Photo onto canvas tutorial

Preparing for fathers day......

 ....how to make a quick and easy fathers day present.

 Rather than getting Mr. some cheesy socks for fathers day, I thought I'd make something a bit more special......

squeezing another DIY into our already hectic schedule this week, meant that it would have to be something quick and easy....

Then I remembered this cute little project I'd seen somewhere ages ago:

transferring a picture onto canvas using acrylic gel medium....

....without all the fuss of special printing paper and lengthy processes....

I chose to use a series of snapshots of Little Miss Moo cuddling up to her crocodile in bed.....

With no instructions and just a vague recollection of how to do it, I jumped to it...

Here's what I did:

You will need:

Canvas

Image printed out on cheap printing paper

Spray bottle with water

Acrylic gel medium

Sponge

There are a few things you need to take into consideration when doing this:

Your printer must use toner to print...

Use cheap printing paper....

Your image will be mirrored when applied to the canvas, so if you have any writing in your image, make sure you flip it in photoshop before printing.

 

 Spray image with water

.....make sure you do this on a wipe clean surface as the image will bleed...

 Apply a thick and even layer of gel medium to the canvas using a sponge...

  

Place your image face down onto the canvas 

 Smooth out any air bubbles using the sponge or your fingers....

Leave to dry over night.....

....Soak the image on the canvas with water....

 

Then very gently, using a sponge or your fingers, rub away the paper covering the image.

It is best to leave a thin film of paper over your image, as if you rub too much you risk the image itself coming off....

Allow the image to dry...

....if you feel like you need to, wet the image again and very gently rub off some more of the paper.

When you are satisfied with the clarity of the image (bearing in mind that the next step will help clarify it a bit),

let the canvas dry fully...

 

The last step is to seal the image onto the canvas with a couple of layers of mod-podge or decoupach sealing varnish....

...this will help clarify the remnants of your paper film, and gives a nice glossy finnish.

 

The Canvas came out a bit more distressed looking than I realised it would, and the colours are a bit saturated....(next time I will try it in black&white)

....but I actually quite like this look......

....and for a quick first time DIY (less than 30 minutes working time), that cost me only £3.99 for the gel medium and £1 for the canvas, I am pretty pleased with the result........

...and I'm sure Mr. will love it!!

Please pop by again on Saturday to find out how I've repurposed our old soup tins...

xxx

June