Perhaps its just me, but I’ve been wondering if there is a new phenomenon going on. There seems to be more and more small art teaching studios popping up here and there. In London alone there were about 5 that came up on my search engine for painting and pottery. Pretty awesome! A friend asked me to do a painting class with her so I had my first experience doing a painting step by step. They had it broken down into easy stages. Starting with the background they guided us along to create the blend of colours and textures and also provided the stylized flower and bird icons. No matter what your experience or skill level was, everyone was able to follow along and create their own great stylized painting which was complete and ready for hanging in 1.5 hrs. (ok so we were rushing A LOT at the end but that’s probably because Jac and I just chatted too much…lol 😉

That’s where we get to this post. It was ready to hang but really un-hangable. Of course for $30 they would put your floppy canvas on a frame and stretch if for you but again, I didn’t want to shell out the money so I took mine home planning to try doing it myself. Most projects like this would then sit around for a month or two waiting for me to finish them but I kept it right on the kitchen table so it would annoy me enough to finish it up. It turned out great! Here’s how to do it.

Cut or buy strips of wood approx 1″x2″. Measure the with and height (mine was square so that was easy) and cut the corners on a 45 degree angle. Remember that the length of your wood needs to be measured from the long tip on your angle cut. Make your frame small enough for your canvas to wrap around the frame to the back.

When the cutting is done, glue the corners and secure with a couple of nails. Give it a night to dry and wrap and staple the canvas on the next day. The corners can be folded to give it a nice straight edge, cut off the excess canvas and you’re almost there!

No matter how hard your pull during the stapling you probably won’t be able to get all the wrinkles out, don’t fear. According to my online research a spray or two with warm water was supposed to tighten it up and voila, it did! I was very relieved.

It’s hanging now in my girls room, and my $30 is still in my pocket. Yes! So go ahead and do that class you’ve been thinking of 🙂