Making a Canvas Rug

I made this canvas rug last winter and had every intention of writing a post that outlined all of the steps. However, the winter light and scale of the project, as I worked on it in a corner of my family room, were not always conducive to taking good photos. Plus, there are several good online tutorials on making canvas rugs. This is not a project that I would suggest making with children, but I wanted to share it here anyway.

 

If you decide to google directions for making a canvas rug, let me just warn you that it is not as "easy" or "inexpensive" as some of the websites suggest. I first read about canvas rugs from Martha Stewart years ago. Hers is designed using stencils, my designs are created with stamps that I made. I'll outline the stamps later. I happened to have the length of canvas that I needed, given to me by a friend, but the canvas itelf is not inexpensive. You will also need gesso, acrylic paint, varnish and a board to adhere your canvas to while you work. And just remember that, because of the size of the project, you will need these items in fairly large quantities. Now just let me say, that I do love my rug. After several months of use, it looks like new and cleans up easily. It gets a lot of traffic since I have it right in front of my kitchen sink.

I created the printing plates (stamps) from craft foam and the textured material that is placed under area rugs to keep them from sliding. The rug lining material is what give the leaves their texture. I had two different patterns of this material. Both are very easy to cut. The first step was to design my flower shapes and cut out the patterns in newspaper to see how it would fit onto the rug. I glued the designs to sheets of plexiglass. I designed a seperate stamp for each color. I used the plexi so that I could see exactly where I was placing the designs. Using a rubber brayer, I inked the stamps with printing ink.