How I Did It: Fabric Canvases

Now that I'm home on break, I've had a lot of extra down allowing my creativity to flow.  It's been  awhile since I've gotten to create for fun and not out of necessity.  Last night, I decided to tackle the bare walls in my room.  I painted my room gray a while back, but never got around to hanging all my pictures/art work.  The hardest spot was deciding what to put above my bed.  My headboard isn't high enough so the wall above is very bare.  I would love to have a taller headboard, but since that is not in my budget, I decided to create some artwork to go above it.

I originally bought three canvases to paint, but after painting one I didn't like how it turned out.  So last night I came up with plan B.  I got the canvases, some extra fabric, and decided to make fabric wrapped canvases. Here take a look:

 Extra Fabric.

The canvases.  The first one has my original painting idea, the yellow just didn't pop as I had hoped

 Cut the fabric of your choice to fit around your canvas.  Iron out the wrinkles.

 Center your canvas on the fabric panel.

 Typically I would use hot glue, but I couldn't find any.  Instead I used a good quick-drying fabric glue and thumb tacks.  Put a line of glue down down one side of the back of the canvas.

 Pull the fabric over the side and tack in place.  Make sure it's even on the first side. Then firmly pull the mirroring side and tack in place.  You want to make sure you pull it tight to avoid wrinkles on the front. 

 Then do the same thing to the smaller sides pulling firmly and tacking in place (or hot gluing).  Wrap the corners as you would a Christmas present for a clean edge.

 The finished product, firmly wrapped.

 Then I decided to add a creative touch to it.  Pick a pattern you like and cut it out of a contrasting fabric.

 Tack your pattern in place on the canvases and glue.  I chose to space my canvases apart, so simply cut the part of the pattern that stretches across the opening. 

 The before.

 The after.

I think it looks pretty good.  And if I get tired of the pattern it's a quick easy change.

Simple and cheap.

Canvases:  Three at $8/each=  $24

Fabric:  $5

Glue/Tacks/Scissors: Free (I already had them)

Total:  $29

Custom artwork for less than $30!