DIY Photo to Canvas Transfer

Hi everyone! Today I've got a very special treat for you. My friend Anjali from L&P to English Tea, will be guest posting today. Thank you so much Anjali for taking the time to write this for me. I hope you enjoy this fun tutorial.

DIY Photo to Canvas Transfer

 

Hey guys! I’m Anjali from From L&P to English Tea and I’ve got a really easy, simple but fun and cool DIY for you today.

 

You may have seen this idea floating round the Internet lately, like I have, and thought about trying it. I thoroughly suggest it! It’s easy, simple and relatively mess free, but fun and cool at the same time. And it makes you feel good when you’ve finished knowing that you’ve saved money. And that’s always a good thing. Right? Right.

 

So! Here we go!

 

Here’s what you’re going to need for this project:

 

 

What I forgot to photograph was water. You’ll need that too, twice: first just to put a bit in the jar, and later on, when you’ll want it in a spray bottle or alternately you could probably use a water-logged sponge. The photos are just ones that you’ve printed off the computer on normal paper. They can be black and white or in colour, it doesn’t matter.

 I’m from New Zealand, but currently live in England, and in neither country do we have Mod Podge (though, actually, I have a slight feeling you can actually get it here in the UK now…), but I know that you guys over in America and Canada do have it. So if you’ve got that, that’s probably better than PVA glue. And if you do have some, you won’t need the jar. For the rest of us got-no-Mod-Podge-ers, we’re going to make a substitute. Here we go:

 

Step 1: Squeeze some PVA glue in the jar. I made quite a lot because I want to use it for some other projects, but if you just want to use it for this, then don’t make too much otherwise you’ll just end up tipping it down the sink.

 

 

Step 2: Take your jar to the tap and put about 2 time as much water in as your did glue. I apologise for the blurry picture. Only realized it was slightly blurry after it was on my computer.

 

 

Step 3: Shake shake shake! Shake that jar (obviously with the lid tightly on) to mix that glue and the water together.

 

 

 

Step 4: Now you want to grab your paintbrush and brush over a good lot of your home made Mod-Podge over your canvas.

 

 

Step 5: Now take your photo. You want to place it upside down onto the canvas. Make sure it’s upside down. Remember that it’s going to come out like a mirror image of the original photo.

 

 

Step 6: Smooth it over. It should look something like this:

 

 

Step 7: Go and have a cup of tea. This is the waiting step. If you’re impatient, this isn’t going to be fun, and for that, I apologize. I went a did another project while I waited for this, which kept my impatient mind off it. You can always wait over night as well.

 Step 8: Once it’s nice and dry, you want to take your spray bottle or sponge of water. Basically you want to soak that canvas. You heard me correctly – spray or sponge water all over that picture.

 

 

 

Step 9: Once it’s wet, use your finger and gently rub the paper. You’ll find it starts to come off – don’t be alarmed. That’s what you want it to do. Underneath is your photo which has magically attached itself to the canvas.

 Be careful not to rub too much. You may want a really old sort of look, but if you don’t, take it slowly and be careful not to take too much off. As you can see here, I rubbed it a little too hard and that part of the spiral came off too much. But that’s okay!

 

 

 

You’ll also find that there are little bits of paper that are harder to get off. Just ignore those for now. When it’s dryer, you’ll be able to just gently brush those off.

 

Step 10: this step is optional. If you’ve got room around your photo, you can always paint it. I painted the outside border of mine grey and white and black. Then I also added glitter to some parts of the picture, just to make it stand out a little more. But, you can do whatever takes your fancy.

 

 

 And there we have it!!  You can have a lot of fun with this! I think I need to go out and buy some more canvases!!

 

 Thank-you Emma-Lee for having me!

 

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Thank you so much Anjali! Be sure to go visit her blog. I'm sure you'll love it, like I do.

 

Also check out my feature on Papa is a Preacher

 

Blessings,