Great artwork brings life and energy to any space, whether it’s adding a punch of color or evoking a specific mood. Recently, we rearranged our living room furniture and suddenly found ourselves with a nice-sized patch of open wall space. My husband Josh and I wanted one statement piece of art that could pay homage to Star Wars in a subtle and unique way. We also wanted something affordable, which definitely limited our options. Most large-sized original Star Wars artwork are expensive, and rightfully so since you’re paying for the artist’s talent & time. But sometimes limitations can lead to creative ideas and solutions! After we stumbled upon a great DIY on Buzzfeed, we decided to create our own Star Wars art!
There are so many iconic quotations from the saga, why not commemorate one and put it up on a wall? “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter,” is one of my all-time favorite quotes, so we decided to memorialize Yoda’s iconic line. Next, we needed a piece of artwork to repurpose for our project. Initially I had hoped to use a thrift store painting, and while it would have been fun to scour my favorite vintage shops, we found this painting at Ross for under $30.
I actually liked the original painting because it reminded me of the landscape of Ahch-to. If there had been any Caretakers in the picture I would have never covered it up, but there weren’t so it was time to get to work! We used vinyl letter stickers from Lowe’s, but you can find stickers like these at any craft store. Once we cut out each letter for our quote, we arranged the words onto the painting. We played around with the spacing a bit and once we liked the layout, we stuck the letters onto the canvas.
Next, we painted the entire canvas with white acrylic paint. NOTE: we slightly watered down the paint so that it wouldn’t be as opaque. We chose white because a) we wanted the letters to stand out and b) we wanted to keep the painting airy and bright. We found that applying the paint using horizontal brush strokes created a nice pattern. Once we painted the entire canvas, the piece looked stark white. I wanted some color to show through, so while the paint was drying I took a rag and lightly wiped away the paint to the outer edges of the canvas. This created a streaking effect that allowed some of the painting’s original colors to show through.
Once the canvas was dry, we carefully removed the letters using an X-ACTO knife. Then we hung the canvas on the wall and admired our handiwork!
We are so happy with the way this piece turned out. It fits the space beautifully and it’s been neat to share the significance of the quote with our non-Star Wars-obsessed friends and family. All in all, the process took a couple hours and it was fun for us to spend a Friday night crafting together. Not bad for under $30!
Even though we used the Buzzfeed article as our reference, I found the original full tutorial for this project on the A Beautiful Mess website. So for more step-by-step instructions and tips, head on over there! Thanks to A Beautiful Mess and Buzzfeed for this fantastic DIY that has enhanced our living room tremendously. If you make your own Star Wars quotation art, let me know in the comments or share your photos with me on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. May the Craft be with you! ✂️
