Easy DIY State Art {for $0}

I have this weird space in my kitchen that I previously dealt with by creating this for a few months back. However, the lid from my trash can knocked it off the wall dozens of times when my kids stomped on the petal like a cow driving a car {helloooo, we've talked numerous times about softly opening the trash can...does nobody else respect the lid?}.

Sooo, despite my OCD need to "fill the trapped white space", I have given in to the fact that the white space is actually lid-hitting space and truly can't have artwork on/in it. On to Plan B.

We had some scrap wood in the garage that we pieced together to form a "canvas".

And then we used more scrap wood to adhere it all together {along with wood glue between the slats}.

I used the leftover Frog Tape from painting my kitchen to "freehand" some stripes {I didn't invest a whole lot of time into this one...it was one of the quickest projects ever}.

I used the paint that I've also used here, here, here, here and here {on my third can and don't plan on quitting the blue anytime soon. Obsessed.}. I literally just slapped it on there.

I let it dry for a couple of hours and then laid my pattern on top of it {I just did a quick search for "Texas outline" on Google Images}, enlarged it in Photoshop and printed it {on the fast draft because I'm a total ink tightwad}. I taped the printout to the board and used a ball point pen to trace it {pressing hard} so it left an indention into the wood underneath.

You can see the faint outline in the above photo.

I lightly went over it with my ink pen just to make sure I could see it well {the ink would get covered with paint, so I figured it wouldn't matter}.

Since the indention was in place, it almost acts like a "flood space" to catch excess paint. I outlined first and then went through and filled in the middle. I only did one coat...I wanted it a bit rough and somewhat opaque. I may go back later and sand and weather it a bit...still thinking on that one.

Ta-Da! And the little heart is over the city we live in {created with my Sharpie}. You know the area, where the stars at night are big and bright...

Yes, there's still some trapped space...but now my trash can be used by all members of the family again...not just the one person who can exercise some restraint when applying pressure to the pedal {seriously, family, how hard can this really be?}.

This concept can easily be done with any state or cool shape. And it was FREE!