DIY Nifty-Gifties

Points to those who got The Office reference above. :)

Here's a tutorial I found on Pintrest, a DIY Make Your Own Canvas Portrait, that I was really interested in trying. My boyfriend hates taking pictures...I love taking pictures. See my problem here?! I did manage to convince him to take a picture once...a long time ago. So I decided I would use that lone picture and make some art out of it. We are about to move and I'm trying to get a jump start on decorating and Pintrest has sooooo many good ideas. (I swear I lose hours of the day just gawking at all the neat projects!!) Anyways, here is the lone picture of us:

Handsome fella, yeah?! So I printed it out black and white (it's the only color we have in the printer right now, haha) and followed the directions.
Here's out it turned out

Not too bad! I did leave some paper behind, as you can see on Joe's face. I didn't let it dry before drowning it in Mod Podge.

And here is how I did it!

What you will need:

-Any sized canvas (I used 8 x 10)
-Photo in black and white (color should work as well, I just prefer black & white)
-Paint Brush
-Mod Podge
-Gel Medium
-Water


First I printed out my photo of the picture I wanted. In the tutorial it says that pictures with less detail will work better. I said screw that and chose this picture of my nephews at the Houston Zoo

Cute, right?! After I printed it out and made sure it fit on my 8 x 10 canvas, I brushed my whole canvas with a gel medium. I used Liquidex Heavy Gel Medium from Michael's for about $7 ( I had a 50%  off coupon).

 The picture below is what my canvas looks like completely covered with the medium.




















Next I laid my photo face up next to the canvas and I flipped the canvas (wet side down), then aligned the edges of the canvas to the photo. My photo was too big for the canvas so I made sure all the important parts of the picture were on the canvas then smooshed the canvas on top on the photo. I let it dry overnight. I tried letting the picture of myself dry for a few hours, but when I went to rub the paper off the ink was coming with it. It's best to let it dry overnight before attempting the next step.

 This morning I went to check on my photos (I did 3 at a time) and everything was dry! YAY! So on to the next step! You can use a spray bottle if you like,  I just used my hands. Take some water and rub it all over the paper. Make sure it is thoroughly soaked. You'll start to see your image as the paper soaks in the water.

 When you can start peeling the edges off no problem, your paper is ready to be rubbed. I just used my finger and rubbed like no tomorrow. Don't rub too hard or you will rub off the ink as well...and if you don't rub hard enough you won't get any paper to come off. Practice makes perfect.

 Keep rubbing untill all the paper has come off. This could take awhile. I snapped this picture after 30 minutes of rubbing and still had a ways to go.
Tip: I found that if I stuck one hand on the underside of the canvas and pushed up, it gave my other fingers a hard surface to rub against, making removing the paper a little easier!

 Here's after all the rubbing. There is still some paper on it but it adds to the charm! You can see there are spots that completely rubbed off but that's okay! I think it makes it look old.

Now to make sure you have completely removed all the paper you want, let it dry. I found that after I let it dry there was still more paper on the photo that I wanted removed. So back to the sink I went. Finally I had it all removed! When it was dry I brushed on the Mod Podge. Don't worry, it dries clear. I used the matte Mod Podge but I think the glossy would work wonderfully as well!

 Here is the print after the Mod Podge dried! (I put the canvas in from of my monitor and got that neat boxed effect!)
I think it turned out wonderfully!!
All that rubbing was well worth the effort! Now I have something that looks expensive but was  really cheap! :)








If you have any questions or if I didn't explain something right, let  me know!!



Alayna