Text on Canvas Tutorial

This is the long awaited tutorial on one of the wedding gifts I gave my cousin whose wedding I was in last weekend.
First and foremost, the materials you will need are:
- a blank canvas  (I got mine from JoAnn Fabrics etc with a 40 % off coupon)
- an idea of the text you want to put on the canvas ( mine was a well known saying that pertains to the couple)
-  a computer & printer
- pencil
- acrylic paint (again from Jo Ann Fabrics with a coupon)
- paint brush (I used a foam one)
- Sharpie

After you have gathered your supplies, grab your canvas, paint brush and paint. Apply paint to your canvas. I just poured some paint on and brushed it smooth

Feel free to take more 'care' in making sure there are no streaks or paint brush marks. I enjoyed how mine looked because I felt as though it went with my theme (sailing- it kind of looked like water to me)

Remember to paint all four sides of the canvas too.  You can choose to paint it a different color , but I chose the easy route and just painted it the same color.
Set your canvas aside to dry.

Now open up Word on your computer.
Side Note: I previously downloaded 'fun' fonts from a website for free. The website I used for this was this one and I followed the directions to get the fonts downloaded to my computer.

Once your computer has Word open, type out the saying or words that you want to transfer onto the canvas. Along with this make sure you take time to choose your font and size you want. Keep in mind that you will need to be tracing and replicating the font so choose wisely.

Now print out your word document.

Cut out and lay each word on your canvas. Make changes if needed to font and size. Ensure that you like how the font looks on the canvas.

Next  I took each word at a time off to make sure I didn't mess up my placement of the words. I flipped the word over and began to color on the back with a pencil. There is no specific pattern that needs to be followed, just make sure there is graphite on the back side of the word (this is what is going to transfer to the canvas). Along with this, you will be able to see the font through the back of the paper so make sure that all of the places that the font is has graphite covering it.
**** I recommend doing each word one at a time. From this step until you trace it with Sharpie then begin here again with the next word****

Flip the word back over and put in the position that you had it originally. It doesn't have to be in the exact spot as before, but ensure that you like where it is place. Begin to trace the font with your pencil. You will need to push down more than usual when tracing the letters.

Once you are done tracing the word, move the paper. You should be left with something that looks like this. If  yours didn't come out as well as this try putting more graphite (coloring more) on the back side of the paper and pushing harder when you are tracing.

{The color looks weird due to the way I edited the picture to optimize the visibility of the pencil}

Grab your Sharpie and trace over the pencil marks that were left on your canvas. I put my typed word above where I was tracing so I could refer back to it if needed. Keep in mind that you can change the font how ever you want and that you don't have to be exact to still make this canvas look great. When you display this canvas or give it as a gift the person looking at it won't know what font you used to make it. 

Continue this with all of your words until you are done. Surprisingly, it doesn't take too long to do the tracing. Again, I found that it was easiest to do it one word at a time from coloring the back of the word to tracing it with the Sharpie. 

After I was done with the front, I wrote a nice note on the back explaining why I chose this quote to give as a wedding gift. I also decided to add their wedding date to the bottom so they can read the canvas and remember their wedding day when the going gets tough.

THANK YOU for being patient for this tutorial.As always, comments and emails are more than welcome. 

Kate