My continuing pursuit of nice wall art.

Hey there! As you know, I've been working on doing some fun wall art for Mod Podge Command Central - inexpensive but cute. I dug through my fabric scraps the other day and found some Denyse Schmidt County Fair fabric (Pond). It turned out there was just enough to cover a 12" x 16" canvas, so the wheels started turning. I then looked through my surface bin, and found this wood cutout. Don't remember when or where I got this particular one, but I've seen them at several craft stores, especially seasonally.

Anyhoo, I completed this project in less than an afternoon. To make it, gather these supplies:

Canvas, 12" x 16" - Michaels is having a great sale on canvases right now!
Scrap of fabric to cover canvas
Wood piece to put on the front
Acrylic Paint - You'll obviously want to match your fabric. I used the following:
FolkArt Acrylic Paint - Coastal Blue
Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint - Wedgewood Green
Gloss Mod Podge (because this is not a heavy wear item and will hang on the wall, you can use this to prepare your fabric too)
Flat paintbrush
Beacon Tacky Glue
Staple Gun or small nails and hammer

1. You will first want to prepare the fabric before painting. To do this, wash and dry the fabric (do not use fabric softener). Iron and then lay out on a covered work surface. Wax paper is preferable for covering your table. Using a brush, paint a light coat of Mod Podge onto your fabric. Allow to dry. This will allow you to cut the fabric like paper without frayed edges.

2. While the Mod Podge on your fabric is drying, paint your wood piece. You will more than likely have to paint several coats - and don't forget the edges. Don't worry about the back.

3. Once the leaves were done, I painted the bird blue. He can be purple if you want. Or a horse of a different color bird, yellow, orange . . . whatever suits you. Set him aside to dry.

4. Time to attach the fabric to the canvas. I used a staple gun, starting on one edge and stretching the fabric across. My method was bottom, top, then sides. Corners are next. If you don't have a staple gun, use small finishing nails and a hammer. Just be careful not to tear the fabric.

5. The corners are special. I made "flower" like corner - tucking the two parts under on each side and then folding down. I hope you can see what I did. If you need another suggestion, visit this link.

Once I stretched the fabric over the canvas, I gave it another coat of Mod Podge for good measure.

6. After stretching the canvas, Mr. Bird was sealed with Mod Podge. Again, do the sides but don't worry about the back.

7. Use your Beacon glue to glue Mr. Bird down onto the center of the canvas. Wait for 24 hours to hang on the wall.

One more tip - if you don't find a wood piece that you like, consider painting something on the front of the fabric using the freezer stencil technique. I did a post about that once, and you can find it here.