{Thanksgiving Pallet Art & A Pallet Canvas Giveaway}

Thank you, 48 BY 40, for sponsoring today's giveaway! Hey, y'all!  Have you ever created any pallet art?  I have a confession: I never had before today's project. You see, I have never been able to disassemble a pallet.  My dad found me one about a year ago, and I was all excited about using it for a project.  I think we barely got one board removed from the pallet before we gave up on the whole disassembly thing.  And then I saw posts about how you have to carefully disinfect pallets to make them safe for your home.  So, yeah, I kind of figured that a pallet project--besides a popsicle stick faux pallet project--was probably never going to happen.  The pallet-sized hole in my crafting life was filled a couple of weeks ago when I was sent two pallet canvases from a new company called 48 BY 40. I used one of the pallet canvases to create a pretty piece of Thanksgiving art for my mantel.  The art was really easy to make.  (If you stick around until the end of the post, you can have a chance to win a pallet canvas to create your own art!)

I started my project with one of the large pallet canvases sent to me by 48 BY 40.

The large pallet canvas measure 21" x 21" and, of course, comes without the hassle of pallet disassembly as actual pallets do.  You can find the canvases on Amazon.  (Below is an affiliate link.)

My canvas had a great variation of wood colors with fun nail holes and rough grain.

To begin creating my art, I first had to create my design.  I used Picmonkey to create a large graphic featuring the quote, "In all things, give thanks" and printed it.  I used the process that I outlined in my "How to Create Large, Custom-Size Graphics with PicMonkey" post and "How to Print Large Images Using Microsoft Word" post.

After I taped the image together, I rubbed chalk over the entire back of the image.  (I'm using the process I used to create my large vintage quote sign, except I'm using chalk instead of pencil.)

I then laid the image down on the top of the pallet canvas and traced around the letters with a pen.

After tracing the letters, I removed the paper and the chalk graphic was left on the pallet faintly.  I used a sharpened piece of chalk (just use a handheld pencil sharpener) to trace over the letters again so that they'd be easier to see, especially in places the transfer didn't work all that well.  When transferring graphics this way, a helpful tip is to tape down your graphic to make sure it doesn't move while tracing and to keep checking to make sure your letters are transferring.  You may need to add more chalk to the back of the paper if you're having trouble getting the letters to show up.

Once the letters were traced, I painted them with white paint.  I used a wet paper towel to remove any leftover chalk once the paint dried.  Then my Thanksgiving art was complete.

I love how it turned out!

I am such a huge fan of white and wood paired together, especially when the wood has tons of character.

This piece is the perfect addition to my Thanksgiving decor.

Now that you've seen what I did with my first pallet canvas, I'd love to see what you would do with one.  To help make that happen, the awesome people at 48 BY 40 are giving one lucky reader a chance to win two pallet canvases.  The giveaway is open to residents of the continental U.S. and runs from 12 AM Thursday, October 30th through 12 AM Thursday, November 6th.  You can enter using Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! Disclosure: 48 BY 40 supplied the pallet canvas for today's project and is sponsoring the giveaway, but all opinions in the post are 100% mine.