DIY Canvas Art

I kept seeing these cute canvas art projects on Pinterest where you glue wooden letters to a canvas and paint it all the same color. They seemed super easy and cute for simple decor around the house. I’m always looking for other decorative pieces that can be used with all of my stuff.

This got me thinking and I remembered I had some wooden letters that I had bought for a recipe box I was making several years ago. I think I painted some of the letters and never finished the box (which is why you’ll notice some of the letters I use are white and some are not). The problem I had was I had to find a quote or saying that I had all the letters for. That ended up being more challenging than expected. I was very limited on letters and I don’t even remember where I purchased them to look for more. I’ve seen cute things for guest bedrooms that say “be our guest” and always thought that was a cute and clever idea. I mean, who doesn’t love the Beauty and the Beast movie?

All you need for this project is a canvas (I had these small ones left over from high school actually and since my quote was short, they worked perfect), glue and spray paint. I knew I had all the supplies at the house already so this project cost nothing out of pocket and was super easy and fast.

Here are the 3 easy steps:

1. Lay out the quote you have in mind and make sure it will fit on the canvas chosen.

2. I drew light lines on the canvas with a pencil to make sure I lined up the letters correctly but that is optional. Apply glue to the back of the letters and start gluing on to the canvas (I used elmers but any glue would work). I start from the middle letter and work my way out to make sure the spacing and alignment is correct.

Tip: You may have some glue ooze out from the letters as pictured in the first “e”. I took a small paint brush and wiped it away so you don’t have “mounds of glue” (I wasn’t sure what else to call it) on the sides of the letter. Notice the difference in the second “e”? Those glue “mounds” will show after you spray paint at the end if you don’t remove them.

3. Once you have glued all the letters on, just take the canvas outside and spray paint all over including the sides of the canvas. I used an ivory color that I already had at the house instead of white but you can use whatever color you would like.

Once it’s dry you can use it on the wall or on an eisle or just sitting up against another decorative item.