How to create the "Pixel Heart Art"
This is a craft that makes a great
decor piece as well as a wonderful
gift to a nerdy loved one.
-Materials-
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- Printer Paper
- Cardboard
- Canvas (I chose a scrap piece of wood from an
old drawer)
-Black Sharpies
- Pens and Pencils (A basic for most crafts)
- Paints in the colors of your choice (must have
white)
- Paint brushes and palate
- Scissors
- Glue (Hot Glue or Gorilla Glue works best)
- Mod Podge
-Instructions-
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Firstly, this project is a relatively easy one but it does take quite a few hours.
Step One: Create a stencil.
To create a stencil, search up and image of a pixel heart and then hold a piece of printer paper up to a computer screen and trace the image onto the paper. Then cut out the shape and use it to trace a heart onto a piece of cardboard and cut that out. I'm sure that there are better ways of doing this, but I've used this method for many projects I have done in the past. Note: DO NOT USE A PEN TO TRACE ON YOUR SCREEN! USE A PENCIL! It might bleed onto your screen and create a mess. We all learn from our mistakes.. Anyways, pictures of the steps are below.
Step Two: Trace the hearts onto your canvas
On this step, take your stencil and trace it onto the canvas with a black sharpie. Before doing this, make sure to mark where you would like your hearts to be at on your canvas. Once you have the out line, begin to draw in the black pixels that outline the heart-shape and color them in with the sharpie. You could trace with a pencil ad then paint them in, but I find that using a good quality black marker works the best. Do this for all the hearts that you want on your piece. After you're done, its time to begin step three, painting!
Step Three: Painting in the hearts
On this step, its time to paint in the hearts. Before you do this, make sure that all your hearts have step no. 3 & 4 on the picture-chart above completed for each and every heart. Now, the first thing you want to do is take your chosen color and paint in the plain boxes on the heart. This might take a couple of coats to get a vivid color. If you want a lighter version of your color, say a light blue instead of just regular blue, add white until the desired shade is reached. Once you have successfully painted in the main area, now you can start on the highlight. To create the right shade for the highlight, put a drop or two of the same color paint you used to color in the heart and add a bit of white to lighten the shade. When you are done mixing the paints, apply the custom color you created to the area marked as the highlight. Add several coats if needed. Pictures of this process are below.
Step Four: Finishing Steps
To finish up, apply a coat of Mod Podge to the surface of the now dried canvas, paining over the hearts to insure their protection against the elements. Let it dry then to the back of the canvas add a backboard or a offset clip with some form of glue (I used hot glue). If you used a piece of wood like I did, I would recommend before doing the previous step to paint the back of the board black. After that, your'e done! Hang it up or like me, gift it to someone special! :D
On this step, its time to paint in the hearts. Before you do this, make sure that all your hearts have step no. 3 & 4 on the picture-chart above completed for each and every heart. Now, the first thing you want to do is take your chosen color and paint in the plain boxes on the heart. This might take a couple of coats to get a vivid color. If you want a lighter version of your color, say a light blue instead of just regular blue, add white until the desired shade is reached. Once you have successfully painted in the main area, now you can start on the highlight. To create the right shade for the highlight, put a drop or two of the same color paint you used to color in the heart and add a bit of white to lighten the shade. When you are done mixing the paints, apply the custom color you created to the area marked as the highlight. Add several coats if needed. Pictures of this process are below.
Step Four: Finishing Steps
To finish up, apply a coat of Mod Podge to the surface of the now dried canvas, paining over the hearts to insure their protection against the elements. Let it dry then to the back of the canvas add a backboard or a offset clip with some form of glue (I used hot glue). If you used a piece of wood like I did, I would recommend before doing the previous step to paint the back of the board black. After that, your'e done! Hang it up or like me, gift it to someone special! :D
