Ever wondered how to make a reverse canvas with Cricut Maker or Explore? This post will show how easy it is to create a beautiful and trendy piece for your home.
If you want to make your own, keep reading for full details on the supplies and process!
Make a Reverse Canvas with Cricut Maker or Explore:
Getting Started
Supplies:
- an art canvas (mine was 8×10)
- paint or stain for the frame
- iron on vinyl (I used the red iron on foil from Cricut and I was swooning!)
- EasyPress or iron
- staple remover, pliers, or something to put the staples out of the canvas
- stapler (one from a hardware store, not an office store) or strong adhesive like E6000
The first step is to pull the nails out of the back of your canvas. This was not easy for me, but I couldn’t find a staple remover so I used my Cricut tweezers combined with pliers. I may have stabbed myself. You know the rule “Use the right tool for the job?” Yeh, I’ve never heard it either.
After removing the staples and turning the frame over, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my frame had some detail to it and wasn’t just a flat piece of wood like I expected. (I have no idea what the technical term is!) I used a single coat of grey chalk paint to the unfinished wood, so that a bit of the grain still peeked through.
Cut the canvas down to fit just the back of the frame, and move on to the Design Space portion.
If you would like to create your design exactly like mine, you can view it on Design Space, hit make it, and be on your way. But if you would like to create a custom design in the same style, I’ll show you how to do that as well.
Make a Reverse Canvas with Cricut Maker or Explore:
Cutting Your Design
The first thing to do is add the text and image to your Design Space canvas. I used a map of Canada and typed a line from the Canadian National Anthem using the font Chloe. I rotated some of the words to fit the angles of the map, and added a little maple leaf in the empty space.
Once I was happy with the placement of my text and maple leaf, I welded all of those layers together. (To do that, just highlight the layers you want to use, and hit weld.)
TIP: If you want to highlight all layers except one, a quick way to do that is hide the layer you dont want to select (using the eye icon in the layers panel next to the layer name), then select all (CTRL+A) and weld. Then make the hidden layer visible again by clicking the same eye icon.
Now I had two layers, but I wanted my text to be cut out of the map image. To do this, I highlighted both layers and used the slice tool. After slicing both layers together, I had four layers in my layers panel. I got rid of the layers I didn’t want, and was left with the image I was after.
TIP: If you aren’t sure which layers you need to delete after the slice, try hiding them (using that eye icon again) until you are left with the image you want. Once you have that, delete any hidden layers.
Now all that’s left to do is cut it out, and the Cricut will do the work for that step!
Make a Reverse Canvas with Cricut Maker or Explore:
Assembling the Project
Heat your EasyPress to 295, place your weeded design on your canvas, and press for 30 seconds. If you are using foil, make sure you wait until it is completely cooled down before peeling the liner, because if you don’t, the foil will stretch and your design will be wrinkled (which also looks cool in some cases, but I really wanted a smooth finish for this one).
Attach the canvas to the frame using staples or a strong adhesive like E6000 or even hot glue.
And that’s all there is to it! I get this reverse canvas trend now. It really is a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to personalize your home. (This canvas came from the dollar store even!)
If you make your own, be sure to show it off – you can tag me on instagram @simplycraftedlife or share it in our Create with Cricut group on facebook!
And if you are looking for more Canadian themed posts, check out these Handprint Shirts (so much fun to create with kids) and my Patriotic Cheesecake Parfaits (the perfect Canada Day party treat)!
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