Vinyl on Canvas Tutorial

I've seen these around the blogosphere lately and I thought it would be perfect for some art in my craft room.  Since we're renting all of our walls are white and I thought they could use a pop of color.

For supplies, you'll need paint

I chose these two colors.  You can do one if you choose, but I wanted the slight color variation of using two.  Brand doesn't matter.

You'll also need a paintbrush.  If you want to see brush strokes, use a standard brush.  If you want a smoother look use a foam brush.  I chose foam.

Pick out some vinyl in a color that you like along with some transfer tape.

Finally you'll need a canvas in your chosen size.  I went with an 11x14 because that was the biggest size Wal-Mart had in stock and I didn't feel like driving to a craft store.

Start with the darker color so it will show through.  You don't really have to worry about making it look good because you'll be painting over it.

As you can see, mine is not pretty.

Then paint over in your lighter coat.  I didn't wait for mine to dry.  I wanted it to mix together a little bit.

Not a huge difference in photos, but in person you can see darker and lighter patches, which is what I wanted.

Then make sure to paint your edges.  You could leave them white, but if you do that you'll want to tape them off at the start so you don't get paint on them.

I wish mine had the staples on the back instead of the sides, but that's all they had and I don't think they'll be too noticeable once it's on the wall.

Then pick your shape.  I used one from the Lyrical Letters Cricut cartridge.  I bought it thinking it was just another font cartridge, but it has some beautiful shapes.  I already knew what size I needed because I'd cut it out of some extra white paper I had laying around.

Cut your shape.  Any cutting machine will work.

Then pull away all of the vinyl you don't want on your canvas leaving behind the backing piece and your image.

These pictures are sort of hard to see because I used white vinyl, but hopefully they'll help.

Then peel off the backing for your transfer tape and put the sticky side against the vinyl.  The instructions say to move your vinyl, but this cut has so many long parts that I didn't want to risk getting it all stuck together so I did it this way.  It worked just fine.

Mine came with a large popsicle stick to help the two pieces stick, but you could use a credit card or something else that is stiff enough to not bend when you apply pressure.

Rub all over your image so that it will stick to the transfer tape.  Then pull back.  If any pieces don't stick just put the tape back and rub with the stick again.  Then place it on your canvas in your chosen location and rub again.  Again, pull back gently and if any part doesn't stay on the canvas just put the tape back and rub again. 

In the end you'll end up with this

I haven't hung mine yet, but I will hopefully get it up in the next week so that I can have something pretty to look at in my craft room.

On a slightly different note, have you guessed my favorite color yet?