DIY: Burned Canvas Photo Transfer Tutorial

By: Kacie McClusky

The Author of L Town Nation.com

~Note to the Hillcrest Reader:

I admit that I originally wrote this tutorial for my own Blog, but  my next image transfer project is going to come from something I find at Hillcrest Thriftstore in Lee’s Summit. So, I wanted to get the creative juices flowing for everyone by posting this tutorial now!  When I was looking around their giant store, I noticed plenty of framed and unframed images that were very inexpensive and very interesting. I love vintage images, so look out for my next tutorial! To make this tutorial work for Hillcrest, I would just make a photo copy of something I found there, then follow the steps below! Thanks and Enjoy! Let’s Get Crafty Together!

~My Photo Story:

I took this photo while on Vacation in New Orleans. I  loved the Irony of the “You Are Beautiful” Written on the ugly old abandoned Factory. I did the cool Instragram filters on it, and it has lived only in my Instagram Account ever since…Until Now! I looked into getting this treasured Instagram image professionally made into a canvas, but it would cost me nearly $100! So, I decided it was time to get crafty.This whole project cost me only $15!!

Because of  the overall mood of the image, I knew I wanted it to look and feel Vintage and Rustic, but I also wanted it to be ORIGINAL. By transferring my own photo to the canvas myself, and finishing it off with this Canvas Burning/Smoke art effect, I effectively turned my instagram photo into a one of a kind, personal, piece of art!

Materials Needed:

• Canvas
• Laser printer Image
• Mod Podge or Gel Medium
• Grill Lighter
• Optional: Foam Roller
• Optional: Paint
• Optional: Spray Sealant

Lets Get Started!

~Print out your image using a laser jet printer. I went to Kinkos for mine. (the Laser jet keeps the ink from running and smudging)

Step 1:

• Use a Gel medium or Mod Podge as an adhesive. Using a Foam Roller or Paint Brush, Apply a Thick Even coat on the Canvas.

**Note:

• Try to apply the adhesive only where the photo is being applied to the canvas, because the adhesive is a little more difficult to burn. But its ok if some gets outside the lines, because you can remove it with a q-tip before it dries.

Step 1 Continued:

•  Using a Foam Roller or your hands, apply the image to the adhesive and try to remove any air bubbles. 
• If you want to achieve the burned edges effect that I did, leave some of the corner edges loose. 
• Let the image dry for several hours or over night.

Step 2:

• Using a Grill lighter, begin to burn the canvas. 
• ** Obviously you should be careful working with an open flame!
• Slow Even Lighter Strokes will “brown” The canvas, while leaving the lighter in one spot will begin to melt the canvas and create some kind of cool holes and “deformities”. 
• It is up to you, how much you want to distress the canvas. Play around with it!
• Burn the edges of the paper that you left loose, letting them burn naturally, so that the effect looks real and natural.

**Important Tip:

• By putting the Canvas at an angle to the flame, this will allow the smoke to saturate the canvas material, making the beautiful “burned” effect, without having to burn all the way through the canvas. Let the smoke do the work!

Step 3:

• Make sure to wipe the extra smoke off with a paper towel or cloth, as only some will soak into the canvas. Repeat the burning process as many times as you want to get the look you are going for. 
• I repeated the burning process twice to get the canvas dark enough that the edges of the photo were well blended.

Step 4 (Optional):

•  You can also do additional painting to blend the edges of the paper so the canvas/image looks like one uniform piece.

 Step 5 (Optional):

• To preserve the Canvas Image, use a spray Finish so as not to smudge your beautiful smoke art. Please note that using a brush to apply a finishing layer may distort the smoke art.

The Finished Product!!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. If you have any questions, please leave a comment!

This Tutorial was shared with love by Kacie M, The Author of L Town Nation.

Get a “New” Chair with Fabric Paint!! AMAZING!

Hillcrest Thrift Store in Lee’s Summit has tons of unique and affordable furniture in there HUGE warehouse style location! This simple DIY Tip is perfect for transforming used furniture into something fabulous and perfect for your color scheme!

If you are like me..and you love a great bargain, then most of your furniture and household items are hand-me downs or things you found at thrift stores. And like many  items like those, they are some funky color from the 80′s or some weird pattern, or have a mystery stain on them that you just cant get out. This is a really cheap and easy fix for  your used furniture woes!! I love it.

 Instructions:

Buy Tulip Fabric Spray Paint in a color of your choice (make sure you buy enough because it often needs to be layered. (you can get this at any craft store for pretty cheap) This chair took almost 4 bottles of paint, so make sure you get enough.

Hold the bottle about 6 inches from the fabric and spray in long even strokes. (read the instructions on the back of the bottle)

Make sure to let it dry thoroughly, then repeat if necessary…ENJOY your NEW UN-UGLY chair!

This Great Crafty Idea was Shared with love  from LTownNation.com

The Housewares Department at Hillcrest Thrift Store in Lee’s Summit has a large variety of glassware including unique bottles and vases that are perfect for this simple craft project. So head on down to the thrift store, grab your hot glue gun, start getting crafty!

1. Get a plain glass or plastic bottle or jug. (these are usually really cheap).
2. Use a hot glue gun to put your custom image, words, or design on it.
3. Use spray paint, in a color of your choice, to spray over it in long even strokes.
4. YOUR DONE! Just let it dry..repeat with another coat of paint if desired.

This Fun Crafty Idea was shared courtesy of: LTownNation.com

DIY Thrift Store Mugs!!

Hillcrest Thrift Store in Lee’s Summit, is a perfect place to find inexpensive gifts that you can personalize, and give for the Holidays. I found this tutorial on DIY Sharpie mugs while surfing the internet and thought I would share it with you all! As you may know, there is a HUGE selection of inexpensive dishes of all kinds in our massive Housewares section! Check it out! This seems like a lot of fun.

 This Tutorial is courtesy of LTown Nation.com. Enjoy

 Materials:

First we went to a thrift store to pick up some inexpensive ceramic mugs. We found that this works better with “non Polished or non Glossy” Mugs. We then picked up some Sharpies and Paint Pens, and some fun stencils ( because we have pretty limited drawing skills..haha).

Draw and Bake:

The basic idea is that you draw your design in sharpie on the mug in whatever way you like. Then you bake the mug(s) at 350 degrees for 30 minutes in the oven to “set” the design.

 The Tutorials:

We bought a total of 5 mugs ( 1 extra than we thought we needed in case we screwed up), and we will take you through the process of a few of them so you can get some ideas, and learn from our process.

Kacie’s Mugs:

The Robot Mug: (Stencil Method)

First I cut out the part of the Stencil I wanted to use, so It would be easier to work with. I did a little test design on some paper to see what colors looked good together, ect.

Feeling decently satisfied with my color selection, I then Carefully taped the Stencil to my ceramic mug and began painting.

Sadly..This is when I started to run into Trouble…(yes this soon haha). As it turns out, unlike paper, that absorbs  some of the liquid from the pen/marker, the mug does not. So the “paint” began to immedietly run down the mug, pretty much destroying the entire point of using a stencil. But I wasn’t going to let this ruin my craft day..So I grabbed some fingernail Polish remover and wiped the mug clean so I could start over. I then Grabbed some q-tips from my bathroom, and applied the paint to the q-tip before applying the paint to the stencil/mug, so it didnt drip.

I then let the paint dry for about 3-4 minutes before carefully removing the stencil. After taking it off, It kind of looked like a toddler did it, so I set to work trying to refine my design by hand..(so I could try to regain a little dignity lol)

In The end…(after baking it in the oven), This is what it looked like.

I cleaned up the edges and smudges with a q-tip dipped in finger nail polish remover. And I added some details, including the ” Can Not Compute” on the back..because it seemed fitting that my robot/computer be a little broken..based on my art work. After my finishing touches, I think I upped its artistic level to that of a Kindergardener..maybe a third grader..which is atleast better than my original toddler design.  I admit this is not my best work..but its MY coffee mug…and I am going to rock it shamelessly (at least at home).  I will laugh every time I see it in my cabinet, and that is worth something.

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES:

First of all, I should have traced the stencil with a pencil first, then began doing the actually painting by hand. The design is simple enough that this would have worked a lot better. What is great about these handmade sharpe mugs, is that they are fully customizable, fun, and funny. If I do this again, I will make some as entertaining gifts for my friends and family by adding our inside jokes, ect. These can still be a great and very personal gift for a coffee or tea drinker, although they are going to be obviously homemade. These would make especially good gifts for parenst or grandparents, if made by their kids or grandkids. What a great art project to do with the family or with friends. Its fun and cheap, even for the artistically challenged.

The Logo Mug

This is a great idea for anyone who owns a small business or is belongs to a group or team that they are proud of. In the case of us, We run a local housing website in the College Town on Lawrence, Kansas. ( Rock Chawk! for all you KU fans!). So of course, as one of our example mugs, I drew the Hawk logo for our website. Even if you are not interested in this specific logo, I learned some things that are good to know when dealing with images of this type and Sharpie markers that I will share with you.

First I drew it with pencil.

( I learned from my previous mug that the pencil is your friend!). The Pencil can be removed easily with water ( this is actually easier to remove with water than the eraser..strangely enough, the eraser just smudges it around the mug). 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you remove all of the pencil marks that are not covered by Sharpie BEFORE you bake the mugs in the oven. After the pencil is baked in, it becomes more permanant. 

Next, I Traced the outline of my design with the color I will fill it with, Filled in the design, and re-outlined it in a darker color to give it depth. 

TIP: When you are filling in the design, be careful to makes your “brush strokes” very even and going the same direction. This takes a little bit more time than just scribbling, but the pigment in the Sharpie does not “Spread and Blend” well, so if your lines of color are not consistent, they will show up.

TIP:  If you are going to outline the design in a different (darker) color than the fill color, you should still start with the lighter fill color first. This makes it easier to fix small outline mistakes at the end by going back over it with the darker outline color. 

Finally, I added the name of the business to accompany the logo. Especially for a business, it a good idea to put the name on the same side of the mug as the image, so it is seen. When doing your drawing, you want to make sure that you leave enough room so that the name or phrase does not appear crowded.  In the case of our The Housing Hawk.com Mug, I wish I had  left a little more space. Here is the finished product.

 Sally’s Mugs:

 The ” I Love Cats” Mug

Because I am a crazy cat lady, the stencils that I picked were obviously cat themed. Inspiration for my mug…

I also had trouble with the sharpie bleeding through my stencil. Since mine was less elaborate, I was able to use q-tips and nail polish remover as a quick fix. Using a pencil first would have been the smarter choice!

After I made my corrections, I just filled in my outline! After I filled in my cat the first time, I was left with an inconsistent and streaky image. So, I went back a few times to create a really solid looking shape.

I used a stencil for the back of my mug, “I <3 cats”. This time I used a pencil first, then went back in with sharpie to finish the outline, then just colored it all in!

My finished project!! I LOVE CATS!

And so do all the greats…

And finally, my last mug illustrates the reason we drink coffee in the first place.

1 Spring Type Clothing

2 New Toys

3 DVDs

4 Evening Gowns

5 Housewares

6 Bikes