DIY Personalized Canvas Art

So I found this piece of art for sale on etsy- via a pinterest post. I cannot take any credit for the idea- go here to see the original seller's item.  Below is a photo of her item. 

They sell a few different sizes and they will personalize the wording for you- The one pictured above sells for $460

I made my own for $35 worth of materials and about 3 hours of time. 

Materials Needed:

Canvas in whatever size you want

Wooden letters

Sand Paper

Spray paint in whatever color you want

Rubber Cement

I bought all these materials at Hobby Lobby - on sale! Woohoo!

First, the letters I bought from HL were raw cut wood, so they had splintered edges. Take a piece of sand paper and carefully smooth out the edges of the letters. Take the time to do this- it will look so much better smoothed out like this. 

Second, lay the letters out and spray paint them whatever color you want. I considered doing a color other than white- but the etsy seller's piece just looked so chic: white on white. 

Once you have them all spray painted, let them dry completely and then arrange them on the canvas and make sure you like how it looks. I did several arrangements of the letters.. Again- I copied the inspiration from the etsy seller and arranged the letters in the shape of a heart. (I never said I was creative lol)

Then glue them on the canvas! I debated whether to use a hot glue gun or rubber cement... But once I realized that I bought the wrong size glue for the glue gun I had... My decision was made :) 

I am not sure if hot glue would work on this project anyway- the canvas might not take to the hot temperature of the glue... If anyone has tried it- leave a note in the comments!

And here is my finished product! 

I'm pretty happy with it- and the rubber cement is holding well. 

My plan is to use this is part of the wedding decor- There is a shelter house on the property we are using and it is... ugly... to put it nicely :) So, I will be working on various things to hang on the walls and this will be one of them. Likely this will go over the photo table. 

So- if you have time, and patience, you can do this project for a fraction of the cost- you could do the letters in wild, bright colors for a kid's room... the possibilities are endless! But, if you aren't inclined to DIY - check out that seller- she does great stuff!