Several of you have sent me emails asking about how I turned our wedding song into a work of art, so I thought I would whip up a step by step tutorial in case you were wanting to do the same thing. You could do any special score, whether it’s your wedding song, your favorite hymn or just a song that makes your feel good. It is so easy, inexpensive and gives you a unique piece of art that is meaningful. I know I have said this before, but I love to display items that are truly special, that bring back memories…items that are cherished because they represent something to me or to my family. When I was trying to figure out what to display above the refinished cupboard, I thought it might be fun to display the first song Sam and I danced to as husband and wife. So, I jumped in and muddled my way through it and overall it was a very simple and quick project.
First of all, a little background info: You can easily get this done in an afternoon and depending on the size of your art, you are going to be looking at spending anywhere from $20-$80. I hate to even say this because I know we just kicked off the New Year and everything, but this would make a great Valentine’s Day present. For all you guys out there…(not sure if any men actually read Scout & Nimble) but if you do this for your wife or girlfriend, I can promise you, it will not turn out bad! In my opinion, this would be so much better than getting some flowers. So, here are the items that you are going to need:
- a canvas in your desired size (I bought a 30×40 canvas at Hobby Lobby for $20 by using their 40% off coupon)
- an open wood frame fitting the size of your canvas. These type of frames are consistently 50% off at Hobby Lobby. They have a pretty wide selection. Mine was only $40 after the 50% discount.
- Mod Podge in a matte finish (this is available at most craft stores and of course Hobby Lobby) fyi about this product, it will go on milky and dry clear so don’t freak out when you first brush it on
- foam brush
- old phone book or newspaper, torn into long strips
- tea bag steeped in a little water
Step 1. Pick out a song that has some particular meaning to you. A wedding song is a great choice. But, you could pick any special song, hymn, symphony, literally anything.
Step 2. Find the actual sheet music for your song. I bought mine (Van Morrison’s Someone Like You) from here. They have a huge selection of music. Just search for what you are looking for and use their digital print download to print off your sheet music. They charge $3.99 for ONE print. Yep, you have one shot to print it off, so make sure you are not low on . Not to put pressure on you or anything. ;)
Step 3. Your sheet music may be printed out on 1, 2 or 3 pages. I knew that I wanted the layout of my piece to be 30×40 so I took my two pages and cut each line up and pieced it together. You don’t have to make it look fancy, just cut it up and tape it onto a new sheet of paper making sure all the lines match up.
Then take it up to a print shop and have them enlarge it to the size you need. I had our local print shop take the words off my sheet music, but you can definitely leave them on…it is entirely up to you. They can also lighten or darken the score depending on what look you are going for. This will cost under $4.
Step 4. Next, you are going to place your enlarged music on something that won’t allow liquid to leak through…I used wax paper, but you can use whatever you would like.
I really wanted the music to look old and worn…to give it a little bit more of a vintage feel. To achieve this look all you have to do is steep a regular ole tea bag in a little bit of water for a few minutes.
Then you can just paint the liquid on your paper. I didn’t even use a brush, I just used the tea bag as my brush and painted it all over my paper squeezing the bag slightly as I went. You may want to test your “antiquing liquid” on another sheet of paper to make sure it’s the color you are going for. There was no special technique, I just tried not to splatter the liquid otherwise you end up with dark little circle marks on your music.
And you can even go over it again if there are areas that are too light.
Step 5. While you are waiting for it to dry, grab your canvas, mod podge and phone book or newspaper strips.
I decided to create a “base” for this piece the same way as I did in Oliver’s artwork. I really wanted the music to have some nice texture to it and not be perfectly flat. If you don’t like that texture, feel free to skip this step, but I really think it helps the piece to look more expensive and less homemade-ey. Basically, what you are going to do is take a small amount of mod podge on your foam brush and paint it on a small section of your canvas. Then, simply place a couple of the phone book or newspaper strips over the top of the wet area and use your brush to smooth it out. You will get some air bubbles and that’s ok…I just smoothed them out as best as I could. You should instantly start to see the texture that this creates.
And eventually when you finish, your canvas will look like this. Don’t bother doing the sides because you will not be able to see them due to the frame.
Step 6. Once your sheet music and canvas is dry, you can continue with this step. I figured out where I wanted my music positioned in the frame. All I did was lay my frame on top of the dry sheet of paper, which should be a little crinkly when dry, and marked the corners on the sheet of paper with a pencil. That way, I knew exactly where to position it on top of the canvas. Oh, and if you can prevent your kids from walking on it, or better yet, crawling with a spoonful of peanut butter in their hand over it, you are better than me.
You can really see that just antiquing the paper gives it some nice texture, too.
Step 7. Now comes the fun part. Time to glue the paper down to the canvas. You can do this however you want, but mod podge can dry fairly quickly so I found it better to work in 2 sections. I quickly covered 1/2 of the canvas with mod podge and when I say quickly, I mean I poured out a ton of mod podge all over 1/2 of the canvas and quickly smoothed it out. Then I lined up my pencil marked corner of my paper to the actual corner of the canvas and used my hands to push the paper down onto the canvas while simultaneously smoothing it out. Now there are going to be small bubbles and wrinkles here and there and that is what I was going for. Then once you have that 1/2 done, you will do the same with the other half. The final part to this, is going over the top of the music with the mod podge. Again, I ended up pouring a fairly large amount out top of the music and then used my hands and the foam brush to spread it all around evenly. I had to be speedy while I was doing this step…not to mention the hands full of glue, so sorry, no pictures of this step.
Step 8. Once the glue is dry fee free to stick the canvas in the frame and get it up on the wall. We My husband put some nails in around the back of the canvas to hold it in the frame. I am certain there is a more professional way of doing this, but this got the job done…I didn’t say it was pretty. I had mentioned once to Sam Sam the picture hanging man that maybe we should get his staple gun and he gave me “the look” so I just let him do his thang. I didn’t say anything about the fact that that little nail head could do a nice job of scratching up our wall if the picture moves from side to side…noooo, definitely did not mention that.
Next, my picture hanging man screwed in some eyelets to hold the wire so we could hang this baby up on the wall.
On a side note, I got this incredibly handy and organized box full of picture hanging supplies from Wal-Mart for $4…we use this thing so often, we actually keep it in our kitchen. I highly recommend it.
And now for my favorite part! Stand back and look at your handy work all while clapping and squealing about how much you love it. And it always helps to compliment your handy helper on their amazing job of hanging it “just right”.
Here is a close up so you can see all the texture.
Congratulations!!! You are done!!!
I’m linking this up to these blogs
LOVE this Jesse!! Great idea!
YEAH!!! Thanks so much Jesse. I can’t wait to get started! On a side note…what a great wedding gift also if you know in advance the couples first dance song.
Oh you are good! What a great idea with the wedding gift! Wouldn’t it be cute as a baby shower gift with a lullaby, too! Thanks for lending your brainpower, Natalie!!!
The is such a fabulous idea and well done on the complete instructions! Michele
I especially like that you involved Oliver in helping smooth out the sheet music. He has just the weight limit to create a great texture for the artwork, and the peanut butter antiquing technique is genius.
)
I love this idea! I’m such a romantic at heart. We have an empty wall that we were trying to figure out what to do with. I think this idea is perfect.
I just pinned this idea on Pinterest and there have already been several repins.
http://pinterest.com/festiveparty/
I, too, am such a romantic…thank you so much for spreading the love (quite literally, huh?)! I really appreciate it!
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I LOVE this idea! Our first dance as husband and wife was also a Van Morrison song, ‘Into the Mystic’. Still feel like dancing every time I hear it. I will be doing this project very soon!
Thanks Darcy! Great song choice! But I’m a lil biased…I don’t think you can go wrong with Van Morrison! Please share your finished project with me! I would LOVE to see it!
I am in love with this! This will definitely be my next project. Was thinking how lovely it would be to put our wedding song above our bed, but since we don’t have great wall space in our bedroom it will probably end up in our dining room, even so, I am excited!! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Of course, Raechel! I’m so glad you liked it! & I will have to say, it is so nice to look at it while we are eating our family dinners or enjoying a glass of wine at the table after the kiddos have gone to bed…but I am a romantic at heart! I say put it up where everyone can see it!
Great tutorial! I just saw some of these on ETSY and thought how I would like to do that for over our piano! Thanks so much! (I even Facebooked this!) :0)
Thank you SO much Romaine for sharing this with all your friends! I appreciate it!!!
so awesome!
Thank you, Lara! I’m so happy you “stopped” by & commented! Thank you!!
I’m so going to do this, ESPECIALLY because Someone Like You was my wedding song too! Well, that and it’s a beautiful and very meaningful project. Thank you!
Thanks Sarah!!! Great choice on the song, too!!!
I love this project. I bought my digital sheet music, I just some questions… The strips of newspaper or phone book, do you cover that with white paint before you mod podge down the sheet music? The newsprint doesn’t show through? Thank you for sharing!
Good question, Patty! I actually did cover mine with white paint when I did the piece for my son’s nursery, but chose to skip that step when I did the wedding song. I just thought it’d be kind of cool if it did show through just a bit. Now that it’s done, you really cannot see the phone book paper. If I look really close, I can maybe see it in a few spots, but it’s definitely not noticeable! Please share your project when you are finished! I am so glad that you decided to do it!
Patty and Jesse – thank you I had the same exact question! I printed my sheet music this morning and cannot wait to get started!
That’s great Leslie! I hope you will send me a pic of what you create! I’m so over moon that people like it & are creating some meaningful art for themselves!!! Makes my day!
I LOVE this! Beautiful! I think I might be copying you, and I will be pinning it for sure!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Leanne @ because (i think) i can
I love this idea and would like to do it for my husband for Valentine’s Day! It’s the perfect heartwarming gift that we will both enjoy over the years. However, my local print shop won’t allow copyrighted materials such as sheet music to be copied or enlarged. How did you go about getting yours enlarged being that all sheet music has a copyright on it? Really want to figure out a way to do this project, but don’t know how….
Thanks, Jenna! I am no expert, but when you purchase the sheet music, it prints off with no copyright on it. I have taken things into our print shop that needed permission to print, but I didn’t have a problem when I took this sheet music. Maybe try taking your receipt showing that you paid for the copy? I could be totally wrong, but some things, I think, have a copyright on them so you cannot print them off and resell them as your own. However, in a case where it is for your personal creative use (meaning you are making one for your own enjoyment) some people are ok with you printing off their product…I guess just check. I’m sorry that I don’t have a better answer for you and again…I might be totally wrong. I mean as long as you are not making them and then turning around and charging someone for it or selling it on etsy…you should be fine. I hope you can get it printed to make!!!
Thanks so much for the feedback!! I will def try this! I love, love the project and hope to recreate it for Valentine’s Day for the husband!! Wonderful idea! Thank you!
I am doing this for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. Love this idea! Thanks
Carolyn, I am sure they will love it!!! I’m so glad that you are taking the project on & I would love to see it when you are done! Let me know if you have any questions! Have fun with it!
Quick question, can you enlarge the sheet music before you cut it?
I don’t see why you couldn’t do that, Shelby…it just might take a lil longer to cut, but you may find it might be neat to kind of piece it together at the end! Have fun with it! I promise you cannot mess it up! Send me a pic after you’ve finished…I would love to see it!!!
I love this project, and just so you know Hobby Lobby has a custom frame shop. Meaning you can take the frame and artwork into them and they will attach the artwork into the frame for FREE! Using professional equipment too that won’t hurt your wall
No appointment necessary. And they will also install the hanger in the back for a dollar. I used to work as a custom framer and we did this all the time.
Oh Erika! You might be my new best friend!!!! I knew they had a frame shop, but I had no clue that they would do all of that!?! See this should teach me to just ask a simple question! Thank you for this FABULOUS tip! Our poor wall will no longer get all scratched up from Sam Sam the bad picture hanging man’s work!
. He can hang it straight, though so I’ll give him that! Thank you so much! Lifesaver!!!
i LOVED this idea, so i decided to do one. i went to a local print shop here though, and they refused to enlarge my sheet music, because of copyright laws. i was really bummed. luckily, my awesome hubby was able to work some magic and make it still work. thanks for the great idea!
Thanks Leah! Give your hubby a big pat on the back!
Foam paint rollers would do a great job with the glue and rolling out bubbles.
Great idea Dave! That would definitely make it a bit easier…less messy for sure. Thanks!
I just happened to run across this on Pinterest and thought it was a cute idea. But then, I discovered that you and I had the same wedding song. I’ve never met anyone else who used that song!
Great minds think alike, huh Allyson!
Since I have posted this, I believe you are the third person I have ‘met’ that has had it as their wedding song! I think it is a great choice, but, of course, I’m slightly biased!
I love this idea.
I love this idea. I printed off my sheet music and started cutting it out. Do you tape it to one sheet of paper horizontally or is it multiple pieces? I am having a hard time getting mine to line up perfectly. Thanks for the great idea!
Thanks Caitlyn! Yes, I taped it on another piece of paper horizontally & it was in multiple pieces. Mine didn’t quite line up perfectly, it’s slightly off if you really look closely, but it’s really hard to notice! Please send a pic when you are done! I would love to see what you do!
When you cut and tape the sheet music, do you tape it all to one piece of paper. Having a hard time with this part. Great idea!! Thanks.
Yes, I taped it to one piece of paper, but it went over the edges on all sides of the paper. Let me know if you have any more questions!!!
Love this idea! For our first anniversary I did a similar idea with our vows and it’s hanging above our bed… I never thought about our song! Love it
Thanks, Crystal! I love the idea of your wedding vows especially if you wrote your own! That will be art you never get sick of…so sweet.
yes, we wrote our own… I love having them as a daily reminder of what we promised to each other
totally doing this. Thanks so much!
Thanks Carrian! I figured with Valentine’s Day coming up it was perfect timing!
I’m making this for my husband for Valentine’s Day! This is absolutely perfect as it is our first Valentine’s as a married couple.
Thanks for the tutorial!!
First of all, congratulations Nicole!!! How exciting! It will be the perfect Valentine’s Day present! Congrats to you & your new husband again…wishing you many many years of happiness!!!
How awesome. What a great gift this would make! I must give it a try. Thanks for sharing!
Warmly, Michelle
Thanks Michelle!
It’s me again! I have my sheet music cut apart but what I don’t get is do I bend over line two where the treble clif is? Then line 3 stays as is and line 4 will have the treble clif bent over as well? You poor thing… Having to answer all our questions… Thank you so much for your time and talent!
Yea Patty! I’m so glad that you were able to continue with the project! Were you able to get the music enlarged? Ok, when I cut the lines, I just kind of smooshed them together to appear as one page. Each one of my lines has a treble clef at the beginning of it. I will email you a couple of pics that might help and I will post them in the post as well as a better visual! I hope that helps!
This is such a sweet idea, thank you for the inspiration! Also, I wanted to let you know that I asked the framing area at Hobby Lobby how to attach the canvas to the frame, and they said that if you buy the frame from them, they will assemble it for free. I kept my receipt and brought my finished canvas back, and they clipped it to the frame, added the paper backing, and the hooks and wire to hang it. Awesome!
Since doing this, I had heard that and that tip is awesome!!! Not only will it save
Thanks so much Sarah! If you create your own, please share! I would love to see!
me, ahem, Sam some time, but you get such a professional look! I wonder if I could dig up my receipt and take mine back and have them do it…I’m sure it is in the mess that I call my purse somewhere!I found this on Pinterest and LOVE IT! I’m definitely going to do this with our wedding song (also a Van Morrison song, Into the Mystic), and I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thank you so much for the awesome instructions!
So glad you found it, too! I would love to see it finished, so please send me a pic! & funny that we both chose a Van Morrison as our wedding song & our sons share the same name! Good taste, huh?
I’m so glad you “came by”!
I just wanted to come back and say thanks again for sharing this project! I finished mine over the weekend and now it’s hanging proudly in our powder room. (And by “hanging proudly” I mean, propped against the wall until we can get around to hanging it up.)
Not only did we share song artist and son’s names, but it turns out I bought the same frame as you!
I blogged about mine on our website: http://www.thegozes.com, but I’ll email you a picture too.
Thank you! I love the finished work!
It turned out so great!!! I’m so glad that you took the project on and shared it with me! I don’t think you could have found a better frame either
Love it!
This is such a wonderful idea! I especially like your song bc it was my first dance song too!
Thanks, Angel! We did good on choosing a great song, huh?
Is it possible to order this from you, if I told you the our wedding song could I pay you to make one for my husband and I? Im not good at this crafty stuff at all
Jenn
Jenn, I would love nothing more than to be able to do this for you, but as of right now, I am swamped! Do you have any crafty friends? Maybe you could have someone help you? It is really a fairly simple project…the most common thing I have heard is that people are having problems getting their sheet music enlarged. If things slow down, I will email you and try to help you out!
Has anyone else ever been able to pull this project off? I have drug my children all over town today only to be denied at every print shop to have my sheet music enlarged. I was told it didn’t matter if I already owned the sheet music, because it was illegal for the print shop to make money off of copyrighted material since they would be charging me for the enlargement. I am beyond upset. I have already invested time and money in this project by purchasing frame, canvas and all of the supplies. Now I’ll have to spend more precious time returning it all. Beware if you start this project, you may not be able to complete it.
I’m sorry that you have had so much trouble, Meg. This is the most common complaint that I have heard, but I have a lot of people who have completed this project without any problems. I don’t know if all of us who have not had problems are just getting lucky or what. I took mine to two different print shops that enlarged it for me, no problem. Here are a few things you can do.
#1- since you are just using it for your own personal use, cover up the lyrics and song title with scrap paper and make a copy of it. Then take the copy of the sheet music with no title/lyrics on it. I don’t know if it’s going to work or not. I had someone else that had a problem getting it printed, but once she showed the print shop the receipt of her paying for the download, they allowed it.
#2- You can enlarge an image yourself by going to http://www.blockposters.com You can increase the size of any image by following their easy directions. If for some reason you don’t have the file saved on your computer, you could scan your sheet music in and save it as an image. Then just type in how many pages wide/high you want your print to be and it will print it out for you. You will just have to kind of line everything up to make it even.
Again, I’m sorry that you had no luck at the print shops…and that you had to run all over the place with your children. As I mom, I know how hard running in and out of places can be especially when you hit all sorts of roadblocks when trying to get something done. I hope that some of these ideas work for you and that you can finish your project. I didn’t share this project to frustrate people…I just got a lot of compliments on mine and simply shared what I did. I have several people that have emailed me their finished pieces and they all look amazing! I’m hoping you will be able to finish yours! Good luck!
I know you didn’t share this project to frustrate people. What you have done is create a beautiful piece of art. Sorry for my frustration yesterday. I was upset because I REALLY wanted to make this project work. Last night my husband was able to try another print shop and they enlarged it with no questions asked. I guess it just depends on who is standing at the counter when you bring in the sheet music. Thank you for sharing your talents, I truly appreciate it!
Oh I’m so glad you were able to get it enlarged Meg! & no need to apologize…I understand being frustrated, believe me!!! I think you are right, it totally depends on who waits on you! Please send me a pic of your finished piece. I would love to see it!!!
Oh I am so happy that you were able to find someone who enlarged it for you without giving you problems!!! I think it does totally depend on who you get. & please no need to apologize…I understand being frustrated, I just hated that things were not falling into place for you yesterday! So happy that you get to finish your project & please if you get a chance, email me a pic when you are finished…I would love to see it!
I made mine for my husband for Valentine’s Day. I didn’t have any problems, well, okay there was a slight problem when I went to put the print down and I couldn’t get it straight. But it all worked out..with another trip to Kinkos. It looks great and he loved it. It has been quite a conversation starter as everyone likes to share their song. Ours is Louie Armstrong’s, What a Wonderful World. Thanks so much for sharing your idea and giving such clear directions. What’s next?
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I pinned this months ago and was so excited to make this project and just haven’t gotten around to it. I finally purchased my sheet music today, but realized the song is 7 pages! I’m not sure how to piece it together. Will I have to shrink it down instead? Help!
Marisa, I’m so glad that you are doing the project! Wow! 7 pages?! What I would do is maybe do your favorite verse & the chorus or maybe just the chorus? You could shrink it the whole thing down if you were wanting to leave the lyrics on it, but that might be a little more work. My vote is for just the chorus or your favorite verse & the chorus! Good luck!!!
hello!! i think this is BEAUTIFUL!!! but…i know this much about myself…i will NEVER make this on my own! wondering if you make and sell?!?
I love this project. I have the perfect spot in our master bedroom over the dresser. However I can’t get the lines of my music to line up and they are pretty far off. I’m working on it for our 2nd anniversary (traditional gift – cotton – canvas is made of cotton!!). I’m considering slicing the whole thing into pieces and trying to match it that way……oy!
This is a great project. Thanks for sharing your creativity!
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LOVE this project. Currently, trying to create this for a wedding shower for my best friend. One quick question. . . when taping your pieces of music sheet on the horizontal paper, did you tape it down in any certain dimensions so it will print nicely to 30 x 40?
Nina, I wish I could say that I did that on purpose, but I think I just got lucky with that one! I knew I had 50 inches in length & about 35 inches in width to play with & the guy at the copy center said it would enlarge well to 30×40! I hope you have the same luck! Send me a picture of your finished piece! I would love to see it!!!