The Walking Dead Canvas - DIY

My brothers girlfriend is a HUGE Walking Dead fan! ( but hey.. who isn't?!) 

She has been to multiple Comic Con shows in the past year or two. 

Her Birthday was yesterday, and I wanted to make her something special. I was playing on Facebook the other day, looking at picture after picture of her with all of the Walking Dead stars and BAH-BAM! I got an idea! 

I was a little skeptical because I have never actually tried this technique, however... I always tell myself "you;'ll never know if you don't try" 

So I got to printing the pictures! 

I printed each picture out on plain ol' computer paper - then I cut each picture out. When all the pictures were cut and trimmed to their perfect sizes, I took a 8x12 canvas from Hobby Lobby, and I coated it with Mod Podge. 

Before the Mod Podge started to dry I quickly and neatly placed each picture FACE DOWN on the canvas. (Face down means Color printed side down) ((like the picture in the top left corner below) I used a scrap of cardboard to get out as many air bubbles as I possibly could. 

I then let that canvas dry for over 24 hours. 

After a day, when I knew it was 100% dry, I got a water bottle and an old wash rag... I got part of the wash rag wet and began to very gently rub away the paper of the pictures. BE VERY CAREFUL! If you rub too much or too hard in one spot, the ink WILL come off the canvas! If you are careful, gentle, and take your time... the paper will rub right off the canvas and leave the ink on the canvas. This making any sense?! 

This technique makes the canvas and pictures look old and vintage (which I really really like!) 

After I was finished removing all of the paper... I put a thick coat of Mod Podge over the entire Canvas and all of the pictures! After that coat of Mod Podge dried... I got out my black acrylic paint and very sloppily painted a boarder around each picture. 

I wanted it to look somewhat messy because of the whole 'Walking Dead + Zombie' thing. They aren't exactly the cleanest, well put together creatures.  

I let the black boarders dry and then took red acrylic paint and painted the words "DON'T OPEN DEAD INSIDE" which if you are a Walking Dead fan, you should remember that from Season 1! 

I let the words dry and I put another coat of Mod Podge on, let it dry and then it was time to sign the back with a lovely Happy Birthday message and wrap it up!

 

I gave this to her yesterday when I saw her and she seemed to love it! My brothers thought it was great also and I was pretty proud of it! It was fun to make and I enjoyed learned and experimenting with a new ink transfer technique!

 It really wasn't that bad... 

go ahead! Give it a try!