July 9, 2012

Cut Canvas

Update: I have received a lot of questions about where I found the stencils so I have decided to share.  The chevron type and x type shaped one is here and here, and the diamond/flower shaped one is from here.

While perusing around Pinterest one day I came across this picture of layered cut canvas.  I thought to myself "That is so awesome!  I have never thought to cut a canvas before...I'm gonna have to try it."  And try it I did.  For this little projet I used the economy pack of 11x14 $5.99 canvases.

First I went online to search around for wall stencils to find some patterns I liked.  Since I dont have a printer I put a piece of copy paper over my screen and gently traced the outline of the stencil with a pencil.  Luckily my screen tilts pretty far back so it wasn't that bad to trace the patterns thought the screen puts off a lot of heat!  My paper wasn't large enough (nor were the patterns) to completely take up the canvas so I had to line up the pattern lower on the page to completely fill it in.  You know since my piece of paper was an 8.5 x 11 and the canvas opening was roughly the same size just slightly longer around 12-12.5 inches.

After I got the pattern traced I went over it with a sharpie.

I taped the pattern face down on the front side of the canvas.

Now you can't see the pattern through the canvas unless you hold it up to the light so I sat back in my chair and propped the canvas in my lap while facing a window and gently traced the pattern onto the back side of the canvas with a pencil.  I had to move my stencil down on the canvas and line up the pattern to continue it to the bottom. 

Pattern traced onto the back of canvas in pencil...check!

Now it came to cutting out the pattern, only I forgot to take pictures with the first pattern since I was so eager to see the outcome.  I laid the canvas on our cutting board and got to  cutting with my Exacto knife.  I picked out patterns with mostly straight lines since I didn't know how well cutting in a circular pattern would go.  But you can see this one has a curve to one part of the pattern which wasn't difficult at all.  By the end of cutting my 3rd canvas my finger started hurting from squeezing the knife so hard.  The canvas wasn't very difficult to cut through but I am sure if you bought a higher quality canvas than the economy pack it would be.

Here are all 3 patterns finished.  I'm not sure on which arrangement I like the best, I keep moving them around.  I have to say my favorite pattern is the one on the right, which the stencil was actually flipped but the pattern wasn't going to work well with the vertical orientation of the canvas.  To hang them I used the smallest and longest nails we have on hand.   You could probably even use a push pin.
 


 Yep they went on the big blank wall in Jimmy's bathroom.  It was a nice little surprise after I hung them up and later walked by to see something hanging on the wall instead of nothing.

Oh and you may notice that we have new rugs since Berkley likes to waller on things and tore up my ghetto towel rugs.  Boring looking rugs but Jimmy loves them and I will just leave the fancy decorations to the rest of the room.  We need a new shower curtain but I may just paint some stripes or something on the current one (which is just made out of a sheet).
 

 I am also not sure if I like the stark white but they do go with the baseboards and door and toilet, etc.  I have painted the frame part white so it blends in with the canvas, I just never retook the picture :O)

Jimmy still hasn't hung up the mirror that is sitting on the counter, but he doesn't want to drill a big hole in the wall since the mirror weighs like 5 lbs! I wonder if there are any heavy duty 3M strips that will hold it.
 




And while we are in the bathroom the last few things I plan to do in here are...
~Replace or do something with the shower curtian like I said before.
~Replace the faucet with and oil rubbed bronze one.
~Possibly spray paint the hollywood ligting strip with oil rubbed bronze.
~Paint the ceiling so it is water resistant.  With a low ceiling this room gets moist!

24 comments:

Ashleigh said...

You need some of our Monkey hangers.. they hold like 25 lbs. Call me.
Ashleigh

Gabrielle said...

That looks so good! I've never thought of doing that before, but consider me a changed woman.

Courtney @ Brilliant Like Fireflies said...

Wow, what an amazing project! Looks like it requires a lot of patience, good job!

Jess said...

What a cool idea! I found you through the Pinterest Challenge! I have never thought of doing that, but it turned out great!

I spray painted my Ikea mirror. Check it out? http://www.lifehappilyeverafter.com/2012/07/pinterest-challenge-reveal-spray.html#

Jess said...

Wow what a great idea! I have never thought of that before. I found you though the Pinterest Challenge! I spray painted my ikea mirror. Check it out! http://www.lifehappilyeverafter.com/2012/07/pinterest-challenge-reveal-spray.html#

Laura said...

Lovely Lovely Lovely! You can bet this is being adding to my, to do pin board! Great work!

Tamsyn said...

I love these so much!! I thought about attempting something like this a while back, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Thank you so much for the inspiration, I've pinned them :)

Andrea said...

What a great idea! I've never thought of cutting a canvas. I'd love to see how it looks against a really colorful wall.

Kelli Helm said...

Amazing! I have three canvases sitting in my garage that I had bought for a project, then changed directions... didn't know what I was going to do with them, until now! :)

Lauren M. said...

GREAT idea! I love this and will definitely have to give it a try soon.

MyersMaison.blogspot.com

Bernadette @B3HD said...

Absolutely LOVE this project. Pinning and going to be doing mini versions for a small strip of wall I want some decor on.

Thanks for sharing detailed steps on how you did it!

Bernadette from www.b3hd.blogspot.com

JenWoodhouse.com said...

Hi Ashley!
I just wanted to say hello and let you know I'll be featuring your cut canvas wall decor on my blog tomorrow as part of my 'Feature Friday' column! It was one of my favorites from the Pinterest Challenge - thanks so much for sharing! You can check out the feature post tomorrow here: http://jenwoodhouse.com/blog

Unknown said...

I really loved your creativity I'm in love with this page......FAN!!

LC said...

Love these! Would you mind sharing the links to the stencils you used?

ilovemac92 said...

Love this:) can you share where you found the stencils?
Thanks, Joanna

Anonymous said...

Do you have links to where you found your stencil patterns? I love the third one & I can't find it anywhere! Thanks

JenniferMarie said...

Such a cool idea! Thanks for sharing! =)

Jen

Nine Red said...

Hey Hey Hey! A friend sent me this link, your canvas came out great! I'm Jesse, of the triple layer cut canvas you linked to. Thanks so much for the shout out! I love your patterned ones, these are so cute!

Great work :D

Nabila said...

This is so amazing!
Do you mind sharing what stencils you used? Maybe like a link to them?
And how did you manage to hang them?

Thanks so much!

I've been looking for textile art for the guest bathroom for a while now, with no success; so I'm definitely going to try this out!

Lastly, what knife did you use? I always seem to get the wrong ones.

Chris Tapp said...

I love this project! My artist brother thinks the canvas will curl if I cut it like that. Did you have any issues with it he edges curling up on you?

Anonymous said...

For those that were asking for the stencils....the first paragraph states it

SCART69 said...

Looks good, going to try this, paint dark colours on the canvas, join it to another same sized one w/ light or red on the inside & maybe add a small light at top/bottom. cheers for the idea.

Nancy said...

Beautiful work. Usually find canvas for my granddaughter at yard sales but next one is for me! Thanks!

Unknown said...

Hey! Been meaning to do this ever since I first read about it but I'm having some trouble finding stretched canvas fitted to a hollow frame (hope that makes sense). The ones I can find seem to be for painting on. Is there anything specific I should look for or just buy one with a thick frame and attempt to take the board out of the middle?

I'd love any help I could get.

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