How To: Appliques on Canvas

After one of my roommates moved out at the beginning of the semester, she took her photos with her that had been our sole decoration in the living room.  I stared at the blank walls for a few months and finally decided I had enough and started to think what I could do about it.  I was immediately inspired by all the HGTV I've been watching recently and decided to cover some canvases with fabric.

I wanted something floral and swoopy (you, know vines running all over and making swirly patterns).   This is the fabric I found at JoAnn's:

Sorry about the wrinkles.

It was a little more pricey than I wanted to spend, but it was the closest match to the ideal fabric-in-my-head.  Once I had the fabric and looked at the pattern, some of the individual flowers were interesting enough to stand on their own, so I decided to do some decoupage appliques on canvas too.

Supplies for both projects:

Fabric covered canvases -- fabric of your choice cut to dimensions that will cover and wrap around to the back of the canvas and push pins or a staple gun

Appliques on canvas -- fabric you want to applique, canvas, plain tea bags, Modge Podge or similar product, sponge paintbrush

Instructions:

The fabric covered canvases are fairly easy to figure out, so I won't bore you with the details.

The appliques are a little more complicated, so here it goes.

Step 1:  Boil some tea bags in a small pot of water.

Step 2:  After the tea has come to a boil, carefully pour into shallow pan or baking sheet. Place canvases face down, to die the tea.  When they reach the color you want, remove from the pan and allow to dry.

Step 3:  While the canvases are soaking/drying, pick out which flower(s) you want to feature and carefully cut them out.

Step 4:  Use Modge Podge to affix the cut out to the dry canvas.  Brush the paste over the back of the cut out.  Then place flower, glue-side down, and completely cover the canvas with a coat of paste so that the fabric doesn't unravel and there is a consistent look to the canvas.

Step 5:  Let paste dry...

...and Voila!