Malissa Melrose
on
Jan, 27, 2012 at 8:09 PM
I had to shelve my lamp project for now because it turns out that the spray paint I wanted to use does not, in fact, look anything like the cap indicates. Sooooo, I will have to come up with a new plan.
Instead, I decided to make some photo canvases!
Here's how I did it:
Edit and size your pictures to fit your canvas. I really love the texture of canvas so I chose to print my photos out on textured acrylic paper instead of smooth photo paper because the canvas loses the texture once you cover it with the paper. I had one small picture printed on gloss photo paper and you can really tell the difference in the picture above. We'll solve that problem in a bit.
Then, I used an assortment of old canvases and wooden blocks with picture hangers attached to the back and used gel medium to adhere the pictures to them. I accidentally picked up the extra heavy gel medium last time I bought it, and it is too thick for my brushes so I spread it with a paper towel. On the plus side, it made much faster work of it!
(yes, I see the missing "I", but I didn't feel like redoing the whole collage!)Once the photos were glued on and dried, I painted all of the sides black and covered the whole thing with modge podge. Unfortunately, I also goofed and got black paint on one of the pictures that left black smudges. Again, we will solve that problem in a bit.
Problem solving time!
Problem 1: The canvas with the red background was an online order that ended up too bright for me so I made a glaze using mod podge and a drop of antiquing gel (dark brown paint works also) and painted a coat over the top only of the canvas to tone it down a little. I also used this technique on the one small picture that I printed on glossy photo paper, and since my modge podge is matte, it toned it down and reduced the glossy finish.
Problem 2: How to fix the paint smudge. Since I gave most of the pictures a vintage-y filter in editing anyway, I decided to make another darker glaze using black and brown and distress the edges of all the pictures so that it made the smudge on the one less obvious.
I am really pleased with the finished grouping! Now I just need to find a wall to hang them on!
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The mermaid just has a couple of finishing touches and she will be ready to list and the bee girl is going to be the painting you can see in the background brought to life in clay! I am hoping to have them both done early next week and listed on Etsy.
The mermaid just has a couple of finishing touches and she will be ready to list and the bee girl is going to be the painting you can see in the background brought to life in clay! I am hoping to have them both done early next week and listed on Etsy.
