DIY Photo Printed Canvas with Mod Podge


This is one of my most favorite things to make- a faux photo printed canvas! And even better, the photos were taken on my phone and printed at Costco!!

Canvas prints are even pretty pricey at Costco.

The first step is to pick your favorite photo. I took some amazing photos on a recent trip to Italy and wanted to make a few canvases for the bathroom of my studio.

I actually went into an app on my phone to make the photo look more painterly. Be careful, come of these apps lower the resolution A LOT! If they do, you can't get the photo printed large! I learned that the hard way- I hated that giant red exclamation point!

The upload to whomever you want to print it. I used Costco because they printed 16 x 20 photos prints. I will be honest. I would have been completely satisfied if they would have been 16 x 20 color copies, but these are on actual photo paper- high quality!
It takes about a week to get your photos in.



 You photos come in a tube so you may have to lay the photo out flat and put a few books on it, so it won't curl up. This may take overnight,
Mine did not curl much.

Pick your canvas- I used 16 x 20 and using the large Mod Modge brush applicator - lay a layer of Mod Podge to the canvas surface. This brush works so much better than any regular or foam brush I have ever used! To get good coverage, make sure it is a little thick. A thin layer will start to dry before you can get to the next step.

Now place you photo, image side up, on the canvas to glue it in place. Take you time to press out any bubbles that may form. You will probably need to trim off any photo that extends passed the canvas.

The fun part starts now! Brush a thick coat of Mod Podge (I used gloss) with the Mod Modge brush applicator on top of your photo. I used another blank canvas for this next step, but you can use burlap, old tea towel or even a paper towel... Press the blank canvas face down on the photo canvas. Then lift off. It gives the illusion of brush strokes or craquelure.



Craquelure is the fine pattern of dense "cracking" formed on the surface of materials, either as part of the process of ageing or of their original formation or production.(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craquelure ) 

Even though this doesnt resemble brush strokes, it does look like craquelure.

Let dry.

You can now trim off any overlap of the photo paper if you need to.










You can even go in on top of the photo with paint, for an even more painterly effect.

This is from another project. 

You can use this technique on top of any canvas or really just about anything you deem Mod Podge worthy!




This is actually a fairly easy and inexpensive projects. You only need Mod Podge, Brush, Photo print, and canvas. For a 16 x 20 it would cost me $22 if I had to purchase everything, but most of us have a few of these items on hand!

Until next time,
Craft Your Own Way!

Tanya

Comments

JustYolie said…
Your faux painted canvas looks amazing!
Annmakes said…
I like costco, but love saving money more lol. Plus your canvas looks awesome, better than most commercial ones, just saying.
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
This comment has been removed by the author.
thanks- can you believe a cell phone photo? But then again, my cell has a higher resolution than my digital camera now.
thank you! easy and fun- perfect combo.

Popular Posts