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Stretch Your Own Canvas in 4 Easy StepsStretching canvas does more than stretch your budget�you can customize your canvas to practically any size or shape you choose! In a few easy-to-master steps, you can save money and exercise your creativity before you ever even put paint to canvas. Before you stretch your own, you should have ready-to-go stretcher bars in the size you want. If you haven't made your own stretcher bars before, check out this great tutorial from www.emptyeasel.com. You can also buy pre-made frames, if you're not anxious to use a saw. (But we have yet to meet an artist that doesn't like to play with toys...er, we mean, tools!) You need three main items before you start: a roll of unprimed canvas, a staple gun, and a pair of scissors. Make sure the canvas you have is unprimed�you'll prime it once it's stretched. (We'll talk about priming your canvas in our next ArtTips email, so stay tuned!)
Step One: Measure the canvas to fit your stretchers
Step Two: Staple the canvas to the frame
Step Three: Time to stretch! Follow the same steps for the short sides of the canvas frame: pull the canvas tight onto one side and staple in the center. Pull it tight on the opposite and staple. If you've done this correctly, your fingers will probably be a bit tired, and only the center of your canvas will be tight, so you need to tighten up the rest. Go back to your first staple and choose a spot about 2-3 inches to the right. Grab the canvas, pull it, and staple it as described above. Then, move to a spot about 2-3 inches to the left of your first staple, and do the same thing. You'll have three staples securing your canvas on the first edge of the frame. Do this again on the opposite side of the frame, and then on the short sides of the frame. Keep this pattern up by moving to each side of the canvas and placing a staple to the right and left of the others. Note: Once the staples get close to the corners on the short sides, stop and only staple the canvas on the longer sides until the last staples are all approximately the same distance from the corners. You're almost done!
Step Four: Now for the corners |
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