I Love You Silhouette Canvas Art

I’m not a huge decorator when it comes to holiday’s other than Christmas.  I honestly don’t have the energy to keep putting up and taking down decorations all year-long, so I usually don’t.  But this year I wanted to do something for Valentine’s Day, but the catch was that I wanted something I could keep up all year-long without it looking too “theme-ish”.  So I made a simple Silhouette canvas art that was super lovey-dovey but not so much so that it can’t stay up year round!

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Instead of doing a simple silhouette canvas art project I decided to try something different.  I love the permanent vinyl when it comes to canvas projects, but I currently have a ton of heat transfer vinyl that I would like to use up.  And the colors I had in mind for this project were only available in htv.  So…heat transfer it was!  The only problem, I had no idea if you could use iron-on on a canvas.

Turns out, you can.  So, problem solved!

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All you need for your silhouette canvas art is:

• An 8×8 canvas
• Heat Transfer Vinyl
• Silhouette Machine
• Weeding Tools
• Silhouette file
• Iron
• Ironing Board
• Thin piece of cotton cloth (like a pillowcase)

First, download your file and cut it out onto your vinyl.  Remember that the shiny side of the vinyl goes facedown on your mat.

Always remember to mirror your image first when working with heat transfer!  

To do two different colors like I did, I deleted the pink while I cut the gold and vice versa.  Weed both pieces of vinyl until you are left with only the pieces that will go on your canvas.

Warm up your iron to the cotton setting and turn off the steam setting.

Place your first piece of vinyl on the canvas.  You should be able to read it now!

Cover the canvas with your cotton pillowcase (or whatever material you are using) and press down for 45-60 seconds.  Remember to press hard to get the vinyl to stick!  

If you peel up the transfer paper and the vinyl isn’t stuck to the canvas, continue pressing until it does stick.

Once all the vinyl is stuck to the canvas, you’re done!  See?  Wasn’t that easy?

The reason you can use heat transfer on a canvas is because it’s cotton.  Just like heat transfer will stick to a cotton shirt it will stick to a canvas.  So if you have a ton of heat transfer vinyl sitting around like I do, pull out those colors and get to crafting!

The nerdy and lovey-dovey side of me is pretty happy with how this silhouette canvas art turned out!  Chris and I downloaded an app to teach us different languages (he wants to learn German and I want to learn French), so that’s where the inspiration for this project comes from.  Chris thinks it is pretty hilarious that there’s a lesson called “how to flirt in a different language”…so I hear a lot of “ich liebe dich” around here.  I wouldn’t be surprised if those are our kids first words!

Do you decorate for Valentine’s Day?  Or do you just skip it because you’re still worn out from Christmas?

If you make this project yourself, use the hashtag #cwlovessilhouette on instagram so I can check them out!