This Sweet Journey

Hello Faithful Blog Readers,

Amber asked me to write a blog post on a photo project I had sent to her as an office warming gift. The bad news is that I may be one of the least crafty, patient, detail-oriented people you've ever met. The good news is that this means any of you can do this project, and probably better than myself! So here goes nothing: Affixing photos to canvas.

I first read a how-to on this project on a blog that Amber and our friend, who I have recently disowned for being extraordinarly gorgeous immediately after giving birth, introduced me to: www.younghouselove.com

If you're readers of that blog, it seems like every project they try just magically works out perfectly for them on the first try. As referenced above, that is not like me. Either I work too fast, too sloppy, or get too annoyed. Cue my husband, Mr. Martha Stewart, to save the day.

The goal for me was to produce an end product that looked like this:

This is called a standout. This is a photo that was done by www.meganphoto.com and I ordered the print on www.mpix.com. It was $80 though and I wanted a way to do a photo display of multiple photos I took myself at the lake this summer, that wouldn't be quite as costly.

Anyway- essential ingredients are:

1. Liquitex Matte Varnish

2. Canvas, or canvases of your preferred size and quanity.

A word to the wise: I bought both of these items at Michaels. Item #1 is relatively expensive full price for a one time project. However, if you look online before you go to Michaels you can get a coupon for 40 or 50% off one full price item. Additionally, canvases were recently on sale for back-to-school and I suppose a person could catch a sale of these once in awhile. This pack of 7 was $19.99 on sale, I believe. Also, you can buy the cheapest canvas there is as you aren't using it for actual art but rather to glue a photo to it, so that helps.

3. You'll need a brush. I bought a cheap 1-inch brush, which works fine. Your brush will get ruined from the varnish, so don't use your bestest, most favorite trim brush or your husband will kick you out, cry, and complain about the last time you spray painted on the garage floor without a drop cloth. Or at least that is what I'm guessing happens at our lovely blogger's home.

4. A clean dishtowel.

5. Clean hands, patience and possibly some moral support.

And here is where things can start to go sour quickly. I would suggest buying a small canvas, 4x6 even, and practicing at least once before you do the real deal. I did several practice runs as my vision was do to a photo display using 12 x 12 photos. Originally, I planned for a display of 9 12x12 photos, but I had to adapt after one of my prints wasn't up to par. 12x12 prints can't be printed at your local Sams Club. Again, I ordered them off of www.mpix.com. They are $5.95 a piece and shipping is $5. So if you are thinking of your wallet, I definitely suggest either using a more standard size photo or practicing ahead of time.

To start this project, make sure your hands are clean. Take the canvas out of plastic, pour some liquitex varnish onto the canvas. Don't use a ton, just a moderate amount that can be brushed on evenly across. You don't want it dripping down the side.

On the blog tutorial I read, they suggested painting some of the varnish on the back of the photo as well. Unless you are extremely awesome at this type of thing, I would recommend against it. It is so messy and inevitably the varnish gets on your fingers which then gets onto the photo and ruins it. I think the photos stick to the canvas fine by just painting it onto the canvas.

So anyway: Step 1: pour varnish onto canvas, just enough to be able to brush a thin coat across the entire canvas.

Step 2: Make sure your hands have no varnish on them at all!

Step 3: (Sorry I have no photos, as I knew from practice, I couldn't do it all at once without screwing something up), take your photo and position it onto the canvas as carefully as possible and lined up with the canvas as much as you can without having to readjust. You will most likely have to move it a little. This is where a little practice will go a long way. This is also where you may ruin your entire photo and have to start over. This may happen 5-10 times and then you'll give up and cry and complain and promise to never ever open that bottle of varnish again until the next morning when you really want to display 9 12x12 photos of your kids from the summer and you'll try again. The problem is, when you readjust the photo too much, eventually you'll get some varnish on your fingers. And then you'll touch the photo and it will ruin it. So my advice is on the first time of laying the photo down, try to line up the edges at the top and on the sides as evenly as you can and then continue laying it down towards the bottom of the canvas. Try not to readjust if you don't have to and if you do, wash your hands or wipe them on a wet paper towel before you touch the top of the photo at all.

Step 4: After you have it where you want it, my advice is to use some type of tea towel or dishtowel that doesn't shed and to flip the canvas over (photo facing down) and gently apply a little pressure to smooth the photo out and to adhere it to the canvas. Or you can use the towel to do this while the photo is face up, whatever you prefer. I have just found that if you use your bare hands, you may ruin the photo.

Step 5: Allow the photo to affix better to the canvas by putting it under something heavy for a couple hours or overnight, but make sure to put the canvas photo side down with the photo protected by a towel or something of that nature.

Step 6: Repeat the process until you are finished.

Step 7: Display! Given the fact that I do not personally hang photos at my house (I was serious about being extremely challenged in this area), I employed my husband's assistance. He initially planned to use nails to hang each canvas. After realizing how easily the canvases would wobble on the nail, unless two nails were used for each canvas, resulting in many many holes in the wall, we scratched that idea and came up with these:

We applied them to all four corners of each canvas.

Then using a level,
my trusty assistant measured and leveled the canvas prints.

And finally, a finished project -

I'm happy with this final project. It is not absolutely perfect of course, but it is an inexpensive way to display your favorite photos of your favorite subjects! I'm confident that anyone reading this blog will have far less trouble doing this than I did!

Enjoy!

~Meredith