Pacman is Watching you Shower O.o

PACMAN SHOWER CURTAIN

What you will need:

• Various colors of acrylic paints. I used the following (The folk art brand which you can purchase from Wal-mart for about $1 something or for a wider variety of colors, at Michaels or other craft store):


• -Yellow Light
• -White Wash (this was Americana brand but it doesn’t matter too much)
• -Light Blue
• -Baby Pink
• -Brilliant Ultramarine (the blue for the lines)
• -Pure Orange
• -Christmas Red
• -Licorice (the black color for the ghosts eyeballs!)

• Textile medium for acrylic paint (I used Americana “Fabric Painting medium found at Michaels with the acrylic paints… a little hard to find but look for it and it should be there. It comes in the same type of bottle as the paints)
• Paint brushes (a variety)
• Black fabric shower curtain (I got mine from Wal-mart… Me likey when things are inexpensive and basic! I believe it was actually a micro fiber “liner“)
• Scrapbooking hole punch OR something to trace a small circle onto paper with and scissors to cut out a crap-ton of circles
• Masking tape (I happened to have blue painters tape)
• A pencil (I found it easier with a wooden pencil as opposed to a mechanical)
• Scotch tape
• A reference picture of your intended layout
• A large space to work that won’t be interrupted by prying children, running dogs, etc to allow for paint to dry
• A medium size piece of cardboard to put under the curtain so you won’t ruin the surface underneath (I cut off and used the side part of a large box of diapers that was empty)
• A whole lot of patience!

The Process:
Step 1:
Iron the curtain (like I said, my curtain was fabric) so that you don’t get crazy lines hindering your painting process.

Step 2:
Use the hole punch to punch out a bunch of circles. I used a 1.5 inch diameter but you can make them smaller if you prefer. I ended up punching out as many as I needed on printer paper since it was going to be easier to lay out all the circles on the curtain instead of tracing them on a circle at a time and risking doing it wrong.

Step 3:
Using your reference picture, begin laying the circles out. (You can obviously modify the picture you chose. I didn't really want Pacman eaten on my curtain!) It’s pretty simple to count the circles out and lay them in the pattern from your picture. If you want to be really precise you can use a measuring tape and ruler and all that. I was too lazy for that and I’m also not a crazy perfectionist!

Step 4:
I used scotch tape to tape the circles down onto the curtain. This is not a necessary step but after you spend that much time laying them all out, you want to make sure they aren’t going anywhere! Take a pencil and begin tracing the circles onto the curtain. I had no problems getting the pencil to show up. I used a wooden pencil on a micro fiber curtain and it was just fine.

Step 5:

Use masking tape to lay out the blue lines of the screen around the circles you have laid down. Mine were no exact. I had a lot of corners that didn’t necessarily match up because I figured I would use them as a rough outline when I trace and round out the corners (so they weren’t pointy since that’s not how they are in the game). You can see from the picture that I also overlapped some of the tape as well. Some of the lines go through the black part where they shouldn't be painted. If you do this, make sure you ONLY trace the parts you want to paint so you don't end up with lines through the blocks.

Step 6:
Once the tape is all laid out, trace that too! I just traced right around the pieces and rounded out the corners. I found that the masking tape was the perfect size for the lines anyway! Once you are done tracing each part I recommend pulling off the tape so you make sure that you have traced every single piece. I ended up forgetting a few lines because there was so much tape and I couldn’t be sure I had traced it when I looked at it.

Step 7:
Add Pacman and the ghosts. I did the same thing here with the tracing. I drew them out on paper first to make sure their size was perfect and they didn’t look all crazy! You could probably print them from the internet as well if you are not confident in your basic drawing skills. Place them in position, trace them out, take them off!

Step 8:
Time to begin painting! You will have to experiment with brush sizes for the painting portion. You can buy a pretty cheap value pack of them at Wal-mart for about 5 bucks or so and they have the basic brushes that will do this project justice.

I use paper plates as my palette for paints! Squeeze a bit of the paint onto the plate and mix with the textile medium according to the bottle’s instructions. I began with painting the circles. (Make sure you have cardboard under the curtain to protect your painting surface… it can leak through) I started on one side and worked my way to the other (depending on what hand you use should depend on where you begin.. You don’t want to smear the paint. Be careful not to brush your body against the wet paint either). By the time you get to the other side of the curtain, the paint on the beginning side SHOULD be dry (run your finger over it to make sure) and you can begin painting the blue lines. This was the most tedious part for me and it took some patience… and a lot of blue paint!

Once you are done with those things, the fun part… painting Pacman and the ghosts. You are almost done! Make sure that all the other paint is at least semi-dry. You don’t want to risk smearing that paint after all the hard work you have just done and the characters will be in different places so be careful!!

Step 9:
Once the painting portion is complete, make sure you don’t get too excited too soon. You want to make sure the entire thing is dry before you try moving it or hanging it up… or doing ANYTHING to it! This entire project was completed over the course of 3 days for me (though I also have a 1 year old who likes to “help”). I made sure it was all dry before I did anything. When you are sure it is dry, you will want to “heat-set” the paint which is why you added the textile medium to your paint. My bottle recommended ironing it. Quite frankly, this was ridiculous! I ended up throwing the thing in the dryer on high heat for about 50 minutes. It worked just fine.

Step 10:
You painted a freakin’ curtain! How badass are you!??! Hang it, enjoy it, and don’t forget to show it off to everyone who enters your house!