Triple Layer Cut Canvas

A short while back, I showed you my new found love project - cut canvas.  Well now I love them even more.  After that post, my sister and I were talking about them, and she mentioned she'd love some for a wall in her house. I started telling her about some variation ideas I had for them and she was all for it.  Her birthday was right around the corner so I thought, perfect! So, with the good feedback, I set off and tried a little experiment in layering.  Let me show you first before I ramble on about 'em.  Warning: I made a huge mistake in not taking progress pics (again!) - but luckily my mom is a photography queen and finding pics from the birthday party was a piece of cake.  (Ha! Get it? Cake?! So cheesy.)  First up, is the finished product in it's handmade frame on a dark grey wall:

 Next against a lighter wall:

 Here is my one good progress picture, I kind of like the all white on red thing going here:

 I love how this project came out and plan to do so many more! My thumbs on the other hand, are begging me not to! I'm not going to lie, the results are worth it, but using an exacto knife for this many cuts, three times... is really a workout on the digits.  You have to push a big harder too to get through the canvas. It was SO worth it though. Here's the canvas at the party, look at my beautiful gift wrapping behind it.  Yep - plastic trash bag, what choice did I have? It was raining!

 Now the hard part will be deciding which wall to put it on in their house.  Here it is on her beautiful blue wall ( I LOVE that color, don't you?)

 and on the darker green wall:

Which wall do you think is best? Cast your vote in the comments section!  I'm so happy she liked it, and that it turned out like it did in my head.  I'm glad I got to try out the idea! I have a few plans & changes for the next one, I learned a lot this round.

If you are planning on trying your hand at this, let me pass along a few tips and tricks that I figured out:

• Draw and plan out your design on the backside.  This will help keep things lined up in the finished product.  Since you won't have all 3 stacked as you work, it takes a lot of planning to make sure everything lines up.  
• Stack & hold up to the light.  I can't tell you how many times I stacked them up between cuts and held them up to a bright bulb.  This let me see where things were actually lining up.
• Paint the back of your canvas in mod podge to help keep it stiff during cutting and in the long run.
• Hairspray? I didn't use it, but I wondered if it might also help it stay stiff?
• No islands or peninsulas! When you're cutting, be sure your design doesn't leave any "islands" - because obviously there is nothing left to hold them up.  Peninsulas would be long hanging strands, or peninsulas, of canvas that aren't connected to another side.  These are risky because they will likely curl as it gets older.
• Book press after painting. 
• Stretch your thumbs!

I'll do a whole tutorial on these soon, because I just realized that the above list could go on and on! So I promise I'll do a tutorial!

So what do you think? Have a great week!

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