I love it when I Pin something, then do that something, and then love that something. Case in point. I came across Design Editor’s blog post on free vintage camera printables and I was all ready, set, pin to my Printables Pinterest board. You can follow my Printables board here.

Her eye for classic photos did not fail her when she captured her own vintage cameras and then framed them. She’s so awesome for letting me and you download her camera images! You can download those here. And just like Catherine I uploaded my camera image to the Staples website and ordered a 24″ x 36″ “Engineer Print”. I’ve been wanting to try out this Engineer Print project for sometime and now I finally had the right image! Yay!

If you haven’t run across this idea yet, I’ll give you a quick run down.

1. Go to this page on Staples website.

2. Select the size and quantity. You can choose 18″ x 24″ or 24″ x 36″ or 36″ x 48″.

Prices are $1.79/$3.59/$7.29

3. Upload your image.

4. Pick up in store or have it delivered.

So simple and cheap! I chose the 24″ x 36″ before I knew I had a frame for it. The impulsive crafter strikes again. Make sure you know how you’re going to hang this/use this engineer print before buying. I ended up looking all over for a frame this size without much luck when I realized this is what they call the “poster” size. And off the shelf frames were going to be those cheap-y poster frames without real glass and small plastic frames. Uh no thank you. Then I thought well, I’ll just make my own frame with wood scraps. Then again that sounded like more work than I wanted to do and more money.

As I was starring off into space thinking of what to do, my eyes landed on this…

I found this printed canvas piece at Goodwill for $5 a long time ago. You can probably see from the photo that the piece was pretty beat up and had big dimples in the canvas. I always knew I wanted to recover it somehow but thought it would be a good purchase for the frame. Would you believe that beach canvas was the exact same size as my engineer print? I lucked out once again.

So with a little spray paint primer my beach scene was no more and I had a clean white canvas once again. I then used some spray adhesive and laid my picture on top. I pressed out all the creases and bubbles for a good 20 minutes.

I still need to seal it with mod podge especially around the edges where it is lifting a little. After I seal it I plan to resin it to get a high gloss effect. I’ll be posting that tutorial later on.

Once the adhesive was dry I painted the edge of my canvas black with acrylic craft paint.  What do you think? Has anyone ordered an engineering print before? Anyone use resin on canvas?

 

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26 Responses

    • ccleahy

      Thanks Lauren for stopping by! I’m so glad you like it! I linked up, thanks for the invite!

      Reply
  5. Emily Maldonado

    Absolutely love this. Thanks for the link to the printable. I just purchased chalk board printables and had them enlarged at office max. I wish I would have found this free one before spending $$

    Reply
    • ccleahy

      I’ve been hunting for some free chalkboard printables….I did find one for a menu board which is really cute (you can find it on my Pinterest Printables Board) but I’m always wanting more!

      Reply
  6. kadeewillow

    No, I haven’t but I will now! I had no idea it was that simple to upload a photo to Staples website and then order it in different sizes! Glad you found the right size canvas to adhere your print to! I agree… those poster frames are the worse!!

    Reply
  7. Elizabeth Mateer

    Absolutely love this tutorial, I have done the Staples engineer print before, but I just did a “dummy” picture to see how it came out, this is the perfect photo for me to use now!

    Reply
  8. Christina PennyWiseblog

    This looks amazing! I am now frantically trying to come up with an image to try this with! Thanks so much for sharing – am following you on pinterest!
    Cheers!

    Reply
    • ccleahy

      Thanks Christina! I have a feeling this won’t be my last big print art 😉

      Reply
  9. Deborah Smith

    Wow, that is cheap art indeed! I love this idea. Thank you for sharing it at to What We Accomplished Wednesdays. Have a lovely week!

    Hugs,

    Deborah

    Reply
  10. Barbara @DIY Home Staging Tips

    This is SO interesting. I had no idea these oversized prints are so reasonably priced! I have a million ideas of what to turn into “big art.” Hmmmm…How to choose? Thanks for this post. I’m pinning it.

    Reply
  12. Kim Ivey Purvis

    Hi Christine! I am glad you liked my wreath! Stopping by to let you know I am featuring this amazing pic you made!!! Love it ! Wanta trade? lol!

    Reply
  14. Funky Junk Interiors

    LOVE the new print! What a fantastic idea to use an old canvas… loving the black edge detail as well!

    Reply

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