DIY Sheet Music Artwork

I first saw this picture floating around Pinterest- I have since found out it is from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams.  It is called "A Tribute to Music" and costs a pretty penny - $2000!  I loved it the moment I saw it (not so much the price though).  Well with the help of the copy lady at Staples - we figured out a way to create something similar!

Here is my version:

 First you will need two 8.5x11 sheets of music (you can print some off the computer or use a copy out of a music book).  Next I cut and pieced the two sheets together so that they created a new 8.5x11 with a horizontal orientation (I wanted my final artwork to be wider than it is long).  If you want your final artwork to have a vertical orientation than you can skip this step!  Next I had staples copy the music sheet onto 3 transparencies.  By layering the transparencies on top of each other you get a jumbled mess of notes!  Each layer should be shifted slightly down so that you can see the notes of each layer.  Staples can then take these 3 layered transparencies and copy it onto one sheet of paper.  Mine ended up being 11x11.  

Finally that was blown up to be 36x36.  Staples can only blow up your image to be 36" tall - it can be as long as you want though.  Since my image started out square, a 36x36 square was the biggest it would go. At this point you could frame the image or mod podge it to canvas.  Hobby Lobby sells a canvas that is 36x36 but when we tried that size in my hallway we decided it needed to be bigger.  So I found a 36x48 canvas at Michaels.  The full price was $80 so make sure to use a 40 or 50% off coupon when you buy these!  For an even cheaper DIY you could also find a large piece of artwork on canvas at a thrift store and mod podge the music over the top!

***UPDATE  you could also attach the paper to a piece of 1/2 inch plywood rather than a canvas.  You can have Home Depot or Lowes cut it to the size you need and it should only cost around $20.  Simply attach corner molding to the edges to give the artwork a finished look as seen here at Maison de Pax.

To fill my larger canvas I went to Staples and had them print me out another 36x36 sheet of music so I could piece the two sheets together on my canvas.  It worked great - because it is a jumble of notes you really can't see where I pieced it together.  I made sure my papers were lined up properly then folded them back halfway- brushed the mod podge on the canvas- then laid the paper back down, then folded up the other half and mod podged that side.  

Once all the pieces are glued to the canvas let it dry for about 30 min.  then apply a layer of mod podge on top of the whole thing.  

Once that is dry you can leave it "as is" or distress it with some sandpaper, glaze, paint, or coffee.

I simply used a couple of damp paper towels dipped in glaze and paint and just dab and wipe on different colors in different areas.  There really isn't a "technical" way to do this.  I also used the paper towels on the sides of the canvas so the sides matched the tone of the front.

And that's it!

Final Price: $50 for the canvas, and $13 spent at staples for the transparencies and two large 36x36 prints.  Not bad!

***UPDATE: One of my readers made a .jpg file that you can use to create this artwork!

Just click on the image below to make it larger, then you can save it to your own computer.