Sharing a few monogram canvases that I made to match bedding for a few clients and one of my own daughters.  A huge canvas over the bed gives the room a focal point and ties together the bedding.  Great for any bedroom or dorm room.

There are a few approaches that can be used depending on your artistic ability using a stencil or free hand.

For this abstract pattern on canvas I bought stencil paper at Joann’s.  It’s about the size of a piece of printer paper and you can trace the pattern from the bedding onto the sheet using a pencil then cut it out using an exacto knife.

Bam!  You have a customized stencil.

I painted the entire canvas white, created the circle in the center.

I tied yarn to a pin centered in the canvas and tied the other end to a pencil adjusting it until the circle was the desired size. Traced and painted on the stencil, chalked the monogram in then painted over it.

Here is another stencil option.  the client wanted anchors so I bought a ready made stencil.  I painted them with acrylic paint.

I let the anchors dry and wanted the overall background color to look like water. I watered down the same color of acrylic paint in a cup and bushed it on over the anchors.

Once finished I stepped back and decided I didn’t like the underwater anchors.

I decided I wanted the anchors to pop more so I ended up painting over the anchors using a white paint pen.

This is a floral pattern that I free handed without a stencil just going with the flow.  I held my breath the whole time!

Here’s a closer image of the bedding and the painting in progress. I painted the circle white but knew I would cover the outer area with paint so I painted over the natural canvas with pattern.

I used acrylics and paint pens for outlining to best match the bedding.  I used chalk to sketch in the monogram before painting in the lettering.

Here is a another one using a custom created a stencil.  I bought a sheet of vellum at Joann, traced the pattern from the bedding and cut it out using an exacto knife.

I painted the whole canvas white then created the circle for the monogram area.  I laid the stencil on the canvas and painted in the open areas of the stencil.

Pretty close match, right? It works over all.

In this last one the inspiration was from a pillow.  The scallops were made by tracing around a bowl.  The canvas frame on this one warped which was strange and disappointing.  I had no idea how to salvage the work so it went in the trash.  I’ve never had that happen before and hope it never does again.

I bought the 30×40 canvases at Joanns, Michaels and Hobby Lobby depending where I was at the time.  You can use any size but and be sure to use coupons.  I like Joann because they accept their own coupons and competitors plus military discount…depending how many items you buy.

Happy Painting!