Throwback! Canvas Crafts

I have dabbled in the art of canvas crafts once I figured out it wasn't that expensive to buy a pack of canvases in the craft stores. I have many examples of work all over my house and that I have given away to others. Below are a few examples of how much fun canvas crafts can be.


Something that I thought was fun for a little while (although it is extremely hard work actually) was melting crayons. Both of these pieces were created and donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters of West Central Illinois for their "Look Who's Painting Now" annual fundraising event.

Created in Fall 2012 when I was an intern there.

I created the second piece in Fall 2015 when BBBS asked me to participate again. I was happy to donate to the cause and so thankful they thought of me! I painted over the top of the melted crayon, but it doesn't look the best because the paint wasn't sticking to the waxy crayon.

One of my favorite pieces is in my green and purple spare bedroom.  I created it to go with my desk and first rag rug. I began taping off to do the chevron pattern that I used on the top of the desk again, but I gave up and said forget it! I ended up splattering purple paint and I love the look it gives this piece! Very carefree and just enough of a pop of color to tie it into the room but it doesn't take away from the bright colors and funky shapes of the buttons.

The other canvas in that room is this one, with a quote from Charles Dickens. We read this book when I was a Junior in high school and I have been obsessed with this particular quote ever since. This quote gives meaning to so many events in my life and reminds me that I would not be who I am today, oftentimes, without the single event that began it all.

Another dabbling in canvas arts comes from my sister's bachelorette party.  The other bridesmaids and I decided that a Paint Nite would be a perfect first stop for our outing down town! This adventure really works well for those with the most minimal experience in painting. There is an instructor who takes the entire class, step by step, through a painting. We spent a couple hours laughing, painting and generally having a great time.

The beginning of my painting

Adding our background colors

My finished product!

Our finished products as a group. Slightly different but pretty much all the same.

My finished work of art now adorns my kitchen/living room/dinning room combo and fits perfectly with the blue and yellow theme!



My last adventure was when I recently participated in a Canvas and Cocktails event through the Springfield Art Association. The night I participated in was a Jazz theme, and we painted various album covers. The task was pretty daunting at first, because I went to another paint night where all students did the exact same (pretty simple) strokes and even used the same colors. This course was significantly more advanced. We were allowed to use our own choice of paint colors, and we first sketched our drawing ourselves before painting. There was very little direction, unless you really wanted some and the instructor would make her way around the room to help sketch to get you started or to help students fix their paintings as needed.

This was the image I worked from

Here was about 1/4 of the way in after I had enough wine to
gain a little confidence and actually start painting what I saw.

And here is my final product! Not an exact copy by any means
but it does resemble it more that I thought it would when I began!

We got to choose our own images, and I really was pulled to the more abstract covers. I think this was probably a bit easier because the lines were not crisp and I could make it how I wanted as far as the colors were concerned. I think the best part of this night was laughing about our lack of skills with my mom! We had a great time and I would definitely recommend the event :)

Check out my Crafting Board to see more ideas I've liked recently!