I Love You Canvas
April 3, 2010 8:29 am Amy A Crafts, Father's Day, Holidays, Home Decor, Mother's Day
By General Crafts Contributor Amy, from the Blog “Mod Podge Rocks!”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got some paper and supplies left over from Valentine’s Day. I thought about what I could do with the goods and then it hit me – it’s a great idea to tell someone I love them any time of the year! I went through my stash and picked out some items that I liked to make a cupcake canvas. Cupcakes are huge right now and great for gift giving. To make it, gather these supplies:
Artist Canvas – 11″ x 14″
Wood letters spelling the phrase of your choice
FolkArt Paint – Bright Baby Pink, Graffiti Pink, Soft Apple, Sky Blue, Wicker White
K&Company Paper Pad 12×12 Lovely
Coordinating ribbon – ¼” width
Flat paint brushes of various sizes
Piece of paper to cover the top of the canvas (8.5″ x 14″ legal size)
Paint your entire canvas Sky Blue, or the background color of your choice to coordinate with your papers. Coat the entire canvas a few times, and don’t forget to paint the sides. Allow to dry.
Use the stencil tape to create a stripe at the bottom of your canvas. I chose a width approximately a few inches wide – just big enough to hold my wood letters. I just eyeballed it, no measuring. Affix the stencil tape firmly and paint within the tape. I used Bright Baby Pink. Pull the tape off immediately after painting and allow to dry.
While your canvas is drying, paint your letters Soft Apple and your wood heart piece Graffiti Pink. Allow to dry. Use the end of your paint brush to make Wicker White dots on the letters and a little tick mark on the top right corner of your heart. Allow to dry.
At this point I glued the letters, wood heart and some ribbon to the canvas with my Beacon glue. I knew that the assembly of the cupcakes was going to be complicated so I just wanted to get that part done. Allow the letters to dry and pay careful attention to what I did next.
Creating a grid from scratch and by hand is hard, so I decided to let my computer do the work. I went into my PowerPoint program and made a slide that was 8.5″ x 14″ – the size of a legal sheet of paper. I decided that I wanted ten cupcakes across and six cupcakes down after a quick measurement of the punch and the canvas. If your punch is smaller or larger than about 1″, you will be able to fit a different number of cupcakes than I was. Take that into account!
You are going to laugh at what I did next – I inserted a table into the PowerPoint slide, eleven columns wide by seven rows. I then stretched it until it fit my slide exactly. This was the perfect size and grid for my canvas!!! I printed it out and laid it down on the canvas above the ribbon. As you can see, I now have a grid for where to apply my cupcakes. I had to figure out how to mark it.
I had a revelation – a pin! I took a push pin and pressed through the canvas at each intersection so that I could see where I would need to apply the cupcake shape. The pin creates a small hole that is covered by your paper cupcakes, so don’t worry. Punch the entire grid.
Punch out your cupcakes! I used a few different sheets of paper, mixing up the tops of the cupcakes with different bottoms. I punched out 60 total cupcakes and had them on the sidelines. I began by grabbing a cupcake top and Mod Podging it to the canvas right above the little dot I punched. I had the cupcake top barely covering the dot, and it worked great. Work along the entire row, from left to right, putting down your cupcake tops. Allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.
Tip: Use your ruler as a guide, laying it down so you know where the top piece of your cupcake needs to go. It helps!
Go back and put down your cupcake bottoms right under the cupcake tops. You’ve already laid the groundwork, so this is the easy part! Allow to dry for 15 – 20 minutes.
You’re almost done! Mod Podge everything to seal it – the entire canvas, letters, even the ribbon. Give it all at least two coats and then let it dry. Present this canvas to your sweetheart or other loved one for a gift or anniversary. You know what would be fun? Making actual cupcakes to give as a gift along with your canvas. Yum!
