Distressed Canvas

Anyone see on Pinterest this whole distressed canvas/wooden photo’s? Yeah I totally tried it. My friend moved into her very first place so I wanted to something different for her. I filled a black laundry basket with individually wrapped red and white wine glasses and included some black and white dish towels. I also included these two canvas photo’s. Here’s how I did it…

What you’ll need

• Canvas. I actually grabbed a package of 10, 8×10 canvas’ at Michael’s craft store for $20. They had a special so I figured why not.
• You will also need gel medium and a brush.

Directions

1. Print out any photo of your choosing. I’ve only tried black and white, since it gives it a distressed/vintage look. IMPORTANT-don’t forget to print the mirror image of the picture. If you don’t, your picture will end up backwards. It’s only a big deal typically if there is writing in the photo.
2. Take the gel medium and brush it onto the front of the canvas (make sure it is as smooth of a surface as possible-aka smooth out the lumps and bumps caused by the medium).
3. Place the picture (picture side down) on the canvas. Smooth out with hands. If necessary, take a credit card and smooth out all of the bumps on the surface.
4. Let dry. I let it dry over night and it was fine the next day.
5. Once dry, take a spray bottle and spray the canvas, section by section. When you have wet a section, start rubbing your fingers on the paper (gently) until the paper begins to peel off. Warning, this is a long process.
6. I found that if you over wet the surface, it tends to peel more of the picture off. I did it layer by layer and let it dry each time before I began peeling again.
7. It will not be perfect, hence the distressed look!
8. Once the photo is dry, brush on the gel medium to “seal” the picture.