State Art: Minnesota Love!

I've got a super easy (and cheap!) project for you: state art. Anyone seen these on etsy before? My guess is not... no one that I've told about this project has any idea what I'm talking about. Crazy DIY craft girl. I thought the idea was really cute, and wanted to give it a shot.

Here's what you need:

•  Some type of blank surface (that was very vague... a canvas would work as well as an old picture frame or painting... or even a bulletin board. Paint it white and you're good to go.)
• Wrapping paper in the color you want your state to be
• Card stock for the heart
• Glue or double sided tape
• State template: To make a state template: I found a basic outline of Minnesota online. I copied it into publisher into a document the size of my canvas (2' x 3'), resized it until I liked how it fit on the page, and then brought the document on flash drive to Office Max. I had it printed out on a 2' x 3' document- this only costs $4.00. I cut out the state, traced it onto my teal wrapping paper, and cut my Minnesota out of the wrapping paper.

I found a beat up canvas print at Homegoods for $5.00 (SCORE!) and painted over it with a few coats for a blank, white surface. Here it is in it's whitewashing:

Woot woot! The painting wasn't actually too bad... I felt a little bad painting over it. After the paint dried, I attached my Minnesota cut out with scrapbooking double sided tape squares. Glue or double stick tape would work just as well. I attached the heart the same way.

This was so easy, folks! Since I didn't even glue on the Minnesota cut out, if I get sick of it in a year or two, I can peel it off and use the canvas for something else.

I'm linking this project up with Home Stories A to Z's Linky Party- go check it out!