DIY Subway Art

Are you anything like me in that you have a running mental list of projects you'd love to do except that you'd have to learn a new skill in order to do them? I'd love to learn to knit, to crochet a beanie so that I can make a sock monkey and owl hat for Natalie (I barely know how to crochet an afghan!), to embroider without it looking like a 5-year-old got a hold of a needle and thread, and to be able to fix things around the house without calling my dad or father-in-law to come to the rescue. Another project that I've seen all over Etsy and Pinterest that I've wanted to try is making subway art. There are so many different versions and variations to cater to nearly anybody's taste. Lucky for me, I stumbled across this tutorial on Pinterest that explained how you could design your own 'word art' using Picasa. If you're not familiar with Picasa, it's a free photo editing software that you can download from Google. I use it to crop and 'edit' (ie: remove red eye from) our photos. The tutorial was easy to follow. She included a blank high-resolution white background to download to make getting started fast and easy. From there, you use Picasa's text tool and the fonts you already have on your computer (I went to Dafont to download a few more to make things interesting), to create your 'masterpiece'. After working on this for a few hours (Natalie was soooo cranky, then it was dinner, bath, and bedtime!), here's how mine turned out. I think I want to print this out and frame it to go on Natalie's bookcase/mantle:

Several of the fonts were already a part of my font library from Microsoft Word and a few others had been downloaded months ago, so I'm not sure if they are still available, but here is a list of all the words and which fonts they were typed in, in case you'd like to use them in a project or download them for yourself:

Just The Way You Are (wonderful)
Footlight MT Light (heaven-sent)
Goudy Stout (miracle)
Constantia (adorable, strong, cuddly)
Curlz (playful)
Janda Curlygirl Serif (child of God)
Gigi (lovely)
French Script (happy)
Berlin Sans FB (kissable)
A Yummy Apology (unique)
Traveling_Typewriter (mommy's girl)
Harrington (bundle of joy)
Servus Text Display (daddy's girl)
Cinnamon Cake (light of my life)
Always Forever (huggable, sunshine, giggly)
Gold Plated (blessing)
Grenouille (one-of-a-kind)
Airplanes in the Night Sky (wiggly, sweetie pie, beautiful)
Avanti (Natalie Grace)
Angsana New (courageous)

I found a couple other fonts that I really loved (one called Cast Iron, comes to mind), but I felt like they didn't fit in with this particular project. Now I want to create more word art so that I can use those awesome fonts! There are more than a few empty walls in my house crying out to be decorated!!! Oh, and dingbat fonts also work well if you want to incorporate shapes and flourishes along with words. I downloaded Frames'n Riboons (yes, that is riboons, with one 'b' and two 'o's), which would be super cute for something! I'm thinking of art for Natalie's first birthday...and what a cute baby shower gift, or wedding present! Oh, the possibilities!