Easy DIY Halloween Canvas Art

It’s Octo­ber! How did that hap­pen?! The hol­i­day sea­son is fast approach­ing! And, now that our Sep­tem­ber Shower Baby Week is over, I’m eager to dive in to all things fall & Hal­loween! So, we’re kick­ing things off today with a super easy Hal­loween craft project using Mod Podge! Seri­ously, even those of you who say you’re not crafty can TOTALLY make this DIY Hal­loween can­vas art!I recently received a whole box of crafty Mod Podge good­ness in the mail! I LOVE how many dif­fer­ent Mod Podge vari­eties there are– some­thing per­fect for just about any project you’re work­ing on. Some of them are espe­cially great for Hal­loween, like the antique matte, glow-in-the-dark, and crackle vari­eties! There’s even a kids ver­sion (for easy wash out) that I’m excited to try with the boys! Of course, the biggest ques­tion when pre­sented with lots of crafty good­ness, is “what to make?” My mind has been swim­ming with all kinds of ideas, but find­ing time to exe­cute them lately has been chal­leng­ing (what with the new­born and all). So, I wanted to do some­thing easy, that wouldn’t take a lot of time and this project deliv­ered on both counts! Here’s what you’ll need to make your own DIY Hal­loween Can­vas Art:

• 8x8 can­vas
• 12x12 sheet of Hal­loween paper (I like the ones that look more like real pictures)
• paper cut­ter (or scissors)
• Antique Matte Mod Podge
• “BOO” let­ters (I used my Cri­cut to cut them out)
• Paint brush
• *Mod Podge Crackle Medium
• *Orange paint

*Note: The last two sup­plies are optional. I wanted to try the crackle effect, which is cool. But you would have a nice art print even if you skipped those extra steps!

First up, size the paper to just wrap around your can­vas. Then, apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the can­vas and apply the paper to the can­vas. Wrap the paper around the edges just as if you were wrap­ping a present. Next up, apply a thin coat of the Antique Matte Mod Podge over the paper to adhere the “Boo” let­ters (or another say­ing if you so choose)–make sure you also go over the let­ters as well. The Antique Matte helps gives the white let­ters (and the moon) a more vin­tage look! Let every­thing dry and at this point, you could be done. The whole process (minus dry­ing time took maybe 10–15 min­utes total). Super easy!

I decided to take it a lit­tle fur­ther though because I wanted to try the Crackle Medium. Because the print is so dark, it’s not quite so notice­able all over. But, on the moon, the lighted part behind the house, and the let­ters, it turned out pretty cool! Def­i­nitely adds to the vin­tage, spooky look! Once the can­vas seemed pretty dry, I painted over it with the crackle medium– fol­low­ing the direc­tions care­fully. Then, I left it to dry for an hour (as per the direc­tions). Once dry, I mixed some orange paint with a lit­tle water and cov­ered the can­vas with it. I left the paint mix­ture on just long enough that I thought it was soak­ing into the cracks, but not long enough to dry. Then, I wiped the whole thing off with a paper towel. The end result gives sub­tle detail, mak­ing the print seem some­how that much more “fin­ished”. Allow every­thing to dry and then decide where to put your cool new Hal­loween can­vas art print! We just started get­ting out the Hal­loween dec­o­ra­tions yes­ter­day (I just can’t bring myself to do it before Octo­ber) and I’m excited to have some­thing new that looks really cool! Until you get close up, it looks like a paint­ing! Pretty awe­some for maybe only about 20 min­utes of work (not includ­ing dry­ing time)! For more info on every­thing Mod Podge (and Plaid crafts) be sure to fol­low them on face­book, twit­ter, and Pin­ter­est. And if you’re look­ing for more crafty, Hal­loween projects, check out these awe­some ideas:

Dis­clo­sure: I wrote this post as part of a paid cam­paign with Plaid and Blue­print Social. How­ever, my opin­ions and project are entirely my own!