How to Transfer Photographs to Canvas for a Vision Board

How to Transfer Photographs to Canvas for a Vision Board

Vision Board

While taking entrepreneurship classes at college, I learned about Vision Boards. They are highly motivating and they allow you to visualize your goals just as the name suggests.

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Pick Your Medium

For my medium, I have chosen tiny 6″ x 6″ by 1.5″ deep canvas that I will align on my wall to mimic an Instagram feed. I encourage you to get creative with your medium! Some suggestions and ideas include but are not limited to: collage on cork board or poster paper, a digital background on your computer with photos and empowering words, collection of items that you hang or put in shadow boxes, and the list goes on. You don’t have to stick with the traditional poster board and magazine picture cut outs. Your vision board is an outlet for you to spark your creativity and inspiration to chase your dreams.

Make a List of Your Goals

Making a list for your vision board should encompass all of your goals that you want to achieve in the future. Whether those goals are personal, financial, or materialistic find the best photos to represent them. I suggest getting on Pinterest and making a board to start gathering photographs together. The following is an example of what I have on my vision board. I chose the following nine goals because Instagram goes by three’s, however you can have as many items on your list as you like.

1. Super Yatch
2. Pool
3. Home Theater
4. Salt Water Aquarium
5. Mini Mansion
6. Fancy Car
7. Home Gym Room
8. Home Yoga Room
9. Travel Locations

Materials

This project cost me about $30 to make!

1. Lazer Printed Photographs on Regular Paper
2. Scissors
3. Small bowl of water
4. Kitchen Towel

Step 1: Prep the Photographs

You will want to cut the photographs to the size of the canvas or print them exactly to size. You will also need to print these photos with a lazer printer on regular printer paper (not photograph paper). I went to my local library to printer my photos out. If you want to have the exact image you will need to photoshop it to be flipped, especially if there are words on the image. In the example above you can see I have flipped the words “hustle, baby”.

Step 2: Apply Photo Transfer Medium to Blank Canvas

The first step is to apply the photo transfer medium evenly to the blank canvas covering the entire canvas surface. I would suggest adding double the amount shown. I felt that when I added more transfer Medium that the photo was less susceptible to getting holes.

Step 3: Add the Photo

To apply the photograph to the canvas, flip it up side down with the white side of the paper facing up and make sure that it is aligned correctly before pressing and smoothing it out on the canvas. You can smooth it out with your fingers but I suggest using something like a pen put on its side or credit card to help you smooth the photograph out.

Step 4: Let it Sit Overnight

You will need to let the canvas sit over night in order for the transfer to process. This will give it enough time to fully dry. I would even suggest letting it dry for two days.

Step 5: Apply Water and Gently Rub

Next you will want to take water and slightly dampen the canvas. This will allow you to gently rub off the excess printer paper. I suggest being very gentle when rubbing off the printer paper. You should slowly add more water as needed to rub the paper off. This process will take a while to do correctly and to not harm your photograph. To help remove the paper from the canvas, you can also use a wet cloth to help wipe away the remaining pieces.

Step 6: Finish with Mod Podge

This step is optional, but I finished my vision board canvases with mod podge to help protect the photo and make it easier to clean off dust later on. I also found that this step helped to prevent the dry paper from showing up on the photo if there were any very tiny pieces left. I fully removed any hanging pieces of paper and wet the picture while adding modge podge evenly over the photo.

Step 7: Ready to Hang

As I mentioned, I wanted my vision board to look like an Instagram feed. To achieve this look, I hung my pictures in rows of three by three columns. I positioned them about an inch and a half apart from each other all around. I hung mine next to my home office desk so that I can look at it whenever I feel burnt out and it picks me right back up!

Conclusion

This project was fun but there were some pro’s and con’s. One of the biggest problems I ran into was that I had to redo six of my photos! They developed too many holes from rubbing the paper off. If you do have to remove the lazer ink from the canvas, do the following. Apply baking soda and water together to make a paste and then let it sit on the ink. It will wipe and scratch away with ease. I was expecting it to transfer perfectly but it is still a cool project. I hope to find a better method in the future for transferring photos to canvas!

What do you have listed out for your vision board and what medium did you or would you use?! Leave your answers in the comments below!

Original article and pictures take www.kitstanwood.com site