DIY Personalized Yoga Mat

So my newest endeavor in the adventure of recovering pre-baby body is yoga. I didn't want to invest a lot in my new yoga mat, but wanted it to be unique, so I did a little pinteresting for ideas and happened upon {this sassy friend}. I thought if she could paint her yoga mat, so could I! Of course, I went with something much simpler. So without further ado:

Here's how I got this look.

Materials:
Paint {The Sassy Life used acrylic. I used leftover wall paint from my playroom makeover. [Reveal coming soon]}
Brushes
Black Sharpie
Baby Wipe
Ruler
Yoga Mat {This is the $8 one from Walmart}
Pen, marker, chalk, or pencil

Step 1:
I used a pen and sketched out my initials by hand. I used a piece of paper (in place of a ruler) and the gridlines on the mat to make sure my letters were equal in height, width, and thickness. In this picture you'll notice that the circle in my D is WAAAY too small. I thought my pen would rub off with a baby wipe but IT DID NOT. I recommend using a washable marker. I think it would come off easier.

If you're not confident in your letter sketching skills, you can print letters REALLY BIG on the computer, cut them out, and use them as a stencil.



Step 2:
Fill in your letters with your base color. Unfortunately, I went ahead and painted my D even though it was a hot mess. 

Once I realized it, I knew I had to fix it. Luckily, I had pink paint from my playroom that was the EXACT COLOR of my mat! So at this point I went back and made my D better and colored over any stray pen marks. This is when you would whip out that baby wipe to brush off the washable marker.

It took me a couple of coats to get the paint to cover the texture of the mat. I used a blow dryer in between coats… mostly because I'm impatient.

Step 3:

I used a thinner brush, and white paint to create a "shadow" or trim along the right edges of the letters. At this point, I also used that baby wipe, wrapped around my nail, to clean up any spots that weren't quite straight or were too thick.

Step 4:

I used a black sharpie to trim the left edge of the letters. 

And voila! CUTEST. MAT. IN THE CLASS! ;)

The Sassy Life tutorial suggests covering the paint in mogde podge. I have some on hand, but decided I was pleased with the paint as is and would try it out without the modge podge. It is flexible and isn't cracking (yet), but I will make sure to update if I start to have problems! :) 

Have fun!