Make your own Photo Canvas!!

This post begins with a mission, after seeing this blog post on A Beautiful Mess Blog, (originally I had seen this idea on pinterest) I was completely inspired. Since my grandmother's birthday was coming up I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to try it out. My grandma hates when we spend money on her so photo related gifts are always great for her. {fun fact: my grandma hates us making a fuss over her for any reason and she also hates us buying her anything for her birthday, mother's day, etc., but she tends to get less mad at us grandkids and great grandkids then at my mom and aunts :)}

Now, I don't go through the step by step instructions of how to do it on this post because I think A Beautiful Mess' post does a great job of that, but I assure you the process is very easy!

So after reading the bog post, I made a list (love making lists lately!) and headed out to Michael's the next day. Below is my haul.

Due to the fact that I have a busy work schedule lately and that we have had 2 little ones over the years I don't have as much crafting supplies readily available (my hubby packed up some of my stuff and put it in our shed outside, I was just happy he didn't throw it away to be honest) so I needed quite a few things. I got some inexpensive brushes, acrylic paints, paint holder wells, canvas and the gel medium (I got a glossy one).





I couldn't resit these tiny easels, so cute! I decided to practice with one of these the day before I was to execute the one for my grandma.

Now because of the time crunch I used my printer which is an inkjet printer, I figured I would just give it a shot and see what happened.

Bad idea, talk about a fail, it looked terrible! Next stop? Running to my parents house to use my dad's laser printer.

Some of my picture weren't working when I plugged my memory card in so I ended up only with this one of all three pictures applied face down to the canvas using a coat of the gel medium.

Here I am taking the paper off after wetting the picture

And here is what they looked like when they were finished. I painted the edges black to give them a more "finished" look.

I wrapped each one individually with some tissue paper and ribbon, I loved the bag I got from Target.

Here is the finished bag.

I usually always make my boys give her presents, she can't get mad at them!

I have to admit she was a little upset "that I wasted so much paper and ribbon on her."

Overall she really loved them. On the right of that last picture is my aunt, we call her loops a.k.a. the picture lurker (seriously she could be a professional picture lurker!)

So overall it was great, I am excited to make more. The main reason I love these is that I can display them on lower tables and shelves and not have to worry about my boys knocking them down and glass breaking, which also works well for my grandma when the little ones are visiting her. For these I tried to cover the canvas with the medium as much as possible to get a complete image, when I do make more:

• I will probably not go all the way to the edge of the canvas to give more of a vintage feel
• I also noticed when I took off the paper I had some globs of medium on the side edges of the canvas so I need to make sure I wipe the sides before letting dry, otherwise it's harder to get off and I have to admit I left some on since I would be painting it black anyways
• I want to experiment with making some and painting the edges a color instead of black
• I have also seen tutorials online using the same technique and wood instead of canvas so I am definitely going to try that as well!

Happy Crafting and hope everyone has a great weekend, I know mine will be extremely BUSY! (I haven't yet decided if that will be a good or bad thing)