slightly larger because my tape wasn’t quite a full inch wide.

Step 3. Cut out a vinyl stencil for the words “in Love”  It’s important that you cut this from vinyl.  You will use both the stencil, and the letters that you remove to make the stencil. Place it on your canvas where you want your words to be and secure it down nicely.

Step 4. Use acrylic craft paint to paint in the words.  Just dab it lightly so it doesn’t bleed under the stencil. I did two coats.  Allow to dry well.  Do not remove the stencil yet.

Step 5.  Once your paint is good and dry (give it a couple hours) you need to place those vinyl letters that you removed from the stencil back over the paint.  Keep the stencil on to help you place the letters exactly over the painted letters.  Once you have them on, remove the stencil.  Don’t push these letters down super hard because you don’t want the paint to come off when you remove them.  They are going to protect the paint from the glue and glitter we are about to use.

Step 6. Use painters tape (I used Duck Brand) to mark off your stripes, using your tick marks from step two to help you place it. Wrap it all the way around to the back of the canvas.

Step 7. Working from the center stripe out, use Mod Podge or glue to paint the stripe.  Try not to be too messy and extend your glue over the tape too much because then you just waste your glitter.  Glitter one stripe at a time, dumping off excess glitter after each one.

Step 8.  Once your stripes are all covered with glitter, remove the painters tape.  I did not wait for my stripes to dry first.  I just removed the tape as soon as I was done.  When you remove the tape, your vinyl letters should come off with it.  If any of them don’t, use tweezers to remove them.

Step 9.  Allow your glue to dry completely, and then spray your canvas with a clear acrylic spray paint to set the glitter.  One or two light coats should do it.  I used Rustoleum Painters Touch Ultra Cover in clear gloss. Rustoleum is my favorite spray paint.

Step 10. Once that is dry you can make your shamrock.  I just used some hearts to make a template which I lightly traced onto the canvas with pencil. 

Step 11.  Cut 1” squares from tissue paper to make your shamrock.  You will need quite a few.
Step 12. Using a pencil eraser (I used Pentel) pull a square of tissue up around the pencil so the eraser is right in the middle of it.  You probably did this in elementary school, right?

Step 13. Dip the tip into some glue (I used Alene’s Tacky Glue, which was better than the Elmer’s Glue I originally tried).

Step 13.  Use the pencil eraser to press the tissue down onto the canvas.  Repeat about a million times until your design is all filled in.

Step 14.  Cut some letters out using a stencil or your Silhouette or Cricket.  I used my Silhouette. Then I glittered the letters and attached them to the canvas with double sided foam tape.  I didn’t like the glittered letters though, so I cut more from some green polka dot cardstock and attached those with more double sided foam tape to the glittered letters.

Here is how it looked when I was all done.
But then I didn’t like it. The color of the pink tissue was bugging me. So, I ripped it off along with some of the green and used a lighter pink tissue to do it this way.  I think I like it better.  But now I also wish I had put the shamrock in the center with LUCKY at the top and “in Love” at the bottom.  But, it’s done and I’m not redoing it!  St. Patrick’s Day isn’t THAT important of a holiday!

This method could be used for so many variations on this project.  Remember our inspiration piece for March’s Create with Me?  If not, take a look at this post and see it and also what Create with Me is all about.  If you didn’t join us in March, I sure hope you will in April! I have a fun craft planned!!