Ballard Inspired Canvases Tutorial

 

Good Morning! I am so excited to hurry and post this morning! I am making good progress this week! I started Saturday by refinishing two dressers and a nightstand for the boys room! Stryders bed is painted and he is now sleeping in it! The quilt tops are done and I am just waiting for a good time to find fabric to finish them! I need to paint the crib and rocking chair and find some knobs for one of the dressers! I am holding out on you to post the room at one time! I have also got tonz of spring cleaning done, including some shelving repainted in the closets of the salon and pantry. I am going to try to tackle the upstairs today and hopefully the outside windows on days off! I have also found many projects to add to my to do list as I spring clean! Hopefully by the end of the week the weather will be nice again and the kids and I can hit the park (which we might try to sneak in today anyway)!

I fell in love with these prints when I got the new Ballard Design magazine a few months ago. I love anything out of old book pages or anything up-cycled! The dress is priced at $299 and the small ones start at $89.

 

I wanted to come up with something similar and a little more my style. I have been loving silhouettes lately and don’t have any around the house. I did one for myself and one for Serendipity.

Begin with a blank canvas. I got this one @ JoAnne's in a pack of two for I believe $20. I used some vintage sheet music and tore it up. I used the majority of straight edges on the edge of the canvases to cover it easily. Be sure to use a foam brush and coat the back side of the paper very well. When you get it all covered, put one more coat of modge podge on the whole canvas.

 

I found a silhouette of a lady on Google images. I do not have a program that will let me print as large as I wanted to on multiple pieces of paper so instead I cropped the picture in half in Windows Photo Gallery and then taped them together and hand drew the back of the bun, nose, and her chest that was cut off by making it large enough! The next few pictures are very blurry. The focus on my camera was not working and after playing with it forever I had found a setting that the kids must have switched over.

Cut out your silhouette and secure a few places scotch tape so that it will not slide around while you stencil it on. Be sure to use pencil incase you need to erase.

Use a small paint brush to go around the edges and then fill in with a small foam brush.

I used a needle and thread to tie a knot through the back of the wood on the canvas.

I then came up on one side and thread some pearls that I had onto the string. I then took it back down and tied around the other side.

I secured the strings on back with some hot glue to make it more sturdy.

I also tied a bow and hot glued it on her hair. This one I did with book pages instead of sheet music and left them in larger pieces. It went much faster and I actually like the look a little better! You could easily do this with any picture or snap a few quick shots of your kids at a side angle and make it personal!

 

Love, Amanda