How to make a personalized canvas

This one of a kind gift is easier than you might think to make! Especially for infants, whose bedding themes tend to be elementary. I will show you how to make it look professional even if you are a beginner.

The first thing you will need is either a good quality picture of the bedding/room or if you are lucky enough to actually have the bedding yourself you are golden. This is the pic my son in law sent me of my grandson’s bedding. The canvas was a surprise for my daughter, so we had to be covert! 🙂

The next step is to layout your design on the canvas. For this one, I wanted the name to be in the center. I first coated the canvas with a fairly thick coat of white paint. Then I added an occasional “blob” of blue and smeared it in. Tonya’s Two Cents (TTS) – this will give the background some depth. The road was added with a curve similar to the look of the bedding.

I shaded the road using gray, black and white paint. I wanted the shadow to come from the top, so while the gray paint was wet I drug black paint on the top of the road and white paint on the bottom of the road to add the shading. TTS – this trick makes the finished product look professional and not just one dimensional.

The next step is the most important – choosing your layout. I apologize for no pictures of this stage. I must have been in a total brain fog due to the holidays and all. Anywho, to do this I made paper cutouts of the lettering of my grandson’s name and positioned them in the center of the canvas until I thought it looked right. Next, I made cutouts of trucks, cars and buildings and laid them around the letters until the canvas looked covered but not too busy. You can use double-sided tape to stick the cutouts on and then stand back to look at your canvas. Another trick is to take a pic of the canvas at this stage and look at the pic. TTS – this always gives better perspective.

Change the placement of the lettering and cutouts until you like the way it looks. Next, trace around your cutouts with PENCIL. For this project, I chose the colors of the vehicles and buildings so that the colors were dispersed evenly around the canvas. For most bedding, you won’t need to even do this as the colors are chosen for you!

Once things are traced, begin painting. If you feel comfortable with the shading technique described above, go for it. This always makes things look like a pro did it. Another TTS is to outline things after everything is painted. I chose black, but depending on your bedding theme, you may need a different color. This is the paint marker I absolutely love:

Some other finishing touches can be to use the craft pen marker to add dots around each letter or squiggly marks around the border of your canvas. Just get creative with it!

Here is the finished product in his room. This is truly a labor of love and is a wonderful gift for baby showers, 1st birthdays, holidays, etc. Tonya’s Two Cents – just give it a try and don’t forget to sign your artwork.