She's A Rose, She's A Pearl...

This is just something I made after my initiation into my sorority, Sigma Alpha Iota. You can write whatever you want on it but here are instructions on how to do the simple layout! Also, excuse my gross handwriting on this

What You Will Need

1. Canvas or Wooden canvas, either can be purchased at Walmart or your local crafting store. I used a wooden canvas for this.

2. Paint and paint brushes. I suggest acrylic paint from Walmart or a local crafting store in whatever colors you wish to use.

3. Pearls. I purchased these in the beading section at Walmart. I also suggest buying the larger pearls, they are far easier to work with than the smaller sized.

4. Hot glue gun. These can be found pretty cheap, especially at Walmart (can you tell that I do a lot of shopping at Walmart?)

5. Paint pens or Q-tips or Sharpie.  You can either make the polka dots using a paint pen or Q-tips and normal paint. I find paint pens to be easier however and the finished product looks cleaner using a paint pen. You can also use either a paint pen or Sharpie for the writing. 

How To Make It

1. Paint the entire surface of your canvas/wood/whatever you are using. It will probably take several coats to completely cover the surface and eliminate brush strokes. To improve quality, be sure to make each stroke in one direction instead of all over the place. It looks cleaner and will take less strokes. Let the paint COMPLETELY DRY, otherwise it'll be messed up and you have to start over.

2. Take either a Sharpie or paint pen and write/draw whatever you would like. You could lightly write/draw first in pencil and then trace over with the Sharpie or paint pen to make sure everything looks the way you would like it to. You may also have to trace over it several times with the sharpie/paint pen to get the color and boldness you would like. Let this completely dry

3. With either a paint pen or Q-tip, start making the polka dots in the empty spaces.  Depending on the paint pen, you might have to draw the circle and fill it in or you might just need to press down the pen on the surface. If you are using a Q-tip, dip the end of the Q-tip in paint and make the outline of the circle then filling it in. If you don't like the borders of the circle, the just make the circle a little bigger, painting over the old border and forming a new one.

4. Here comes the annoying part...easy, but annoying. Plug in the hot glue gun and after you are sure the glue is hot, start hot gluing the pearls to the board. Make a small dot of glue on the pearl, and firmly press it to the canvas for a few seconds. Warning, some of the pearls might fall off over time, so you will probably have to re-glue them at some point. It takes a while to glue all of these on but it's easy and it looks really cool! And after this part you're done!!!