How to Make DIY Art with an Image Projector

Inside: Use an image projector to make fabulous and easy DIY large scale wall art.

I’ll be the first to admit this project was intimidating – big time. I’ve attempted wall art over the years and I’ve never, NEVER, been satisfied with it and I typically pull it down after a few short weeks and either paint over it or cut it up and toss it. But this time? This time I was determined. Recognizing my strength does not lie in free hand drawing, I decided to overcome that by making DIY Art with an Image Projector. Read on, friends, if you want to open up an endless bounty of giant art ideas!

This project was entirely inspired by this Silent Night Twinkle Art by Love Grows Wild. Hers is stunning. I looked for days for a non-Christmasy phrase for my art because I wanted to keep it up all winter. I settled on the phrase above.

I clearly adapted what she did because I made mine on wood and didn’t add lights. I also chose to finish mine off with a DIY wood frame. Here’s what I did.

Supplies for DIY Large Scale Art

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Large piece of plywood (mine is 3/4″ thick)
Small art projector
Sharpened pencils
Sharpie Oil Based Paint Pens
Deco-Art Paint in Classic Black
Deco-Art Paint in Extreme Sheen
Brad Nailer
Minwax Stain cloths

I started out with my printed word art. I made it in a couple minutes using Canva. This particular projector only accommodates print outs that are 4×4, so I made sure to keep my design small. I propped everything up in the playroom. It took a while to figure out the right height to keep the board versus the projector and I ended up moving it around a fair bit to get it the way I wanted it. But this was SO much easier than free handing art!

I traced the design with a pencil and then went over the words with my black oil based Sharpie paint pen.

Once I had the words done, I decided to print out some clip art tree shapes and use the projector to trace them as well. I simply zoomed in or out to make them different sizes.

Then I filled them in with metallic paint.

For the frame, I used 1x2s I had on hand, stained them with Minwax cloths, cut them to size and nailed them into the side of my ply. My intention was to have it look rustic. I waffled on whether to mitre the corners of the frame, but decided a straight edge was the look I was going for.