for His pleasure: Fabric Canvas: Tutorial

I have long wanted to try to create some fabric canvases after finding some at the PB outlet that were out of my budget. I decided to make mine into fabric canvas frames during Monday afternoon's naptime since I'm doing a picture wall in the girls' room. I love how they turned out! You could take this basic idea and run with it - there are simply so many possibilities. So while the kiddos are doing this right now,

we'll get started!

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Materials you'll need:

- Artist Canvas

I got mine from Hobby Lobby. It was a 2-pack for $7.99 with an additional 30% off sale that they have often. You could easily print off their 40% off coupon and use that this week.

- Adhesive Spray - found at Wal Mart, but carried in most craft stores:

- Tacky Glue

- Fabric - I used a PB canvas drape for covering and linen for embellishement.
- Any embellishing materials you would like: i.e. scrapbook paper, photos, appliques, etc.
- Scissors
- Iron

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Step One: Cut fabric approximately 3 inches bigger than the size of your canvas.

Step Two: Iron fabric so it's free of wrinkles.

Step Three: Following directions on can of spray glue, spray the back of your fabric completely. Lay out carefully on your canvas with sticky side facing down, adhering to the canvas. Make sure it has an equal overhang on all sides. Smooth out fabric so it's taught and wrap around sides. You may want to spray a little more glue on your corners for added durability.

Now I know my fabric is only a shade different than the canvas, but I needed mine to match my other frames hanging on the girls' wall. I really wanted to do a fun patterned fabric, but I'll save that for next time! Back to the project...

Step Four: Cut out any embellishing fabric you are adding. Since I was doing a picture frame, I cut my fabric about 2 1/2 to 3 inches bigger than my 8x10 photo. You could do several layers of fabric or add scrapbook paper or you could go an art canvas route and add appliques using the basic concept I used here on my bird pillows. Like I said, so many options!

Step Five: I washed my fabric on a light setting, dried it to give it a distressed look, and ironed it.

Step Six: Spray any additional layers of fabric, paper, photos with adhesive spray and smooth out onto your canvas.