Paint Chip Eiffel Tower {Naptime Ingenuity}

For those of you who live under a rock, paint chip art is the straight dope these days. There are SO many projects out there and they are all awsomazing. Just search for "paint chips" on Pinterest and you'll see what I mean.

Paint chips ... wow!

I decided to join the fray with an idea I've had forevah. It's not nearly as cool as a gigantic Marilyn Monroe. But it's pretty cool. Are you ready for it?

Wait for it ...

WAIT FOR IT ...

I made ... a Paint Chip Eiffel Tower. A mostly to-scale Paint Chip Eiffel Tower.

If the shoe fits ...

What do you mean? Of course I have never been accused of overhyping ... gosh. Or being a complete and total nerd. Okay, maybe I have been accused of that one.

Did I mention the best part? If you have an old 11x14 picture frame, this project is FREE. FREEEEEEE. You all know how much I love free stuff.

Here's whatcha need:

Paint chips
A picture frame (preferably 11x14)
A pencil (I used a pen because I'm cool like that ... or maybe it was because all my pencils were broken and my sharpener has gone incognito)
Scissors
Scotch tape
A ruler
Rockin' math skills (if you want to draw your Eiffel Tower to scale ... which you do. You know you do. I can hear your inner nerd screaming at me through the computer screen.)

Actually, you don't really need rockin' math skills because I already did all the work for you! Yay! To make a tower that fits an 11x14 frame, use the dimensions in the diagram below.

Here's whatcha do:

Imagine a hallway this color. Yeesh.

1. Hopefully, you have some paint chips already on hand to use for this project. If not, you're gonna have to steal some. Of course, it's not technically stealing if they're free. Try telling that to the lady covertly stuffing 15 paint chips in her purse at the hardware store ... oh wait, that was me.

Who knows? Maybe if I look at the color "Clownfish" in a pretty Eiffel Tower picture every day, one of my multiple personalities will have a crazy urge to go out and buy a whole gallon of that color. And use it to paint a downstairs hallway. So it looks like the inside of a macaroni noodle. The cheesiest macaroni noodle ever.

Oh wait, that was me, too. Long story. Bottom line - NEVER PAINT YOUR HALLWAY THE COLOR OF A FISH. And bright, bright, BRIGHT orange is pretty much the hardest color to cover up. Ever. Besides dark purple. Don't worry, I learned my lesson. The house we're in now is white, white, white.

Okay, where were we? Oh yeah, not actually technically stealing paint chips ...

2. Gather your materials. First, lay out your paint chips however you like. I used a gradient effect because I thought it would look cool going up the Tower. The sky's the limit, though. Do whatever you want!

3. Tape your paint chips together in the formation you're going to use. Don't be afraid to slap lots o' dat tape on de back of dem dere chips. It is a very important ingredient in this whole process.

4. Make your stencil. You can use the measurements in the diagram below or freehand it depending on whether or not you are a Type-A personality. I am, in case you haven't noticed. Maybe we should start a support group or something.
I just used a ruler to mark out all the measurements with dots and then connected them. Easy peasy.

(source)

5. Lay your stencil out on your paint chip grid. Trace it. Remove it. Whew.

6. Get your scissors and cut out your shape. Take lots of pictures of aforementioned scissors while saying dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, DUN, DUN, DUN, DUH a la Jaws while husband is watching TV. Make angry face at husband when he tells you to SHUT UP.

dunh, dunh, dunh, dunh, dunh, dunh, dunh, dunh, DUNH, DUNH, DUNH, DUNH, DUNH, DUNH, DUNH, DUNH ...
yeah, that's a little annoying ...

7. Stick your ole' cut out shape in your frame. Use tape to reinforce where necessary.

8. Stand back and admire the brilliance shining from your new ah-mazing piece of art. Now all you have to do is find somewhere to put it.

I originally picked this color scheme to go with my awesome bedroom quilt, a gift from my MIL. However, I moved the artwork to the kitchen while taking photos and I love it there, too. Decisions, decisions.

Maybe I will just have to make another one ... if I can bring myself to not actually technically steal more paint chips. I'm thinking maybe an Empire State Building would be fun. To scale, of course.

Have fun with dem dere paint chips!

Caiti

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