~vintage oil painting diy w/o lifting a brush~

If you love the look of vintage oil paintings but don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars, I am going to show you how to make them for around $5.00.

You will need to pick up canvas' in the size you are after. They can be no bigger than 8x10 for this particular project though.

Any canvas will work, stretched canvas or flat.

I will show you how to do both.

You will need card stock and white tissue paper.

Trace a piece of regular sized card stock onto the tissue paper and cut out.

You can cut out about 20 sheets at a time and they don't need to be perfect.

You will be running the tissue paper through your printer.

The reason you need the card stock is because the tissue paper alone will not feed through the printer.

Using scotch tape, tape the tissue onto the card stock around the edges, just enough so it won't get caught up while printing.

You need to find a vintage image you like.

Most oil portraits are vintage, but double check that they are, because then there won't be a copyright on them.

Copy the image to a word document and adjust it to the size of your canvas.

Place your paper in your printer, tissue side down and print the image.

It may be a little wet for a few minutes, so give it a chance to dry before proceeding.

Once dry, using a paper cutter or scissors, trim off the excess papers.

You will be left with just your tissue paper thin sheet with the image printed on.

Cover your canvas with a thin coat of matte modge podge.

Working very carefully and with dry hands, place your tissue paper on and smooth out any bubbles.

If the tissue tears or creases, that is ok, as it just adds to the vintage look you are after.

Once on, go over the top of the whole piece to seal it in and then let dry.

This is why you are using matte modge podge, not glossy.

When completely dry you can add a stain or dark wax to the edges, even smudging it on the top of the "painting" if you wish.

You can hang them as is, or frame them and hang!

I made 2 wood frames for a couple of mine and left the other two unframed.

Here are the two that are not framed.

I love how they turned out and I can't wait to make more!

You can also do this with family photos if you prefer more personal art pieces.

And in case you want to make the same ones I did,

{minus the handsome fellow, can't seem to find him anymore}

You can right click on any image below and add it to a word document and print out.

I found these by googling

"vintage oil paintings and portraits"

If you make them be sure to email me or tag me on instagram, I'd love to see!

xoxo