Canvas Art for the Nursery

We recently found out that we were having a little girl and I am so excited to decorate her room.  I received a Silhouette Cameo as a gift and wanted to use it for some of the décor.  I started by painting a total of 3 11x16 canvases pink (of course!).  I just bought the inexpensive stapled canvases when they were on sale at Michael’s.

Through a lot of trial and error, I made two different stencils with the Silhouette.  The stencil in the lower right was made with the Stencil Vinyl from Silhouette.  I was able to cut and apply this to the canvas without much problem but the two downsides were that the vinyl is only 9 inches wide and you can only use the stencil once.  For the clear stencil in the upper left hand corner, I used a transparency sheet from OfficeMax.  (If you only want a few of these, purchase them at the copy counter.  I think they were 30 cents each.)  I simply used scotch tape to hold the stencil in place on the canvas.  The drawback to this method is that the small delicate slivers of the stencil stood up so the paint lines were not as defined.  The upside is that it can be used multiple times and you can create this type of stencil without a cutting machine.

I used white craft paint and a stiff bristle stencil brush and just pounced on the paint over the stencil.  The stems I painted in free hand.  After the paint was dry, I removed both stencils.  I was pleasantly surprised that the difference between the two was so slight.  The vinyl stencil would probably be better if you were painting something very defined but for a dandelion, the transparency worked like a charm.  Husband – do you realize that you are decorating our daughter’s room with weeds?  Me – yes, but they are so fluffy!

For the last canvas, each member of our little family made heart handprints on the canvas.

I found the best little Winnie the Pooh quote that I just had to use.  “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”  (sigh) I cannot say this out loud without choking up.

Using the Silhouette once more, I cut out the quote from vinyl.  If you are without a cutting machine, I would encourage you to contact Linda at Vinyl Heartstrings. She does excellent vinyl work!

Here are the finished canvases I plan on hanging above the crib.