Join me in a cup of tea?

Think we'll both fit?

Old joke. Sorry.

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.  ~C.S. Lewis

Hmmm. I may not agree with Mr. Lewis.

I have been up to my ears in strong, black tea.

I am creating vintage looking signage for our booth. I want it to be crystal clear and visable from a great distance. 

And I definitely want it to match the cool vintage vibe Dennis has already created.

No better way than to use tea to get a really authentic look.

I had a custom stencil made by Wallwords and have been dying to use it.

Here's what I did:

I bought a 6' x 9' painter's drop cloth canvas from Home Depot, folded it in half length-wise and sewed along the bottom edge. It is now 3' x 9'.

Perfect.

On to the vat 'o tea....

 Kind of looks gross in the picture, but that's a huge tea bag I made out of loose black tea and cheesecloth. (I also threw in any extra tea bags I had in my cupboard - I wanted this strong!)

I placed the tea bags, hot, (HOT) water, and the canvas into a 5 gallon bucket.

 Out to dry after a good long, two day soak.



this stuff' will grow hair on yer palms...

 I made some even STRONGER tea to spray here and there as it was drying.

After it was completely dry I laid it out on the floor.

I took my stencil from Wallwords and centered it on the canvas and taped it down.

 Then peeled back the paper backing revealing adhesive - no slipping and sliding here.

 Peeled off the front paper to expose the voids where paint will go.

Just to make sure there would be no leakage, I sponged on a layer of gesso to seal it.

Now the fun part!

first the brown...

...then a dark, dark metalic bronze around the edges to create age and depth.

Once I was satisfied with the painting, I tore off the vinyl stencil.....

 How cool is that?!

I finished sewing on the ties and ironed the entire canvas to "heat set" the paint.

Here it is at the top of my attic stairs.

But....
...next Thursday we set up shop at the Custer Christmas Arts and Crafts show in Spokane, Wa. and I can't wait to see how it looks in place, lit up, and all decked out!

Please keep checking back with me - I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

This is going to be a great show....

xoxo