DIY Canvas Project

DIY Canvas Project

As a photographer and graphic designer, it probably doesn’t surprise you that I’m a creative at heart. I love making things, whether it’s beautiful photos for my clients, gifts for my family, or projects for my home. When it comes to projects, I’m not always great at coming up with my own ideas from scratch, but I can look at something on Pinterest and think, “wouldn’t it be cool if I did it this way instead?” And then the ball is rolling and there’s nothing that can stop it. This canvas has words from the chorus of one of my favorite hymns.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It was written by Horatio Stafford in the late 1800s following some extremely tragic events in his life. He was ruined financially after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, and then lost all four of his daughters in a ship wreck. I can’t imagine going through even one of those things, but to go through both and trust God as sovereign and praise him through it all is amazing. I so admire this man’s faith, and pray that I would have as much. When I got some canvases at the #Durham scrap exchange a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted these words on one of them. I have two smaller canvases that will go horizontally next to this one on the wall once I decide what designs to do on those. They’ll have a similar color palate so they’ll go really well together.

I mixed the navy color from a lighter navy, red and black, and it was a couple weeks between when I painted the background and when I did the letters so I had to remix the paint. When I touched up some places where the white had gotten out of its lines, I noticed that my new navy wasn’t quite the same color as my old navy (no pun intended), so I’ll have to fix that before it goes up on the wall. I can’t wait to show you all three together!