State Canvas Art

This post was originally featured on She Wears Flowers. 

So I've seen a lot of state-loving on Pinterest lately and the bug has bitten me! I love my home state, North Carolina, and am sad I can't live there right now. I thought a North Carolina print would be perfect for my home, but you can make State Canvas Art with any state or country. This is what I created:

First let's start with the materials:

1 Stretched Canvas (I used 11 x 14)
Three different colors of acrylic paint (red paint is not pictured)
Paint Brush
Scissors
Cardstock and Printer (not pictured)

I started by giving my canvas 2 coats of blue acrylic paint (Folk Art 2555 Deep Ocean Blue):

I tried to make sure the paint was even, especially in the middle where the state would be seen. The first coat I went across my canvas. For the second I went up and down. 

 Then this happened....I couldn't have done this if I tried! My scissors just landed this way!

 Next I printed out a map of my state on cardstock. I measured it to make sure it would fit well on my canvas.

I took my scissors and got to cutting. I decided to skip trying to cut out the island chain on the coast of my state (The Outerbanks) and left them on there. I like the shape better.  At this point I started remembering my 4th grade state project, where I used salt dough to make the Ol' North State. Good times. Back to the project!

 I applied removable adhesive to the back of my cardstock and stuck it on my dry canvas (I let it dry overnight just to be sure). 

I used a contrasting paint color (Folk Art 2561 Steel Gray) and started in the middle and painted OUT from my state. I didn't want to try to push the paint against the edges and have the cardstock curl or the paint get underneath. 

I gave the canvas two coats but didn't wait until the second coat fully dried before removing the state.

 I wanted to make sure it would come up easily.  I used tweezers to pull the side up so I wouldn't hurt the paint. It looked AWESOME. So awesome I forgot to take a picture. But I decided to put the final touch, a little heart over my home town.

I cut out a stencil from cardstock of a heart and dabbed a bit of red paint in the heart. Voila! I love the results. This project was really easy, a little messy and pretty cheap.

What colors would you use?