I’ve been seeing these wall art scrolls everywhere on my Instagram feed lately and I have been loving them!
They are so simple, yet they add such a cute warm kind of feeling to rooms, and all they really are is a quote written on some brown craft paper!
When I was seeing these scrolls all over my Instagram and Pinterest I wanted one sooo bad.
However, if you’ve been here on the blog before you have probably noticed by now that I’m ALL about saving money where I can.
And I just can’t justify to myself the $50 just one of these scrolls cost sometimes.
Actually, I can’t really justify spending $25 on one if I’m being honest.
Not when the product consists of some paper and some words, despite how cute they may be….
No problem though, I’m also not the kind of person to let price stop me from getting what I want.
Being the frequent crafter DIYer that I am I thought a project like this was well within my capabilities, so I decided to try my hand at making one and share it here on the blog with ya’ll!
I’m not going to lie I had actually attempted to do one of these once before and it turned out terribly.
I didn’t post any photos of the original though.
Only because I had done it a while beforehand and I didn’t think to take pictures of the finished product before throwing it out.
Why did I throw the first attempt out do you ask?
Because it turned out like crap!
Guys when I share photos of my DIYs with you, they are not always my first attempt.
I am never going to pretend that I’m amazing and everything I do goes off perfectly without a hitch. In fact, they usually go the opposite.
Something almost always happens where I have to rig something that didn’t quite work the way I thought, or completely start over from scratch.
I think that is totally ok, necessary even. You can’t make improvements without mistakes and imperfections.
With that little statement being said, I also want to be clear that the photos of this scroll I’m sharing with ya’ll I do not consider perfect in any way either!
I actually plan to make another one of these later on down the road, but I have other projects I want to do first and this particular craft takes some time and a little elbow grease so it’s on the backburner for now.
Anyway, back to why the first attempt failed….
I’d really like to blame it on me being left-handed.
I’m always telling myself that I don’t naturally have the best handwriting because of the fact that unlike most people I’m left-handed, and when I write my hand drags across the page so it smears and I can’t help that right?!?
Whether that’s really true or not doesn’t really matter much in my head.
Feeling like it’s out of my control makes me feel better about my self, don’t judge me 😉
Anyway, I was surprised to find out how much effort and attention I actually had to spend for one of these to come out decent.
However, this project is something you can easily do in an afternoon, bad handwriting or not.
I started mine on an early evening with a glass of red wine in hand, a good tv show and a couple refills in between :).
Be warned though, it will take a few hours [at least it did for me], and your hand will also start to hurt during in the filling in process a little.
Just be sure to take a few breaks during. Or if you have a kiddo who’s coloring skills are on point see if you could recruit one to help you!
If you are curious about my Hanging Wood Nightstands they are another DIY project of mine I created after this scroll project and shared here on the blog as well.
I’m slowly but surely redecorating my apartment that I recently moved into with my boyfriend and his roommate.
I feel like a lot of people struggle (like I do sometimes) when it comes to ideas for “renovating” their apartment.
So, as I make improvements to our place, in an attempt to make it look cuter and less like a bachelor pad, I’ll be sharing the progress and projects I do as I go along. So be on the lookout for more posts like this coming up in the future!
Moving on….
So, on top of being able to tell people your an artist, and showing it off to guests when you have company, this project will also save you a good chunk of $$$ if you decide to make it yourself.
As I mentioned earlier, I looked them up online and some of them can cost up to $50 depending on the size!
If you would rather just spend the money to have someone else do it for you, I found a cute little Etsy shop HERE that sells them.
Again, personally I’m cheap and enjoy doing projects like this anyway, so I chose to do it myself.
Before I go about explaining my process though, I want to emphasize that this is just how I chose to do this and there might be other ways as well, this is just what worked for me, I’m no expert.
With that said let’s get down to it! Here’s what you’ll need.
Supplies
- Made in USA Brown Kraft Paper
- Jute Twine
- A black sharpie marker, a pencil, and a ruler.
I realize that the whole point of making one of these yourself is to save money, but then you’re having to spend money on the materials, it might seem a little counterintuitive.
Yes even though you have to spend a little if you don’t already have these supplies on hand like I didn’t, you’ll most likely be using all of this in later projects.
The scrolls alone are something I see pop up often during the seasonal time of year, but with cute little Christmas songs and things like that.
But the Jute Twine is something I use in A LOT of my crafts.
You are also still saving money, buying the supplies cheaper than it would cost you to buy one already made by someone else.
Take a look and see how I’ve used these materials in other projects of mine.
Moving on…
Alright, let’s get to the steps I used to make this Caligraphy Scroll Wall Art!
Select and arrange your quote
first, you’ll need to pick a quote that you like.
I looked up quotes on Pinterest and my Instagram to find the one that I wanted.
I then took some photos of the scroll on my phone to reference later.
I specifically used my phone because I’m able to zoom in on photos, and I needed as much detail as possible to guide me through the word tracing process.
Next, you’ll want to figure out how many lines you’ll want that quote split up into. Then take your pencil and plot where those lines should be placed drawing out a very light straight line on your paper.
Don’t worry about the lines showing up after, we’ll erase those later. Just make sure not to press too hard when sketching this all out.
Start Tracing
Now you’ll take the photos you took earlier on your phone, and begin to lightly trace the quote along the lines you drew earlier, making sure to correct each letter as needed.
If you aren’t familiar with how to do faux hand lettering you can usually find some free printables on Pinterest.
Or, you can watch a few short Youtube videos on the technique, which I highly recommend doing before starting this process.
Filling In
Once that’s done, and you’re positive it all looks ok, start the process of filling in each letter very carefully.
Actually, take a sip of that wine you forgot was sitting next to you first, then start filling in.This is where you start to feel the carpal tunnel.
A little note…
The quote will look a little funny at first as you’re going through this step, and you’ll think you really screwed it up and might have the urge to toss it.
But try not to worry, it will hopefully all come together nicely at the end.
Erasing and Rolling
After you’ve filled in all the letters this is the final most gratifying step.
You’re simply going to erase all the leftover unneeded lines you drew earlier.
Then roll up the corners to your desired length and tape or staple the sides so they don’t unroll when you hang it up, and vioa-la you’re done (with the hard part anyway).
Now all you have to do is string the twine through and tie the two ends together in a knot and find a place to hang it.
Take a step back and look at what you just created!! Doesn’t it feel good?!?! I love doing things like this, and I hope you’re proud of what you did.
If you still hate the way it turned out, just practice a little with the printables and try it again.
Like I said my first one turned out like crap and that’s exactly what I ended up doing.
Ok, that’s it for today’s post guys. Thank you guys so much for stopping by my blog today.
If you tried this project out leave me a comment below to tell me how it turned out for you. As always, if you enjoyed this post let me know in the comments below so I can continue to make content for you guys that you enjoy.
Ya’ll mean so much to me and I want to make sure I’m writing things that you are excited to read. I’ll talk to you guys soon thanks again, Bye!
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