DIY Wall Art- Balloon Canvas

This little project happened on a whim. And it all started with the Father’s Day card I bought for LC. It had this cute little hot air balloon on it. I find myself purchasing card that have cute art that I might be able to use for something, and I am sure that was in the back of my mind when I chose this particular card. A few days after Father’s Day was over, I was looking at the card on the mantle and wondering how I might reuse the balloon. It would easily peel off of the actual card. And all of a sudden it came to me. I had this canvas lying around that I had not used yet, I had some burlap, and I had some yarn that I bought for another project (which I have yet to do). And I pictured it in my mind exactly. Wrap the canvas in burlap, glue the balloon to it, and add some of the yarn to mimic an actual balloon with a string on the end. So there it was, this picture in my mind. All I had to do was create it. You can make something like this too, although probably not exactly the same (unless you happened to purchase this same Fathers Day card that I purchased). Keep in mind next time you are purchasing a card, that you can use them for wall art. You might even just go shop in the cards even when you aren’t buying a particular card for someone.

I took several pictures during the process of creating this canvas, and somehow I have lost them. I can’t find them on my phone or my camera, and I think I may have inadvertently deleted them, or they are in some file somewhere on my computer, but I can’t seem to find them, so that is disappointing. But I will do my best to describe how I did everything, it really is fairly simple.

Supplies Needed:

Greeting Card

Yarn

Burlap

Hot glue gun

Canvas

plastic spoon

Scissors

How I made this:

This is so easy you guys! You simply hot glue the burlap to the canvas. The burlap I had on hand didn’t quite fit so that I could use just one to cover the canvas ( I believe it is an 11 x 14), so I used to pieces, and just left the raw edge in the middle. That might not appeal to everyone, but I am totally OK with it. If it does not appeal to you, you will need to purchase a piece of burlap that will fit your canvas. You will need to have about 2 inches or overlap on all four sides, so that the burlap can wrap around and be hot glued to the back of the canvas. I just spread my burlap out, and laid the canvas face down on top of it. Since I used to pieces, I did one piece at a time. While the canvas is lying face down, you will want to pull the burlap tight and hot glue it to the canvas. Since the burlap is thin, I used a plastic spoon to press down on the hot glued burlap so that I did not burn my fingers. I started by wrapping it around on the sides. Then I worked on each end.

This is the part where I wish I had my pictures, because they showed how to do the ends. What I did was kind of what you do when you wrap a gift. Except I used scissors to cut some of the excess fabric off so that it wasn’t all bulky. When you start to wrap it at the corners, you should see what I mean about the excess fabric. You will want to be careful at this part, so that you get a really neat look on all four corners. If you look closely at my pictures, you can’t really even see where I wrapped the corners. It is just one fold right above each corner. You will pull everything very taught and hot glue it all down.

After you are finished with that part, you can flip the canvas over so that you can see the front of it. I then just took hot glue and put it all around the edges of my balloon and placed it where I wanted it on the canvas. Next, I cut three pieces of yarn, and I did a practice of how I wanted each piece placed on the burlap. After I had them all situated, I lifted up each piece of yarn, one at a time, placed a thin strip of hot glue on the burlap, and placed the yarn on top of the hot glue. And I was done!

I decided to hang my new wall art on in the stairwell of our split level home, going down to the bottom floor. Here are some pictures I took of it hanging in it’s chosen spot.

Why yes, that is Tom Cruise. That is an autographed picture. I love him. If you know me at all, you already know this.

The print to the left was purchased from an Etsy shop. I bought it for LC for Valentine’s Day one year. It has some famous couples, and right in the center is us!

I love my little fish plates, and there used to be a third one. Unfortunately I hit it with my purse one day and it fell off the wall and shattered, right as I was heading down to the garage to walk out the door. That was fabulous, not! I picked up all of the pieces and placed them in a Walmart bag, so that I could possibly piece it back together, but haven’t tried that yet.

This is the view you see when you are standing in the entry looking down the stairs. Behind those closet doors is our laundry room. Better described as a laundry closet, because that is what it is! Oh how I wish I had a whole room for laundry instead of a closet!

This entryway/stairwell was one of my least favorite places in our home, and over the last three years, I have worked to make it inviting. Because it is everyone’s first impression of our home. And it is finally something I am proud for people to see when they enter our home. I think this DIY Balloon canvas adds a really sweet touch. What do you think? Have you ever made a piece of art from a greeting card? This is not the first time I have! Here are just a couple of other examples of what I have done with greeting cards in my upstairs hallway gallery wall.