Ceiling Tile Wall Art

Ahh ... birthdays.

My eleven-year-old has one coming

up soon.  Too soon.

But this gift is for this weekend:

(and it isn't for my son)

I showed it to my eleven-year-old after school.

He looked at it.

He looked at me.

He said, "well ... I don't like it,

but I think Mariah will."

Ahh ... eleven-year-old boys.

 This took me two hours to make.

I know, because my seven-year-old was

spending the day with me in the barn, and

he timed me.  We got there at 12:40pm and we

left at 2:40pm.  So, two hours -

including complete set-up, clean-up, and

entertaining the seven-year-old.

I used a 12" square commercial ceiling tile,

a stencil, a feather boa, and some bling.

Also acrylic paints and glittery sealer - for added glitz.

First, I squeezed two shades of pink paint

onto a foam plate, and I used a

paint roller to base coat the ceiling tile.

That part was so easy, a seven-year-old

could do it!  With one hand!!  While eating a sucker!!!

Next, I isolated the design on the stencil

I wanted to use with tape.

I put a small amount of white paint

on the plate, dipped the tip of the stencil brush

into the paint, and ...

... and this is the most important thing

to remember when stenciling:

wipe off nearly all the paint

by swirling the brush onto a clean,

dry paper towel.

Trust me ... 

swirl and swirl and swirl until

you think you have no paint left in the

bristles, and then I promise you,

it's probably still too much paint.

Holding the brush perpendicular to the

stencil/surface, pounce lightly until the paint

transfers to your surface.

Too much paint will bleed under the edges

of your stencil, and you won't

have a sharp, clean design when you're

finished stenciling.

Remove the stencil slowly:

Isolate the second swirl for the upper right

corner of the ceiling tile,

and stencil in the same manner.

Remember to swirl most of the paint

off of the brush onto the paper towel before

applying it to your stencil.

To add interest to the main design,

which is going to be the child's name

across the center of the tile,

I decided to lightly stencil a motif in the middle.

Next, I made a pattern on tracing paper.

After aligning my pattern on the center

of the ceiling tile, I taped

the pattern in place so it wouldn't shift

as I transferred the letters.

I slid a piece of transfer paper

between the ceiling tile and the pattern,

and traced over the lines lightly

with a stylus.

Checking in with my seven-year-old -

he wanted to paint a dinosaur.

Blue.

With flames on its body.

And red spots.

I used my favorite paintbrush and a darker

pink paint to go over the name.

Then I used my darkest shade of pink paint

and a liner brush to go over the

left and lower sides of each letter,

just to give them some depth.

I cleaned up my edges using a liner brush

and the lightest shade of pink paint.

Then I added three dip-dots to the tips

of the two corner designs,

and painted the entire thing with a

generous coat of Starlite Glitter.

I checked back in with my painter.
It was slow going over there.
He was being extra careful to paint
the entire thing blue.

I used a hot glue gun to attach a sawtooth

hanger to the back of the tile.

I noticed that the glue gun was so hot,

it was literally burning my glue

to a dark brown color.

Eeeewww!!!

I decided I didn't like this,

so I had to ... sadly ... part with this

particular glue gun.
I threw it away.  It hurt.  A little.

But it's okay.  I have others.

Many, many others.

Please note the beautiful
bracelet that my seven-year-old
made for me today.
I promised never to take it off.

With a different glue gun and some

fresh glue, I attached the

feather boa all around the outside edges

of the ceiling tile.

It looked like this.

Then, I added some bling here and there:

And now it looks like this!

and the dinosaur??

 Well, it ain't your average dinosaur !!!
Or maybe it is ... we don't really
know for certain, do we??

Peace and Blue Dinosaurs