Painted Canvas Wall Art: Taped Kids’ Canvases and a Striped Vinyl Canvas

This painted canvas wall art is a matching set. Each child paints a canvas inside a taped frame, and when the tape comes off you get a clean white border one inch wide around a bright block of color. A grown-up’s canvas goes alongside it, with taped stripes in a soft yellow and an adhesive vinyl word or shape on top. Hung together over a desk or sewing table in a craft room, the canvases share one wall.

DecoArt Americana Acrylics, a water-based craft paint with a matte finish, is made for canvas among other surfaces. It dries to the touch in about 20 to 30 minutes and cures fully in about 5 to 7 days, depending on temperature and humidity.

Supplies

• Blank stretched canvases, one per child plus one for the striped design
• Acrylic craft paints in a few colors
• Foam brushes
• Blue painter’s tape
• A tape measure
• Adhesive vinyl cut into a word, monogram or shape (a cutting machine such as a Cricut works well, or use a ready-cut decal)
• Transfer tape for the vinyl

How to make the kids’ canvases

1. Run painter’s tape around the outer edge of the canvas front.
2. Measure one inch in from that tape and lay a second line of tape to make an inner rectangle. The one-inch space between the two lines of tape is the white border.
3. Press every strip down firmly, especially at the corners, so paint can’t creep underneath.
4. Let each child choose two paint colors, or more or fewer if you like, and paint the center with foam brushes. Paint can go right over the inner tape.
5. Once the paint is dry, peel the tape off slowly. Pulling it back low and at an angle helps keep the edge clean.

How to make the striped vinyl canvas

1. Use the tape measure to find the center of the canvas, then lay the first tape stripe through that point.
2. Place two strips of tape side by side for each line to get thick white stripes. Leave two inches between each pair, working outward from the center to both edges.
3. Paint the open spaces with your stripe color. Light colors such as yellow may need a second coat, since opacity varies from color to color.
4. When the paint is dry to the touch, peel off the tape.
5. Wait until the surface is fully dry, then put on the vinyl. Rub it down through the transfer tape, peel the transfer tape back at a sharp angle and smooth out any bubbles.

Kids can handle the brushes on their own. An adult should do any vinyl cutting with a craft knife. Keep small vinyl scraps away from children under three.

Variations

• Color-matched set: Pick the paint colors from the room before the kids choose. That way the free-form canvases and the striped one share a palette.
• Different border widths: The one-inch border suits medium canvases. On small canvases, a narrower border gives the child more space to paint.
• Thin stripes: One strip of tape per line instead of two gives finer white stripes. Keep the two-inch painted gaps or narrow them to suit the canvas.
• Vinyl on the kids’ canvases: Once the paint is dry, add a child’s initial or the year in vinyl in the border or the center.
• Handprints: Within the taped frame, younger children can press painted hands onto the canvas instead of brushing.

Acrylic craft paint of this kind is not approved for outdoor use, so keep the finished canvases indoors. Hang them after the paint has had its 5 to 7 days to cure if they will lean against a wall or each other.