Ideas for Painting & Decoupage on a Canvas Board

Decoupage

• Decoupage is a very simple crafting technique, which allows you to glue graphic images such as illustrations from books and magazines, as well as photos, onto just about any surface you like, including canvas board. To start a decoupage craft, cut out your graphic elements. Spread some glue onto the canvas board and stick the cutouts on the board. Allow the glue to dry. Next, mix craft glue and water in a 1-to-1 ratio. Spread the mixture onto the canvas board decoupage picture using a sponge brush and allow it to dry. You can frame this as you would other types of cardboard works of art.

Canvas Board

• Canvas board is a piece of board onto which the texture of stretched and treated canvas has been added. It allows artists to try out new painting techniques or to create a large number of paintings without the expense of buying stretched canvas. It works with many types of paint, including oil and acrylic.

Combination

• Canvas board takes well to mixed media projects such as a painting and decoupage combination. This type of combination allows you to make some collage style works of art for your walls. To start a project such as this, paint the background of the piece. Use acrylic paints if you want the paint colors to dry faster, since oil paints take several days to several weeks to dry. Once the paint is dry, glue on images that you've cut out from newspapers or magazines and allow the glue to dry. Once you've added the graphic element, highlight some of the colors in the pictures with your paint. Add geometric designs to the canvas, letters or numbers -- anything that will give your painting/decoupage project more visual interest. Once this is dry, coat the top of the artwork with the decoupage glue mixture to seal the work.

Themes

• When you're creating artwork using paint or decoupage, it often helps the creative juices to flow if you choose a visual theme which you'd like to explore in a series of works on canvas board. For example, you might want to look at the evolution of cars, different types of flowers or leaves or work with family photos. Plan on making three or four different canvas board pictures exploring these themes, using both paint and decoupage. Add slightly different graphic elements on each canvas board art piece; however retain some visual commonalities so that the series will look like they belong together. Once your themed painting/decoupage panels are done, frame them and hang them up.