Mini Canvas Art

Tools and materials:

• 9 mini canvases
• Foam board or paper
• Pencil
• Glue gun
• Acrylic paint
• Gilding wax
• Foam core board
• Aleene’s glue

Sketch an image

Start by having nine mini canvasses, each measuring 4 inches by 4 inches, and arrange them in a 3x3 square. Instead of drawing straight on the canvasses, use a piece of foam board that measures the same as your square to help you plan out what it is that you want to put onto the canvasses. Draw a grid first to represent all of the canvasses and number the squares to correspond with them. Number the canvasses on the back as well. Then draw your desired image onto the foam board.

Tip:

You can draw your image onto a piece of paper if you don’t have a foam board.

Draw onto the canvasses

The next step is to transfer all the images onto your little canvasses.

Trace over the image with glue

Now you’re going to use your hot glue gun. In no particular order, you need to go over all the pencil lines with the glue. Once all the pencil lines have been covered with the hot glue, you will need to set them aside and wait for them to dry.

Paint

Once the glue is all dry, take some black acrylic paint. Using a paintbrush, you need to paint all over the canvas and all over the glue. You can use spray paint if you like; I just prefer to use a brush. Then set aside and wait for it to dry.

Add the gilding wax

Once the paint is completely dry, you’re going to go over the glued areas with gilding wax. I’ve gone for a copper color, but you can choose any color you like. What you need to do is highlight all the glue by just very very gently smearing the wax across the surface. If you get some of the gilding wax on the black by accident, then just touch it up with a small paintbrush.

Affix to wall

And here is my finished project, all nine canvasses on the wall. I’m really pleased with how this turned out, and I love the contrast between the black and the copper. Now I have a confession to make; the thought of hanging nine canvasses and making sure they were all straight was giving me a headache, so I went to the dollar store, and I bought some foam core board. My canvasses altogether measured 12 inches by 12 inches, so I cut a piece of foam board 13 inches by 13, and then I stuck these little canvasses on the foam board using Aleene’s glue. I started with the corners and made sure there was a half-inch gap in between each one. Then I made a hole in the top middle one, through the foam board, and just into the cavity that is behind each canvas, so now I only have to put one nail in the wall, and they are all hung. Pretty magic, hey? 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this DIY, you could do so many things with this idea, and it’s so fast. Sometimes, when one sees the finished project, they might think that this type of thing is tricky and complicated. This tutorial has shown you that it is actually very simple and straightforward, and really anyone could do this. I hope that I’ve inspired you to have a go!