DIY Personalized Canvas Art Tutorial
May 4, 2012 by Aimee • 46 Comments
Here’s a simple tutorial for making a personalized silhouette canvas all you need is 2-packs of 12×12 canvas, blue acrylic paints {I chose glossy}, a couple sponge brushes, and vinyl!
First: I sketched three pics…since I’m going Beach-Themed in my foyer…ocean life was my pick! Think about what your mother loves! Birds, animals, plants, shopping!?!? Find a picture you like and sketch it! It’s definitely not hard to do. If you haven’t tried sketching before, give it a try, just be sure to draw lightly until the end so you can erase as often as you need! (But if you totally can’t sketch check out this awesome cheat sketch technique…you’ll love it).
Our Beta ‘Bubbles’
Coral
and an Octopus!!!!
After sketching my pictures, I cut the contact paper to the same size as my sketched art. I cut the contact paper {vinyl would work great here, too} to the same size as my sketched art and then taped the four sides of the sketch to each side of the contact paper. Using scissors, I followed along the edge of my sketch with contact paper taped underneath until I had the sea life cut out of the contact paper. {Side note: The contact paper curls a lot which sorta bugs, just a little annoying.} I peeled the backing away and adhered each to a 12×12 canvas!
Carefully, as to not lift the contact paper while painting, I used my sponge brush to paint each canvas a slightly different shade of blue. The canvases soaked up the paint very quickly requiring two thick coats.
When the paint was dry, I lifted the contact paper carefully. They looked great! In a few spots the blue paint had bled into the white. Easy fix! I used my favorite chalkboard markers {here}! Mine was leftover from another chalkboard project I did in October.
- Unless you have the most perfect seal from your contact paper, you will need to touch up spots. Chalkboard paint definitely does the trick, it’s thicker and works much better than traditional paint for covering over colored paint!
Oh yes…it’s just as I’d imagined! Simple and fun! Have you noticed I’m totally loving shades of blues!?! I’m also loving decor at a certain store….can you guess which one!?!? I’ll give you a hint: I used their sea life as my inspiration while sketching my pictures! Have you seen similar images anywhere!?!? Leave me a comment with your guess!! I love making knockoff crafts with supplies from my favorite craft store! What’s a silhouette that you could make for your mom that she would absolutely love!?!? Northwest Lovely’s canvas art turned out great, too!
If you didn’t see my Board and Batten post, it’s here!
These are cute! Maybe I should do something like this is putty and browns for my boys bathroom!
Oh, these little canvases are just beautiful! You did such a great job!
Those look fabulous Aimee! I also thought they looked cool in contact paper (but of course the finished product is even better)!
These are adorable! I have such appreciation for anyone who creates something intricate like this without a die cut machine. I never would have thought to use gloss paint but the sheen definitely bumps it up a notch.
SOOO CUTE! I wish I could just “sketch” some up real quick like that, but I can’t even draw a circle! Also, I “tagged” you…you can read about it on my most recent post if you would like to participate! Have a great weekend and see you at the party Sunday!
A very fun project…I’ll have to get my hubby to sketch something for me. When I paint my bathroom blue, these would work so great! I marked this page to refer to later! Thanks!
These look wonderful! I even liked the green contact paper pattern on its own– your sketches were great. I thought they were stencils when I saw your photos at the top of the post.
I love them! Great project!
–Katie
I’ve only been reading your blog for about three weeks now and I’m absolutely crazy about it! It’s become the first site I go to. I love how often you post; your projects are amazing and sooooo my style. Thanks so much for all the wonderful inspiration and ideas!
-Christy V
Christy V. You are SO SWEET to leave me a fun and encouraging note like this! Totally made my weekend start early!!! Thank you so much for following along and keeping me motivated to keep sharing my updates!!!
Tight Hugs, Aimee
I love beachy! These are awesome!
Beautiful!! Love it!
Love these! I’m working on a nautical entry I wait to show you when I get done!
Those look great!
These are so cute!
Love them!
very cute, i’m so doing these
what’s the paint color on the wall behind the paintings?
VERY Fun!!! It’s called Eloquent Ivory – Glidden, from Home Depot!
Our living room is nautical blue and I’m thinking if I paint the smaller wall by the entry the eloquent ivory the paintings will look pretty nice on that wall. What do you think?
That would look GREAT! Definitely!
Is your paint flat?
I always use Satin…easier to clean little fingerprints!
Thanks for the inspiration Aimee, here’s my version http://ourkookylife.blogspot.com/2012/05/coastal-canvas-art.html
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I love beach-y theme. This is so cute!
There is a passion parade link party going on in my blog. I would love for you to share this!
http://myricandreasen.blogspot.com/2012/05/link-party-and-give-away.html
xoxo
Myric
these turned out SO well. I have a couple canvases laying around I might have to try this out with! Great and creative use of contact paper too- I featured you on today’s Fave 5- come grab a button! http://saynotsweetanne.com/2012/fave-5-4/
I love BLUE too! I need to get some canvases and pick a few objects to “sketch”. Found you a Tatertots & Jello
Super cute! I love that you made the silhouettes yourself (I used a “Silhouette Cameo” for mine). You’re so good and contact paper was a great idea! Love it!
Enjoy the weekend, Aimee!
So Creative, love it! My daughter would love to do this, thanks for sharing!
These turned out great! love the octopus!
Thanks for the shout out Aimee!
Your canvases turned out fantastic! I LOVE the blues! This is such a great and easy project that I’m trying to figure out where in my house I can do it again! 
What a thoughtful gift – plus it is supper cute!
These turned out so well! I’ll have to keep this in mind for whenever we get our own place
I would love it if you would link up at Watch Out, Martha!’s first link up party: Martha Mondays, going on now through Wednesday! Hope to see you there!
http://www.watchoutmartha.net/2012/05/martha-monday-link-up-party.html
Love your canvas art. I just purchased some of those at Michael’s last week. For some crazy reason, I’ve been drawn to blue as well lately and there’s really not much of it around here so I’m not sure blue will work in my home. Nonetheless, it’s a great color.
This is so beautiful. I was thinking of doing a similar theme/colors to redo my bathroom. The blues are especially beautiful, and I love that you were included your own little fish. I would love it if you would stop by and share at Lines Across.
http://linesacrossmyface.blogspot.com/2012/05/cure-for-common-monday-39.html
I hope to see you soon,
Rachel
Visiting from Coastal Charm. I love these paintings. They are beautiful and will fit right in with my Florida Home Decor!
The painting look great! Very fresh and summery…
What a neat idea! I love that you gave a way to touch up as well. I’m thinking I could use my cricut to cut out some designs/shapes and make my own using the same technique you showed.
Thanks for the idea!
This turned out great. I hope you’ll be linking this up at my Wednesday What We Wore and Made Link party
marissa
http://raegunwear.blogspot.com
I love what you did. It looks awesome!
Vabessa
hello friend! How are you? I’ve missed you! These are simply FABULOUS! LOVE them to pieces! Happy Mother’s Day!
Smiles, Jill
What a great idea!! Yours came out beautifully! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday! I hope you are having a wonderful week!
These are adorable! I want to replicate with zoo animals for our play room – thanks for sharing…I found you over at the Free for All party at Sassy Sites! I’d love for you to stop by and link up at my link party – http://thecreativepaige.com/2012/05/creative-genius-link-party-29.html.
Oh this is great, I love it! I am going to have to try something like it, but I can’t draw, so maybe print something! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome! I love it, Its so cute I will do it if I have a vacant time.
Thanks for putting up.
http://lifecanvas.sg
These are very very cute! I love them. I’m thinking of some small ones for our front beachy theme bath!
I do have one hint that might work with these. It def. works when painting walls. after you apply your tape or contact paper, in this case, paint over the contact paper and rest of canvas with gesso, or white paint. Let that dry, and then paint your blue. You will have “sealed” the edges of the paper, and have less seepage. Peel it back VERY carefully. When you use tape for a design on your walls, seal the edges of the tape by painting some of the base color over the edges of the tape. Or a clear matte finish clear medium.
thank you for sharing !!!! I enjoy your posts!
I love this easy project its awesome and beautiful. I cant wait to try it myself. Great and inexpensive DIY project to decorate ur home the way u like.