Tips For Painting A Sorority Paddle

With big little week, initiation, and formals it seems that painting is all that sorority girls here and else where I am sure have been doing with their free time! Fortunately, my crafting/painting revolved around the paddle that I gave my big when I got initiated. It is tradition, at least in my sorority here at Furman and with other sororities here as well, for the newly initiated pledge class to give a paddle to their "big" or "big sister" within the sorority.

Painting and perfecting my paddle was quite the undertaking. Unfortunately, the man mailing the paddles to us shipped them late and I wasn't able to start mine until 2 days before it was due. If y'all know me at all and my perfectionist personality then you probably know that all of my focus diverted to creating a paddle that my big would be proud to hang!

My big and I share a mutual love of Kate Spade and I knew that my paddle somehow had to revolve around that mutual interest! I found a fun print and painted that onto my paddle and then decided that instead of the traditional Kate Spade New York logo with a spade at the top I played off of the font and wrote Kappa Delta Furman with a shamrock replacing the spade! I was so proud of the way mine turned out for only having 48 hours to do it!

Here are some tips I have for painting a sorority paddle and images of mine once it was finished!

Here is a better look at the front and back as a whole! The back I went for confetti-esque look and wrote a nice note on the back. Sadly, my handwriting on the back looks terrible but it is the thought that counts!

 

Be sure to share any tips you may have in the comments below to help future paddle painters!

Also, I forgot to put this on my tip list but definitely definitely definitely seal your paddle somehow, I used mod podge and that worked perfectly!