Hello my friends! I had some time to look through my photos today and discovered that I had a variety of crafts that I hadn't shared with you yet! Today I want to show you 5 EASY steps to transferring artwork onto canvas. This craft is fun because you can keep any memory of your students or your own children forever. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE crafts and being creative, so sharing with you is fun for me!
The materials you need for this project is a pencil, blank canvas, paint or markers, a paint brush and your child's artwork. In the example above, I used a note my Son wrote to me when he was in Kindergarten. I've saved it forever for the memories and this project was a way to make it even more memorable! But you can also use a drawing that you want to keep forever.
Now, most of you probably don't have a blank canvas hanging around your home... But I do just because I might do something with it like this AWESOME craft! But no fret... You can buy blank canvases at Walmart, Target, or any craft store. I recommend Walmart because they will be the cheapest there most likely.
As far as the paint, I used acrylic paint that comes in little bottles for about 50 cents per bottle. You can find the paint at the stores above also. Just choose the colors in your child's artwork or any that will match your decor.
Ok, so you have your artwork and supplies! Now let's get started!
This is the original artwork that my Son made for me that I chose for the project. He wrote it in pencil, so I went over his writing with a permanent marker.
Next, turn the artwork over. With your pencil, trace over the artwork as best as you can. This is why you need to trace over it with permanent marker in step 1. Otherwise you might not be able to see it through the paper. Make sure to trace it really hard; it's ok to make the lines thicker with the pencil.
This is what it looked like after I finished step 2, tracing the back with my pencil. Notice how dark I made it; even though it's not exact, it still captures the childlike writing.
For step 4, turn the artwork to the right side. With the BACK of the permanent marker, trace over the lines you made with the permanent marker in step 1. Push really hard because you're transferring the pencil to the canvas underneath. This is how you're putting your child's artwork on the actual canvas.
This is what the canvas looked like when I lifted up the paper. You can see the image is now on the canvas ready to be traced over with marker or paint! Tip: While you're transferring in the above step, lift the paper slightly to make sure your pushing hard enough. If you don't you will lift the paper and may not be able to line it back up correctly!
This picture shows the final product! I painted over the lines I had on the canvas with the acrylic paint. You can see that the lines are much thicker than my Son's original artwork. But you can still feel the love he wrote me in the note! If you're doing this with a drawing (not words), I would suggest going over it in this final step with a marker instead of paint. It's hard to get the line really fine with a paint brush, especially if you don't have a steady hand.
At this point, I have a few things I can do with the canvas. One option is to paint a "frame" around the canvas so the edges have some color. OR you could paint the edge of the canvas on the sides, which would give a dramatic effect! You can even add other pictures your kids have made in the blank spots on the canvas using the same process you already did.
After thinking about it, I really liked the simplicity of the canvas all by itself. I thought that if I added anything else, it would take away from his backwards writing and lettering as a whole. His writing style is what makes it so cute, so I wanted to keep that as the focus.
If you choose to do this project, I'd LOVE to have you send me a picture of what you made. I will add it to this blog post if you don't mind so we can share our creative love with each other and share different ideas.
So my challenge to you is to make a project using this transfer process and send me the picture of your final product! I'd love to hear your comments about this project and maybe you have some ideas of how you could use it in your classroom!
I'd love to hear from you...
