Friday, April 26, 2013

DIY Photo Canvas (Great Gift For Mother's Day)

 I wanted to share this project with you well in advance, because this would make PERFECT Mother's Day Gifts. Actually, I think they would make a perfect gift for anytime. The beauty of this project is you can make it your own and do all sorts of embellishing...or none at all....with any kind of picture...B&W like I've done or color. Anything is a go. 
The basic materials you absolutely need: Home Inkjet Printer, Pre-stretched canvas 8X10 or smaller via Michael's on sale (I did several different sizes and depths), 8 1/2" X 11 Canvas Cloths (Office Depot-Under $20 for 10 sheets), Paper Trimmer, Mod Podge, Black Craft Paint (paint brush).
 First, after opening each canvas, paint the edges black. Don't worry about the front, the photo will cover that.
 While the paint is drying, print your selected pictures out on the canvas cloth. It runs through the printer just as good as paper. Tip: I did one print at a time to avoid jams in the printer. I know you can't tell in the picture, but the photos have the great texture of canvas vs. smooth/shiny like photo paper.
 Cut pictures down to the size of each canvas using the paper trimmer. Next, use Mod Podge to attach the photo to the canvas. Just spread a thin coat on the front (the part you didn't paint), it doesn't take much and be sure to smooth it out with your hands to avoid air bubbles.
 This next step is completely optional, but I think it gives the canvas a nice finished edge. I took a black ink pad (the type used for rubber stamping) and ran it along the edge of each canvas...it gives it a nice soft, slightly distressed edge. Compare the edge above with the ones below....
 Once everything is dry, do a coat of Mod Podge over everything. This will seal and protect the paint, ink and canvas cloth.
 Another optional step is the embellishing. I did some subtle embellishing (especially for the boys) using supplies out of the craft closet to personalize each canvas...I used an initial on everyone's.
 You can do as little or as much as you'd like, completely up to you. The thicker ones are great shelf sitters or they can be hung too.
 I think the embellishing depends on the picture...if I were doing pictures of flowers, I probably would not embellish.
 I also did a little extra girly embellishing on my nieces canvas.

Whatever you decide to do, the recipient will be thrilled!

By Stephanie Lynn
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I will talk to you when I get back from NC!


2011-12-013

16 comments:

  1. They are beautiful Michelle! You did a beautiful job and the tutorial was so easy to understand! Have a lovely weekend! Angie xo

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  2. I am really liking the canvas look and your tutorial is fantastic...for a beginner like me. Have a good weekend.

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  3. This really is an awesome DIY!!
    loved the boxy frames and the sepia photo quality...very vintage, very classy.
    Happy mothers day to u.. in advance:)

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  4. Wow Michelle, this is a wonderful project and what a great gift it would make. Thank you for the tutorial!! Love reading your blog and have been praying for you and your recovery. You are inspiring to us all, such grace under fire. Hoping and praying you are having a good day today and your heart will find a song to sing. You are so very talented and gifted. We do not live that far apart, I am in Topeka. Keep on believing!! Love and prayers, Linda

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  5. Love those! Just got a new printer and looking forward to trying that!

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  6. Sounds like good, as I also think that photo canvas is a good gift for mothers and mostly all mothers would prefer this kind of gift, so finally I decided to make a beautiful photo and give it to my mom on this mother's day.mothers day gift ideas

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  7. It was really a great idea, surely many person follow your instruction for making such kind of beautiful photo canvas by own hands, i was looking for a DIY canvas making idea and come across this post, i enjoyed it, thanks for sharing.

    Superbly design Canvas Prints online

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  8. Great concept and easy to follow DIY. Have you tried printing photos on multiple canvases? Its nearly the same process but takes a little more time.

    Photos to Canvas

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  9. so excited to try this, but i only have a deskjet printer, would that suffice? thank you for a great tutorial! planning to give these out as christmas gift to friends =)

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  10. I wanted to share this project with you well in advance, because this would make PERFECT Mother's Day Gifts. canvas prints canada

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  11. This is nice. Cool idea. I would try this sometime.

    Canvas Photos

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  13. I felt this is the perfect choice, as it’s personal and something my mom will have forever . . These are SO GREAT!!! The only bad side I can think of to this is I am probably going to run out of wall space from making so many lol =)

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  14. Wow just seen some of your work which has been shared on Pinterest I will Defo be following your blog your work is simply stunning . Thanks for your inspiration.
    great post to read

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  15. Photo Canvas Collage prints are the ideal way to display lots of your stunning images without buying masses of bulky picture frames or cluttering up the house. With the use of smartphones and readily available digital cameras, we have become a nation of amateur photographers, using Instagram to capture our favourite moments. Out of this we now have some incredible photographs we are sure to treasure forever; the problem is there are just too many of them, making the task almost impossible when
    choosing images to display in our homes

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Thank You for taking the time to comment! Because of the insane amount of spam comments, I had to stop anonymous comments-sorry for the inconvenience.
Michelle