Reverse Canvas DIY

If you have a Cricut, you’ll probably know that “reverse canvas” projects have become super popular. I’m not sure who started this trend or else I’d give them credit, but props to whoever first made one of these because they turn out beautiful! I’ve made a few and stained the wood, but last week decided to paint this one’s canvas as well as the wood frame. I painted the frame white and the canvas a color to match my living room since I’ll be putting this on a new shelf. I’ve seen the quote “Together is my favorite place to be” on Pinterest and I LOVE it, so I decided to put that on this one. If you’d like to see how I made this keep reading!

STEP ONE:

Cut the canvas off of the frame from the back. I ended up using a bigger Exacto knife because this knife didn’t work that great. Just cut the canvas off the frame, it doesn’t need to be perfect or neat. You’re going to end up cutting the excess anyway.

See how I did mine? All that’s visible now are the staples. You can leave those, they’ll end up on the back of the new picture.

STEP TWO:

Put the canvas aside. Now paint or stain your frame any color you’d like! I just used a white acrylic paint.

STEP THREE:

I used my Cricut to cut this quote I made. If you don’t have a Cricut, just get some stickers or stencil! Both will work great.

STEP FOUR:

Before applying your letters to the canvas, paint clear mod podge all over the canvas and let dry. It will help the vinyl or stickers to stick better. Once you’re done with the mod podge and it’s dried, add on your vinyl or stickers. If you’re stenciling, paint the canvas your solid color, and then stencil. If you’re stenciling you’ll do these steps opposite of how I am.

I’m not gonna lie – applying vinyl to canvas even after the mod podge might be a little tricky. Just be patient with your transfer tape and it will work. I painted a slate blue/grey color all over the canvas, covering the letters. Once the paint is applied (2 coats), I took the letters off. The paint was still wet when I did this, didn’t make a difference.

STEP FIVE:

Once your canvas is completely dry, turn your wooden frame over to the side with all the staples. This is the back. Cut the canvas to  a size where it’s not overlapping the edges, but leave enough room to glue down the sides to the wooden frame. Look at my picture below, that’s exactly what you’re going to do. Hot glue down the edges of the canvas to the wooden frame. Make sure to pull tightly once the glue is dry to each side so there’s no creases.

And that’s it! Look how mine turned out! I love it so much and Charlie was so impressed by how this came out! Charlie’s Dad is making us some new shelves for our living room, and this will go on one of those. I’ll be blogging about those next week once they’re hung! Can’t wait to decorate them and show you what else I make to display on them.

Like this project and want to save it? Thank you! Use the photo below to Pin It for later.