Vintage Style Photo Canvas DIY

Today I'm sharing how I made some fun and easy photo canvases...

What you will need...

A stretched and primed canvas (available from good art & craft shops) I used a 5" x 7" canvas board
Gel Medium (I used Golden regular gloss gel)
A big paintbrush (to apply the medium smoothly, a 1" brush was the perfect size for my canvas)
A laser print out or copy of your photo (ensure that it is a toner based printer or copier, available in most offices / libraries etc...)

To make...

If your photo is on your computer, start by flipping it over (the picture will come out backwards otherwise, this may not matter for a lot of pictures but anything with words etc... will look a bit strange) print onto a laser printer or copy with a photocopier - I made my picture black and white as we have a black and white laser printer here in the office (our colour ones are inkjet)

Prepare a surface to work on - you may want to use a craft sheet if you have one - and begin by painting your canvas with a thick layer of gel medium all over

Place your picture face down on top of the canvas and gently smooth out any air bubbles, pressing it  down into the medium

Leave to dry for a few hours (overnight preferably) and once dry spray the canvas with water

Using your fingers, rub gently to remove the paper - you should start to see your image revealed! don't rub too hard or you could damage your image (some bits will come off anyway) and keep spritzing with water as you go

Once your image is revealed, leave the canvas to dry for about 20 minutes - if your image goes cloudy, like this...

then you aren't done yet! the cloudiness is caused by small paper fibres left behind, so spritz once more and rub gently to get them all off, it may take a couple of tries to get your image perfectly clear...

Once you have finished, apply another coat of gel medium and leave to dry. It's as simple as that!

Here are the two I made...

One of Fuzzybutt (of course!) and one of mine and my sisters wonderful (ahem! it was the 90's be kind!) fashion choices. I love that they aren't perfect and have that vintage slightly worn around the edges look to them, they look great in my little photo corner :o)

I hope you'll give them a go :o)

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Doodle Canvas

Today a quick and messy project to share! I've had a pack of these mini natural unbleached canvases hanging around for a while, I kept looking at them but couldn't get inspired. As I mentioned, my mojo completely disappeared for most of last week, so I grabbed one of these canvases and just started messing around - I figured if I messed it up, I could just throw it away! In the end I was quite pleased with it...

I started by swiping over with some white distress stain just to lighten the dark colour slightly and make sure the stamping and doodling stood out. I then misted through a mask with some white Mr Huey (not realising the canvas had a bit of a coating) the coating caused it to blur so I dabbed it off with a kitchen towel leaving a mottled effect.

When that was dry I stamped the girl and the cat (these stamps are from Prima, I picked them up at Ally Pally!) using Staz on Ink. I also stamped the chevon borders (those are from Sodalicious) I then doodled around the edge of the canvas to create a scallop border and doodled some stars and dots over the whole canvas. When everything was dry I used my Neon Promarkers (obsessed with these at the moment!!) to add some flashes of colour.

As a finishing touch I added some glossy accents in sections and swiped the Staz on ink pad all around the edge of the canvas.

It's a bit quirky and 'art journaly' but I think thats what I like about it! It now lives on a little easel in my craft room :o)

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x

An Inktense Canvas for Derwent Pencils

This week I am up again on the Derwent blog, this time I have made quite a personal piece, a canvas using Inktense blocks and pencils featuring one of my favourite quotes by Marilyn Monroe, it's now hanging in my studio :o)

Here is a little preview...

To see the full canvas please pop over to Derwent's blog here.

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x