Hey, remember me?

[ccouch]

....and when I asked for decorating help for Camille's room?

Here's what I ended up making for over her bed:
http://www.thedigichick.com/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_1135.jpg

http://www.thedigichick.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/63632/limit/recent

DH is very picky about the decorations that I use in our little one's room.
My Mission: To create something cute to hang over Camille's bed that posed no immediate dangers, including but not limited to falling on her, cutting her with glass, or tangling her up in decoration.
Solution: a super-cool hybrid project decoupaged onto a canvas frame that could fall off the wall with relatively small consequence

Here's what I did: Put together a digi-LO and printed just smaller than 16x20 at Sams (for about $6); painted a stretched canvas purple; hot glued yellow polka ribbon on the outside edge of canvas; decoupaged print onto canvas; trimmed the print edge out in a pink gingham ribbon. The whole thing came in at about $10-12, and I just love how it turned out!! (As does Camille~~)

Just thought you gals might like to see!! And, thanks again for all the awesome suggestions!

[Darcy Baldwin]

WB Christine - and still I love this!!!! you did a wonderful job!

[JennStar]

Now that's an awesome idea and totally right up my alley!! Thanks for posting the final project!

[Charla]

It's gorgeous!! That turned out so well. I'm very impressed :)

[meems]

wow wow wow! I love it, Christine! I want to do something like this for my DD's room. Or maybe something just like this LOL.

[YvetteSanders]

It turned out great!

[busyizzie]

that is ULTRA cute! It looks amazing..great work!

[Brandy]

oh wow i love this!! awsome awsome job.

[~Shawna~]

That is so cute Christine! And so inexpensive, I may have to do something similar when we redo the girls bedroom soon!

[scrappinmichele]

WOW! i'm totally impressed. That is gorgeous!!!

[hollyrh]

That's adorable! What a great idea to make the print a bit smaller and add the ribbon trim!

[toya]

Awesome job! It looks great!!

[jessie97]

wow I love this. What an awesome idea.

[Deena]

OH that is so cute!! I really should do some hybrid projects... It might make me a bit more of a crafter!

[d2vasquez]

oh wow this is really cute! I really love this!

[sinead]

Christine, I love it! I'm going to have to take a page from your book and do something like this for Maggie's room.

[chloe]

Wow, this is looking great! Love the soft colors!!

[AngelinaS]

That is too stinkin' cute!!!! You're brilliant!

[meems]

I think Joann's has some canvas thingies on sale now, 50% off.
I think I will try this with a smaller print/canvas first . . .

So Christine, could you share more details about the decopage process?
What product did you use?
How did you apply it? (sponge, brush, etc?)
How long did it take to dry?
Did you have to put any sort of sealer coat over it?
What does it feel like after it has been decopaged?

oh did you use a glossy or matte print? does it make a difference?

thanks!

[pbumbaca]

That totally rocks Christine! You need to submit that!

[mzkellyb]

That's awesome! Great job! I'm always so jealous of people who are way more creative & crafty than me. lol

[ccouch]

So Christine, could you share more details about the decopage process?
What product did you use?
How did you apply it? (sponge, brush, etc?)
How long did it take to dry?
Did you have to put any sort of sealer coat over it?
What does it feel like after it has been decopaged?

oh did you use a glossy or matte print? does it make a difference?

thanks!

Okay, here goes:
the decoupage process: i used modge podge (matte, I think). used a regular 1.5" paintbrush and covered the back-side of my print with it. just a thin layer. laid it on top of the canvas. smoothed with my hand. let dry for about 3-4 hours.

then I covered the entire thing with a coat of modge podge (that stuff is like adhesive & sealer all in one - think that's what the container says :) when i applied that final coat all over the whole thing, I used short, cross-hatch brush strokes. like making little x-es all over the whole thing. although the stuff dries clear, your strokes will be slightly visible (at an angle w/ the right lighting, kwim?) and i wanted the project to have a carefree, and painted look instead of vertical or horizontal strokes.

for the print, i didn't have a choice between matte or glossy. sam's prints those larger prints on a semi-glossy photo paper, epson i think. it has the appearance of a poster, but a bit thicker. if you were going to do an actual photo print (like a 4x6 from the photo lab), i would opt for the matte and i would check the modge podge first to be certain that it didn't cause the image to bleed.

hope that helps! just let me know if you have any other questions or if something wasn't clear :) and I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

[kresta]

Wowzas that's fabulous!!!

[Paula]

Wow that is adorable!! You did great!

[meems]

thanks for answering all my questions, Christine. But I have more LOL!

what kind of paint did you use to paint the canvas?

have you ever tried using iron on transfer paper to iron on a design onto a canvas?

thank you!!

I bet with all these questions it sounds like I actually might do this, bhwahaahahaaha.

[ajoyfulheart]

Oh WOW, Christine!!! I missed this post! You did an AWESOME job on that...SO cool ;) Thanks for posting to let us see!! :D

Hey Mimi...Acrylic paint works really well on canvas, and dries pretty quickly...FYI :)

[ccouch]

No problem, Mimi :) Happy to help!!

Let's see - ordinarily I would just go with plain ol' acrylic paint (the kind that's like 59 cents at the craft store - not artist's acrylic paint in the tubes - cause I'm cheap like that).

But.....I happened to have some leftover wall paint in the most perfect shade of lavendar, so I used that (really high-tech & thought out, right?). Okay, so I painted the canvas all over with the lavendar, and then came back with a darker lavendar and sponge painted to give it some more texture.

Those craft acrylic paints are awesome - cheap & available in a ton of colors. Love 'em. They do need to be sealed though. If you're using the modge podge or something like that, you'll have your sealer right there all in one. If you're not using something like Modge Podge then I like to use a spray sealer. I generally use Krylon Craft Sealer in Matte (can't remember the exact name).

And, nope I haven't used those iron-on things for canvas yet. I've done them for t-shirts, but not for a project like this. Would definitely like to though!!

Hope this helps, just lemme know if you have other questions & keep us updated with your project!!

[meems]

thanks, Christine!
I printed out your instrux and am heading to the craft store this afternoon!