Another Project Finished!

So, apparently I’ve been motivated lately, because I keep finishing projects (highly abnormal for me).  Since I actually started this one last year sometime, I’m not sure if I can be too proud of myself, but, hey, finishing is finishing, right?! :) 

Anyway, I’ve seen lots of cute canvases with kids’ names on them and fun designs.  But at $20 and up, I wasn’t really willing to pay for them (shocker).  After seeing posters turned into canvases here, and since I’m fairly familiar with Photoshop and some other photo editing software, I thought I’d give it a try.  After much analysis paralysis with making the designs and matching the colors, and much MUCH tweaking, I ended up with two designs I liked.  And then I just waited.  And waited.  I couldn’t really bring myself to fork over the $15 to turn them into a poster at Walmart.  I know, I’m cheap.  But this fall, I found a Groupon for $17 for $70 worth of merchandise at www.vistaprint.com.  They had several things that I thought would make good Christmas presents, so I bought the groupon, and used part of it to order a large poster (18x24 inches) with both of the pictures on them.  I had already picked up some 12x12 canvases at Michaels ($4 for a 2-pack, I think) this summer, so I was ready to go.  And… I waited. :)

But we had company this past weekend, and that was the motivation I needed to get in gear and finish the project!  So, I started out with this:

I probably should have taken the poster to work and used the giant paper cutter, but, well, I wasn’t patient enough- once I decided I wanted to get it done, I was finishing it that night!  So, after a couple minutes of cutting, I had these two prints:

Here comes the real bonus… Young House Love, where I first got the whole poster-to-canvas idea, had some trouble finding an adhesive that worked.  I lucked out- when we ordered the girls’ foam mattresses, they came a little shorter than we ordered.  So the company sent us some pieces to make up the difference, and some adhesive spray to stick the little pieces to the big mattress.  See where I’m going with this?  Yep, the next step was to break out the upholstery adhesive.  It said to spray it on then let it sit for 30 seconds or so. 

Once I had both prints attached to the canvases, I used this highly scientific drying method:

And let it sit for awhile (I think it was probably a full day, but mostly because of convenience, not because I really thought it would take that long).

Josh hung them for me, and I think they turned out really well!  Not that you can tell because the beds are NEVER made, but the colors actually match the bedding that I got for the girls this summer. 

An up-close shot…

Obviously you can tell that they are not really canvases if you get up close to them, but I think they turned out really nice!  They certainly look great considering I only spent $10-ish on them! 

I think I’m out of projects now, so this can go back to a family blog… but I’ve been having fun doing neat stuff on a budget, so you never know!! :)