Upcycled canvas print

ILuke is growing up, and still has many of the same things he has had in his room since we moved him down the hall around 15 months. I remember searching high and low for canvas prints I liked, and finally coming across a set of 3 at target. They are cartoony trucks, and he has outgrown them at this point.

So, I decided it was time to update some of the baby and toddler things. I couldn't just throw out 3 perfectly good canvases, so I decided to start with the smallest one and paint it. Luke likes super heroes, and has always liked Spider-Man, so I painted it red. 

After 7 coats of paint, the car was still slightly visible, but I was out of paint! It was going to have to do. I decided to use my silhouette to cut a spiderweb stencil.

I searched online for a Spider-Man logo I liked. I wound up finding a web and a spider separately, tracing them, and cutting them. I was worried my spiderweb would be too thin to cut and use as a stencil, so I did a small offset. It worked nicely!

 I ran out of stencil vinyl, so I used some regular black vinyl instead, but with a trick I recently read online. After positioning the stencil where I wanted it, I covered the whole thing with a thin layer of matte mod podge. This prevents seepage of the paint under the stencil. If anything seeps, it will be with mod podge, which dries clear! 

I didn't take a picture after the mod podge, but this is what it looked like after the stencil was applied. I peeled the web off, leaving behind the web as my negative space. 

Originally I had tried to design a web with the spider already on it, and paint the entire thing black. When I welded them together in studio, the spider was hard to see. So, I decided to paint the web white, which I think made a nice contrast against the red canvas. 

I was a little impatient and started weeding the pieces of vinyl before the paint was dry.  I was anxious to see it and wanted to make sure the mod podge didn't totally seal the vinyl to the canvas. That started making a mess, so I waited until the next morning. Using my hook tool I slid the vinyl off and removed it and was thrilled with the results! Perfect lines!!

My final touch was adding the spider. I decided to go with the black vinyl over the web. 

I love the way this turned out, and I can't wait to hang it up and let Luke see it!!