Transfer an inkjet print to canvas

using tissue paper and mod podge

Difficulty:

Fiddly, but not difficult.

Time:

30 mins plus drying time.

You'll need:

A blank stretched canvas.

A piece of white tissue paper, bigger than the canvas.

A photo to print.

Mod Podge.

Instead of simply glueing a photo onto a canvas frame and losing the canvas texture, you can print your photo onto tissue paper and Mod Podge it onto the canvas, keeping the canvas texture. I first learned how to do this at Sarah's Projects.

1. Prepare the photo and the canvas.

I found printing on the matt side of the tissue paper worked best. Cut the paper slightly bigger than a normal piece of printer paper or card. Carefully fold each edge over and stick securely so that the tissue is pulled tight. The first time I tried it I only stuck the paper down at each end and my printer chewed the whole lot up.

I tried a few photos before I found one that worked. The colours tended to go very dark so you might need to experiment with your printer settings. I used 'matte photo paper' and 'fine' for my print quality settings. Make sure you don't have any other paper in your paper tray, and you might need to help the tissue paper catch to start off with by gently feeding it into the printer.

2. Stick the photo to the canvas.

Let the inkjet print dry then remove the printer paper and cut the tissue carefully to size. Mod Podge the canvas and then very carefully put the tissue print in place. Reasonably quickly and very, very gently, press the tissue in place from the centre outwards. The tissue tears very easily especially when it's wet. Stick the corners down and leave the canvas to dry.

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