Project for LIFE

With little time in our schedules for daily activities, sometimes it's hard to find time to fit a little art in our life. Special projects can overwhelm even the most organized. Join me for a few quick tips to help you get through those projects in no time! Every year my husband Jim and I volunteer for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life to honor the lives of those touched by cancer. My husband fully recovered from colon cancer in 2002 and has been in remission ever since. Relay for Life is a great cause and we love participating every year. The theme of this year's event was "Fun and Games" and we decided to use the "Game of Life" as our team's theme. But, of course, every year we say we are not going to get crazy with the decorations and events but, inevitably, what begins as “simple” turns into a major production. This year, I decided to make it all more streamlined and I was thrilled to see how all of the great products in the Craft Painting Solutions set by Loew-Cornell would cut my prep time down and let me get to the fun part! This line is extremely affordable, easy to find at your local craft stores, and gives you the opportunity to cross over into using other art products. Since the piece we created was just for fun, I got the freedom to experiment without any pressure and discovered some great new techniques for preparing my surface. During the event, the teams walk around the track with some kind of prop showing their team name and theme. We decided to create a car from the board game of “LIFE” and cut out a plywood car large enough for us to hold so it looked like we were actually in the car. Simple, right? A prop this huge required some tight sanding and lots of paint, but we did not have a lot of time. After we cut the shape of the car, we used a Sanding Pad (1023595) for the top surface and the Sanding Sticks (12359) to quickly sand in the tighter corners and sides of the plywood.

Our next step was to apply the background color of the car. We used the 3” Sponge Roller Painter (185) to roll the first couple of coats on.

The next step was to lay out the “LIFE” tiles and we measured them off and lined them in chalk. Using painter’s tape, we taped off each of the outer borders for the letters and based them with 1-3/4” Mini Polyester Paintbrush, washing out between colors and sections.

The thin outside borders were painted in 4 values of color and had to be taped off individually. We used the 1” Sponge Roller (1023594) to roll these areas in seconds.

I am the only “seasoned” painter of the group but I wanted to share the whole art experience with other “non-painters” so I got a multi pack of brushes (680) for the lettering and details.

This pack is great because every painter handles a brush differently and there are 5 brushes in the kit to choose from.

We customized the car by adding our team name, bumpers and lights, and even the most inexperienced of the team painted like a professional!

Every work of art needs signatures, and at the event we will have our Fine Line Painting Pen loaded with paint so that all of the attending cancer survivors can autograph the “LIFE Car”.

Our work of art is complete and we are so excited to take it to the Relay.

The name of our team is “TEAM AWESOME” and we are! The car looked amazing and our team was proud to show it off in the parade.

I hope that the next time you are involved with a project or fundraiser you will use these quick tips to fit a little art into your life.