DIY Gamer Canvas Art

This DIY Gamer Canvas Art was a fun project my son and I made together.

It's a part of today's theme for #BoyMomMadness: DIY!

As I've been talky-talkin' about, we're knee deep in a room redo for my big boy. He's (sadly) outgrown his cute little cowpoke-themed room and is D-O-N-E-DONE with anything bandana printed or denim. His vision for the room was to haul in a bunch of vintage...ahem, retro video game machines and throw down a sleeping bag in the middle of the madness. I have a slightly different plan. But I thought I'd put the usual vintage spin on the room and just have small gaming touches here and there. This is one of our first projects. Check out how easy it was below.

This started out as a Goodwill canvas find. I always look for them there...they're so much cheaper than a brand new one (like 1/3 of the price!). I just paint it with white paint and go from there.

Since this is for Ben's room, he took the reigns with painting this one its base coat.
I just used plain white paint on this...nothing fancy. Since I was weathering it, I knew I wasn't looking for a strict adhesion.

I used my vinyl machine to cut out a game controller and cord. The discussion of whether or not this particular controller was retro is still slightly lost on me. The controller is not exactly retro...but it is the controller used to play the retro games. Potato-potAHto.

I painted over the vinyl with an aqua-ish blue. I pulled the vinyl off before the blue was dry, to prevent any peeling issues with the paint. The vinyl was basically a template.

After the top layer was completely dry, I sanded it with a light-grit paper and my palm sander to weather it up. I do this because I'm not a perfect painter...weathering hides a multitude of sins that my touch up brush can not. Plus...weathering, y'all.

To take it even more vintage. I used a bit of stain to dirty it up.
I wiped it on and wiped it off. Very Karate Kid.

It's super simple but makes a fun statement, dontcha think?
I sprayed it with a light clear coat sealer. I can't wait to get it in his room. More importantly, I can't wait for the ding dang room to get done.

Be sure to check out all of the other awesome DIY Boy projects in today's #BoyMomMadness fun! I'm loving all of the fun we're all having this week!