the "how to" on making our typewriter key wall art...

a close up shot of the chiseled groovemom, using a paintbrush to really get in the grooves with the antiquing effect
antiquing the squares with the rag and paint
lori, dragging the chisel to create the grooves
our finished product


I have been receiving requests from women who googled "typewriter key wall art" (and from there they found my blog) and they have wanted to know how I made my Pottery Barn replica.
Well, here is how we did it step by step...

• found the typewriter font FREE here http://www.typadelic.com/typekeys.html, downloaded it and then created a document in photoshop, typed the letters/numbers in and blew them up to the size we wanted (if you dont have photoshop and are planning on making your board 25x25", e-mail me and I will send you the jpg files). We printed them out on cream cardstock and then cut all the circles out.
  
• cut a piece of plywood board 25x25" square
• marked a grid 5 lines evenly spaced horiz and 5 lines vertical. Then we used a metal straight edge ruler and dragged the corner of a chisel down the lines to create the grooves
• take a rag, wet a corner with odorless mineral spirits, dab where its wet onto the top of a tube of dark brown oil paint and use that to antique each square...making sure it really gets in the groove to make them stand out. (Hint: if you make it too dark, just wet a clean corner of your rag with the mineral spirits and wipe off till you get the desired effect.
• adhere your letters and numbers in the center of each square using either spray adhesive or a quick dry tacky glue. Brayer over them to make sure they are stuck down good.
  
• hammer tiny black nails (we found a box of 100 at Lowe's for about 3 or 4 bucks) into the four corners of your squares
• cut frame to size and nail together
• hang and enjoy!!

Hope this little tutorial helps. E-mail me @ nikkiclearypta(at)comcast.net if you have any other questions.

**edited to add jpegs**

xoxo
nikki