Photo Canvas

I saw the "make your own canvas portrait demo on Elsie's blog a couple of months ago and wanted to try it out. Christmas seemed like the perfect opportunity. I ended up making four successful photo canvas portraits for presents, often finishing it right before I needed it! 

The photo of one of the finished canvas portraits {still a bit damp from the final coat of the gel medium}:

These might be common sense, but we learned a few lessons along the way {be sure and see Elsie's post for complete details on making the canvas}: 1. Be mindful of applying your photo to the canvas very slowly, smoothing as you go along to try and minimize any potential bubbles. 2. When spraying with the spray bottle, just use what you need for the paper to start coming off. It does not help to drench it; spray a little at a time. 3. Black and white prints are just more forgiving than color and in our experience look better as a final product. It is personal preference as to which you prefer. 4. Do not be in any sort of hurry when making these. The process of removing the paper to reveal your print is very tedious and if all of it is not properly removed, it will look cloudy after it dries. Also, use a very light touch or you will rub the image off as well as the paper. 5. It is possible to speed the drying process slightly with a hair dryer. We used it after the print had dried for many hours, and was only barely damp. I don't think I would use it in the beginning of the drying process for fear of making it bubble up. 6. We mirrored the original photo in photoshop and printed it that way. That way the words on the shirts would read correctly when we applied it to the canvas.

I don't have photos of all the prints, or the process. I wish I took more photos along the way. I actually loved the way these turned out and plan to make more in the future for our own house {this would be perfect to showcase artwork by our children}. It was tedious, but fun!