Photo Transfer to Canvas: Take 2

I chose to do another photo transfer project! Again, I used a photo that I had taken. This one happens to also be from Grand Turk on the same beach as the last photo transfer. Here it goes:

First, here are some pictures of the products that I used:

 This is a fine grain sandpaper sponge to sand the sides of the canvas after it was painted to give it a rustic/vintage look.

 These are the two colors I used to paint the sides of the canvas prior to transferring the photo. Sold at Michaels.

This is gloss mod podge - waterbase sealer, glue and finish

First, this is the photo that I used for the transfer:

Before anything, I painted the sides of the canvas before transferring the photo (this I did not do the first time). I painted it a light turquoise - let it dry. Then I painted it with the vanilla paint - let it dry. (Sanding the ends is one of the last steps so I wouldn't do that yet):

After the sides were dry, I spread mod podge on the photo with a sponge brush - printed side up (Remember because you are putting the photo on canvas printed side down, the photo will come out opposite - In my case that didn't matter to me):

I then flipped the photo around right onto the canvas and smoothed the photo out with my fingers - Let dry 2-3 hours or let it sit overnight (Make sure you get all the air bubbles out or that part of the photo will not transfer onto the canvas):

After spraying the paper with water out of a spray bottle (make sure the WHOLE paper is wet and let it soak for a minute) - Then start rubbing the paper with your fingers and the paper will start to come off - Don't rub too hard or the photo will rub off. The picture below is after all the paper is rubbed off. I like how the ends came out imperfectly because it fits the vintage look I am going for:

Now you can go ahead and sand the ends down - because I painted in layers (first turquoise then vanilla) the turquoise will start to come through and give the photo a rustic look like it is aged - you can do this with any two colors you'd like:

Now, put a final coat of mod podge on top to seal the whole look - in the photo below the mod podge is not yet dry so there is a white film over it but it will dry clear:

The final product is below (Flash was on so in person the colors are a little darker). I think painting the ends first before applying the photo transfer like I did this time works best:

Just for the heck of it here is a final product picture of another photo transfer I had done but with a rust and vanilla color combo for the ends. I really like the sanded look that came from those two colors - and this photo was taken by me at a fort in San Juan:

I hope you like these and encourage you all to try this yourself - it's so fun to do!! A cool idea is to stencil quotes over the final product which I will try on my next one. 

Xo,