I fought the law pt 1

okay, so today I am going to do a full stop and share with you a tutorial on how to create a british-pop-rock bedroom for your kid.  complete with a cork guitar!

I'll do this in two parts - the painting will be part 1 and the cork guitar will be part 2.  and trust me, lots of pictures!!  so the first part of my decorating was painting a union jack on a wall in ty's bedroom.  you will need a couple of tools for this:  a laser level, an ikea paper measuring stick {yes, I took one from ikea!}, a pencil, a couple of thicknesses of green painters tape, some paint samples {red, blue and white if your wall colour is really dark}, and a picture of a union jack on your phone!

mine is not perfect, but it ended up being fairly decent.  most flag dimensions are a ratio of 1:2.  so, that means 1 foot high to 2 feet across.  just use this ratio to create whatever size you'd like.

step #1:  using a laser level and painters tape, tape out the edges of your flag and the inner cross.  use your pencil to make all your markings.  I have a laser level that sticks to my walls.  it was a HUGE help.  it makes sure your lines are straight and you don't have to rush.  that laser line will wait all day for you to get your tape down straight.  I think my flag is 3x4 with in inner cross being 2 or 3 inches.  trust me.  if I can do the math to get this centred, so can you!!

step #2:  with different sizes of tape, tape the diagonal lines.  I used my laser level for each quadrant and did each quarter separately.  this is where having a picture of a union jack will totally help you!  then I painted the inner cross...

...and the diagonals!  I cannot stress this enough:  LET YOUR PAINT DRY!

step #3:  paint the other sections blue.  and once again, LET IT DRY!!!  your painters tape will not come off in a clean line if you pull it off when the paint is still tacky.  don't ask me how I know.  ha!

step #4:  so while you're waiting, you can create some canvases for your walls!  I used just plain white canvases from michaels.  then I got out my stamps and my paint and stamped the names of british bands on my canvas.  I had a big ampersand stamp as well, so that allowed me to create some space and a change in colour.  you could do this with vinyl letters or by hand, if that's your kind of crafty!  stamping is my kind of crafty, so I just used what I had.

canvas #2 was inspired by a tshirt my hubs has.  john owns this blue t-shirt with the red cross on one sleeve.  on top of it was a lion and a crest.  it says GBR on it somewhere too.  I stripped down the idea and just painted the red cross on white, then stamped one the name of one of my fave songs on the bottom in black.  on a third canvas, I painted the whole thing black then glued old cds upside down on it.  that canvas got destroyed in a fit of anger - the kid, not me! so I'm on plan b with that one!!

step #5:  take all your painters tape off and hang your canvases.  my walls are fairly light so I decided not to add white to my flag.  okay, I'll be honest.  I was tired of tape, so I didn't really want to do all the work that it was going to require!!

I'll post part 2 pretty quickly.  you'll see how this wall has morphed over the last three years!  I did this wall back in July 2010...