Photo Transfer to Canvas

Original post by Sarah @ Renewed Upon a Dream, please visit her website for more great ideas!”

Well it’s official,my 8 year old desktop computer has finally kicked the bucket & died.  I haven’t really had a computer for the last few days, which is why I haven’t been online much.  I am ordering a new laptop today, so it’ll get better soon, but this week will probably be a little slower than usual around here.  Sad face I know.  I did manage to get these pictures uploaded so that I can share a  little project I did for our bedroom last week with you.

This took about a week to complete.  It was one of those projects that you do a little bit, then wait a long time.  Then do a little bit, then wait a long time.  It’s a photo of my hubby & I from our engagement session that I transferred onto canvas.

It hangs in our bedroom now on the far wall.  I had originally thought that it would be the only thing I’d need for that wall, but I feel like it still looks pretty bare up there, so I’ll need to find some other things to hang around it.  I do really like how it turned out though.

I mostly followed this tutorial I found online by Delia Creates.  I ordered the print from Staples.  I only paid $2 for it!  Isn’t that amazing?  It’s an 18 x 24 blueprint print.  They are listed on the Staples page under “Engineering Prints” & only come in black & white, but they offer them in sizes up to 36 x 90 & they are cheep!  I was pretty excited about finding this.  They are MUCH less expensive than getting a regular print done at a copy shop.  Cha-ching!

They come rolled up, so I had to lay mine out to flatten it while I applied my gel medium to the canvas.  The picture above is right after I laid the print on the canvas.  I then waited for it to dry, about 8 hours.  Then it was time to wet the canvas & gently rub the paper off.  It was kind of tricky at first, but I got the hang of it after a while.  I’d rub off a layer, wait a day.  Rub off another layer, wait a day.  It took 4 rounds of wetting & rubbing paper off to get it to a point that I was happy with. 

It was at that point that I reapplied the gel medium over the entire photo canvas to seal it in & prepare it for hanging.

I do really like how our photo turned out.  If you’re going to do this, there are a couple of things you should know.  No matter how careful you are, you’re going to accidentally rub off some of the photo in places.  That’s ok, I think it gives it some extra character, but just know that it’s going to have a slightly distressed look to it.

Also, if you use the Staples engineering prints, know that the black & white prints do lose some details.  You’ve seen how my print turned out, this is the original photo in color:

& black & white:

So you can see that the print did lose a lot of details.  It’s very black & white with little variation in shades of grey.  I like it, but if you would prefer more detail, you’ll probably want to try a different kind of printing.
I wanted mine to be large, & it was alright with me to lose some of the details, I wanted it to look distressed & old anyway, and I think it turned out perfectly.  Oh also, the picture is reversed when you apply it to the canvas, so if you really don’t want it reversed (like if there are words in the picture) then reverse your photo before you send it to be printed, so that when it re-reverses, it’ll be correct for you.

Have you tried this technique before?  Have you gotten any large engineering prints done for other projects?

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