Stretching A Tight Canvas - with a video tutorial

dear crafty friends, 

i'm sorry that i haven't been around lately... life has been a little busy with work and organizing my home.  today i managed to do a quick transformation... I took a $2 picture of a butterfly and turned it into a place to keep and display my flower pins. it's amazing how doing something crafty is so re-energizing!

while i was doing the transformation i shot a video on how to stretch a canvas so tight and even that you can actually bounce a quarter off of it.  i can't bounce a quarter off of anything else, so why not a canvas?? ;o)

here's what i started with:

i loved the natural look of the wood!  i decided to keep it that way but had a difficult time deciding on the backdrop to use.

muslin?

 or burlap?

i decided on burlap because i liked the color and texture contrast.  i cut it bigger than the frame so that i'd have something to grab on to. at first i tried using my electric staple gun, but it was so powerful it started to break little bits of my frame.  so i went old school and grabbed my manual stapler.

when i was an art minor, we used to stretch our own canvases and this is how we did it to ensure that it was both tight and even.

- lay the canvas down on the backside of the frame

- put a staple in the midpoint of each of the sides

- start from the midpoint and work your way out pulling and stapling as you go (see video)

 

once you've worked your way all around your frame, trim the excess fabric/canvas. 

and here's the finished product!

thanks for checking out my tutorial... have a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend everyone!!!!

nori