Custom Canvases | Family Economics

By Cathe

Simulating paintings are a popular personalized décor item that is really catching on. Photo canvases include images or photographs that are printed onto large canvas fabric and wrapped and stapled to wooden frames.

As a craft blogger, I’ve ordered custom canvases of my own. One of my canvases is a photograph of my three children and the other is that of my great grandparents. Both are hung in our living room.

You can create your own mini-canvases using your computer and desktop printer to print either purchased printable fabric or fabric adhered by heat from your iron to freezer paper and fed through your printer. You can find a lot of tutorials online for making your own printable fabric, just do a quick search through your online search engine and see what comes up.

Once your image is printed to the fabric, cover a small, thick wooden board or frame with the fabric and staple it from behind, allowing your image to wrap around the sides. If your image crops too close to the subject to wrap, you can always come back and paint the sides of the board with a coordinating acrylic paint.

Whether you print and make your own or order custom photo canvases online or through a local copy store, here are some ideas other than traditional family photos you might want to consider:

•    Scanned vintage clip art
•    Vintage postcard graphics and images (there’s plenty to choose from on the freebies page of my blog)
•    A still-life photograph of a beloved vintage heirloom
•    Your child’s artwork
•    The scanned cover of your favorite book
•    Your favorite cooked dish photographed (perfect décor for the kitchen)
•    A photo of a special plant or flower in your garden
•    The hands of your family members placed together
•    Your own baby picture

You can download free photo editing software from the Internet to filter your image into resembling more of a painted picture. You can also add more interest to your canvas piece by actually painting on top of it in various areas with colored acrylic paint.

What images would you add to the above list to create your custom canvas? I’d love to hear some of your ideas!