Thursday 21 June 2012

Custom Canvas Creations

This amazing woman in the 2 pictures below (trying to tempt my baby girl into having a beer), is my beloved Nan Gay (as in Gabrielle). Kind, sweet, caring and Oh so funny. 



My Nan passed away in October last year, rather suddenly. This has been very hard for my family as we are all very close. 

Now the lady in the photo below is my Nans life partner, Lyn. She is also amazing, kind and I am proud to also call her my Nan Pooh (as in Pooh Bear). 


As a child I remember my Nan Gay always singing and whistling the tune to Waltzing Matilda, so much so that she even taught one of their pet birds to whistle it along with her. 
So as a little reminder of my Nan Gay I made a custom Canvas for my Nan Pooh. 

So sorry about the crappy 'Instragram' copy. I forgot to take one on my real camera before giving it to Nan. 
After the jump I will Take you through how I did it. 


First you need your supplies
These obviously aren't all of my Supplies.. 

I needed
An already Painted Canvas (thrift stores are the easiest places to find one)
Paint - I just used acrylic paint
Some stencils/Alphabetical stickers (I recommend cardboard if making own stencils)
Paintbrush 
Temporary glue for the stencils
Mod Podge

First thing I did was choose my quote, which was 'You'll Come a Waltzing Matilda with me' 
I then had to chose a font I went HERE. Once I had chosen the fonts I wanted and downloaded them, I typed out my lyrics in Microsoft Word. 
All I did was put a piece of paper over the top of the computer screen and trace around the letters. 
I know I spelt Matilda wrong here, but corrected it soon after. 


After that I cut them out one by one and stuck them onto the canvas with my temporary glue.
See Fixed!


Then the easy part begins! PAINTING. Now cover the whole thing in your choice of colour. I chose blue.
I painted the front first with about 2 layers (though it did really need a third), then I only painted on layer around the sides. 





While still wet pull off your stencils with a pair of tweezers - If you wait for it to dry, the paper will be stuck down. On my second canvas attempt I used cardboard and it was much easier to remove. 

When they are all off wait for it to be completely dry.
For the last step I like to cover the entire piece in Mod Podge for extra protection. 
I used the matte Mod Podge to avoid too much sun reflecting off of it when it is on the wall. 


These are the canvases my sister and I made together. 

Thanks for reading - would love to hear some feedback or see your attempts.
If you give it a try, post a picture to my Facebook Page.

Lots of Love and Keep Crafting!


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