Baby Shower Canvas Guest Book Tutorial

As promised, here is the Tutorial for how I made the Canvas Guest Book. The great part is, you can use this Tutorial for so many things! I have made several gifts now using this technique, and drawer knobs. So easy and the results are great.

Here are the steps:

1. A Blank Canvas. I used an 8x10 Canvas I ordered on Amazon for a few dollars.

2. A Spray Bottle. I used an old cleaning bottle and rinsed it out. Fill it with Water.

 3. The Magic Gel! Golden Gel Medium. I guess there are other brands, but this is all I found on Amazon. This Gel transfers the images for you onto paper, canvas, wood, and other surfaces. I guess Mod Podge works too from what I have been finding on other blogs, but I think this stuff works a little more consistently? Not sure. I will have to test it out. I am sure you can find this in the states at Michael's.

4. Foam Brushes. I got mine at the Craft Store on base for about 99 cents. You could just use a paint brush though.

5. Print the image you want to transfer. I use a Laser Printer.  I don't know if Ink Jet works but you could google to see.

We were having a Woodland Themed Baby Shower for a baby girl, so I wanted to do a tree. I looked for lots of images of trees online, and couldn't find anything free or perfect, until I came across the website wedding chicks. This link will take you directly to the app on their website that allows you to customize this tree with the date of the shower or wedding or event in general, and the name you want to add. Even the colors are customizable! So awesome! I love the Internet.

6.  I flipped the picture backwards in my "print options" knowing I was going to transfer the image onto canvas. If you don't have words on your image, you don't have to worry about this step.

7. I then smothered the paper in the Gel Medium. I made sure it was a good coat of gel so that the whole image would transfer. Then, I flipped it down on the canvas and rubbed it with some pressure with the back of a spoon. If you have a Brayer, use that. I waited a day for it to dry.

8. Once the Gel is dry, take your squirt bottle and soak the paper till it is completely wet and you see the image. I then rub all the paper off outside with my fingers. It makes a mess of little paper pieces. You have to keep rewetting the paper until you rub it all off. If you rub too hard, you will take the image off accidentally. Some people like to use a sponge for this part, but I feel like I have more control using my fingers.

9. Once all the paper is off, it should leave just the image you wanted to transfer, and now all you need to do is seal the image by either painting on another coat of gel medium all over the canvas, or use mod podge. I use mod podge because it is cheaper. However, if you are adding fingerprint stamps, wait to seal it until after the thumb prints are on there. You don't even have to really do this step with this project because I doubt the canvas will be touched much.

10. That's it! Here is how it turned out with the finger prints.