Thursday, July 26, 2012

DIY Stenciled Nature Wall Art on Canvas



Creating your own wall art can be simple! 
All you need are a few basic materials and a little bit of inspiration. 

Now that summer is in all its glory, why not take to the great outdoors for some of the materials needed for this project? 

You probably can find plenty of leaf and flower specimens in your very own backyard or garden. 

Or, take a nature walk with someone special and collect some leaves or other natural materials on your way. Once your project below is finished, you'll have a nice keepsake to remember the day!






Materials needed: (photo 1)

newspaper to cover and protect your work space

a store bought framed canvas for acrylic paint

acrylic craft paint

craft paint brush

repositional spray adhesive (aka artist's mounting adhesive)

spray paint in a contrasting color to your acrylic paint 


Instructions:

First, cover your work space with newspaper. 
To start, paint your entire canvas with acrylic paint in the color that you would like your leaves to be and set aside to dry (photo 2)

Once your canvas is dry, place your leaves or branch (or whatever you will be using as your stencil) on a separate piece of paper or newspaper and spray with mounting spray/respositional spray adhesive. (photo 3)

Next adhere the adhesive side of your leaves to your painted canvas and press down gently to adhere.

Spray over leaves with contrasting color spray paint, allow to dry, and then carefully peel off your leaves/stencil. (photo 4)

Display your finished artwork! (photo 5)





Here are two types of repositional spray adhesives/mounting sprays


What other kinds of materials would you use as a stencil for this project?  Aside from plant life, I think this project would be fun with lace or paper doilies.

What do you think?