Nursery Canvas Tutorial

March 30, 2011

Finally, a tutorial!!

To make Chloe’s nursery canvases, I used a mixture of paint, paper, and fabric to create completely unique art for her wall.

I started with the fully painted canvases.

I found an image from one of the fabric prints that I liked, then I blew it up on my computer to the size of my canvas, and traced it on computer paper.

Then, channeling my elementary school art days, I flipped it over and filled in the back using a regular lead pencil tilted at an angle.

Then I flipped it back over, taped it to my canvas in a few places, and made little reference points on the canvas to make sure I returned it to the exact same spot each time. I started with the green pieces, so I traced them first.

Then painted.

Once it was dry, I moved on to the next color, in the order that made the most sense.

Then I washed off the reference points and it was finished!! I followed the same steps for this canvas, also from one of the fabric prints, except it was much simpler to do. I painted all the pink, then went back and added the red on top.

And for the “C” I simply painted the whole canvas pink, went back and taped off 1″ spaces with 1″ painters tape and added the green stripes. Once it was dry I used the same tracing method to draw the C on top of the lines, and filled it in with brown paint.

The apple and pear are painted backgrounds, with paper pieces glued on top.

I enlisted some help with the painting for these while I cut the paper.

Then starting with the bottom shapes, I glued (using Mod Podge because I couldn’t find my Aleene’s) the pieces on.

(I forgot to take a picture of the step where I added the stem and the leaf)

Then to let them dry without rippling, I turned them over and placed a heavy book on the back of the canvas so it would be perfectly flat.

Then for the owl, I used only fabric (other than the painted background).

I traced the shapes on regular (red) Heat n Bond and ironed them on at the same time.

I covered the whole canvas with a scrap piece of fabric and ironed lightly, until all the pieces stuck.

Then turn the whole thing over and iron from the back side to get a good seal on the Heat n Bond.

And lastly, the birds. I used a mix of all the previous techniques to make my birds.

First I freehanded the branch with brown paint. While it dried, I cut the leaf shapes from scrapbook paper and glued them on. I cut the birds from scrap fabric on Heat n Bond and ironed them on, then painted their beaks and feet.

And that’s it!! I already had all the fabric, paper, and some of the paint, so I just bought the canvases (50% off at Michael’s) and a few bottles of paint! It cost me less than $20 and a few afternoons of crafting to create this adorable wall art!

Posted in Crafts, Decorating, SYTYC, Tutorials