Design Fix: Quick DIY Artwork Idea

Okay...DIY--I'm referring to the 3 pieces of "art" to the right. The one on the left is a drawing I did going on 6 years ago back in college. It's one of my fav's that I finally decided to slap in a frame so it wouldn't be ruined!

DIY Idea: Stretched Fabric Art

This is a very quick & inexpensive* project. And little skill required - yea!

Materials:

Fabric

Assembled Stretcher Bars*

Heavy Duty Stapler & Staples*

*I had everything on hand except the stretcher bars, so my cost was about $10 total as I bought those on sale. Stretcher bars can be found in the art dept. of most craft supply stores-- Hobby Lobby, Pearl, Dick Blick. I've had my Stanley stapler for years for light upholstery--from the hardware section at Walmart.

I worked in a frame shop in a past life (prior to graduating) for a couple of years & I went to the Art Institute of Atlanta.  One of the things that I learned about was stretching canvas. Well, this is mucho easier. For those of you that are also familiar with stretching canvas...I actually recommend NOT using canvas pliers. They can easily rip thinner fabric & distort patterns easily.

For those of you not familiar with stretching canvas, follow this link for a good tutorial that will show you what to do. For our purposes, you can omit using the pliers and wood chips/keys (last step shown). Just keep the fabric pulled taught without distorting the design.

Quick hints:

•You could mount these into open-stock frames. Hobby Lobby has a decent selection, often at 50% off, & their frame shop will often assemble it for you while you wait gratis. If interested, stick with standard frame sizes when picking out fabric/stratcher bars (i.e. 11x14, 16x20, 18x24, etc). Otherwise, you'll have to do a custom frame & your price for this project just rocketed sky-high!

•Allow a good 4-ish inches of fabric beyond the stretcher size so that you can easily pull/wrap the fabric around to secure. It also allows you play room to adjust if the design starts to distort.

Fun with fabric & a stapler, hooray!

♥-Kat.

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