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Mount your pictures on canvas - DIY

My youngest son is growing up (heartbreaking but true) and I am in the process of redecorating his 'big boy' room. I have used this very effective method of displaying wall art and wanted to share this very very simple DIY idea for mounting pictures on canvas:

 

 

 

I love this method of block mounting for a number of reasons:

1. It is easy - picture, paintbrush, scissors, glue. What could go wrong?
2. It is cheap - you can usually purchase canvases in a range of sizes at your local craft store for a very reasonable price.
3. It is easy to hang - canvas is light so you can use removable hooks and blu-tak to hang them. Easy to move too if you don't like where you put it the first time!
4. It is effective - I love mixing it up on the walls, different colored frames, canvases, block-mountings etc. Something different with a 'Wow!' factor.

It is so easy to do:

What you need:

• Pictures! - paper a little thicker than standard copy-paper works best. If you are a deft hand with Photoshop you could create your own pictures to print out or use some of the many free printable, downloadable, artworks out there (if you don't have your own printer Officeworks or Kinkos or something similar will print a file for you for minimal cost). Your favorite scrapbook paper could work too for a patterened block effect. In this instance I used some of my own designs from my Transportation series.
• Scissors, ruler, pencil - to cut your picture to size.
• Canvases - your size of choice.
• Glue & brush - I use Mod Podge although I am sure you could use something similar just as effectively.

Process:

• Cut your picture to size.
• Use a generous amount of glue and paint the face of the canvas
• Attach the picture to the canvas, smoothing out any airbubbles with a clean, dry cloth, being careful not to get any glue on the front of the picture.
• I didn't seal the front of the picture, but if you do want to seal it, be careful that your printout is not going to smudge.

 Tips:

• My paper curled a little when in contact with the glue so I put the whole thing upside down on a clean dry surface until it was dry.
• Don't stress that it looks buckled or warped at first. Canvas stretches when wet but will reform it's size and shape when dry so it should all flatten out when the glue has dried (as long as you get out the air bubbles and don't crease the picture when smoothing).

I LOVE the end result:

 

 Because these were smaller, lighter canvases, I attached them to the wall with Blu-tak (wall mounting putty like fun-tak) so that I can move them around easily. With any of these wall putty products, be very careful to test on your walls first and super-careful when removing it so as not to remove any chunks of plaster with it!

 While I was in the mood, I also created some fun typography and mounted them on canvas too:

 

 

Twinkle Twinkle is always his song of choice for his bedtime song and 'Banana' is his favorite word (don't ask). I have hung these at the foot of his bed for a personal touch. They will be cheap and easy to move or replace as his 'favorites' change over time.

I am planning to do a collage of larger canvases and printouts for my older son's room, so I will keep you posted.

Have fun creating!

Superhero Party - DIY 3D City

I can't believe that it is that time of year again! No, I don't mean the holidays, although they are also creeping up, I mean time for organising and planning the kids' birthdays.

This year my eldest son turns 4 and he is determined to have a superhero party. You may or may not be a fan of stereotypical 'themed' parties for kids, but once your nearly 4 year old gets his mind set on something, it is very difficult to shift.

I am still in early planning stages for the party but I thought I would share with you this fabulous DIY project I have begun for the decorations.

 

 

This 3D superhero city-scape looks so effective and was the easiest thing to make, seriously anyone could do it.

 

 

Superhero party decoration DIY tips:

• Save boxes of various sizes over a period of time, the more variation in sizes the better. If you are using the decoration on a table setting then keep your boxes smallish so as not to take up too much space.
• Color the boxes black or grey. Your options on how to do this are endless, I simply 'wrapped' them in black crepe paper, keeping all the daggy bits at the back and bottom where I know they will be out of sight. You could of course paint them for a bit more durability, but I thought wrapping was a lot quicker.
• Add windows. I simply cut rough squares and rectangles out of white copy paper (yellow could work too) and glued them on. Don't try and be too perfect, mishapen windows give it more of a 'comic book' feel. Again, I guess you could paint them if you felt so inclined.
• Have fun arranging!

If you can get hold of some superhero figurines you could scatter them throughout your 'city' or you could cut out pictures of your favourites and prop them up for effect:

 

 

 

My original intention was to use it as decoration on the desert table with various superheros scattered about, but it is currently in the playroom and the kids love playing with it!

 

 

 

Now the only problem is to keep it in one piece to last until the party..... oh well I guess I could always make more!