Painting on canvas photo prints

Post date: 2021-07-22 10:48:30

My kids' tutor is leaving and I need a gift. I'd love to use the kids' handprints to make something nicer and more permanent than a plain old cardstock card. I've found a PDF template on Etsy that would look good as a background, and my thought is to get that PDF printed on canvas and then have the kids put their handprints on top with acrylic paint. Is that a good idea? Challenge level: would like to get it done this weekend.

Whatever we print needs to fit two of my 5-year-old's hands side by side, plus my 2-year-old's hand on top, plus the template image on the bottom (it takes up about half the page). But I also don't want the print to be huge. (I actually think art or otherwise decorative things are kind of hard to gift anyway — who knows how the recipient will feel about having it in their house. The bigger it is, the harder it is to display — if they even want to. But this is my best idea...)

Since it needs to fit those three handprints, I'm thinking about going something like 11" x 14". Maybe bigger so we'll be safe? The PDF template I'm eyeing on Etsy is 8" x 10". It's pretty simple line art, so it should blow up — I think? Any thoughts?

Walgreens canvas printing seems like the cheapest option — since it's not a photo, I don't think it needs to be super high quality. Plus it would be fast. But I'd still be out $50+ if I got it and then found out it wouldn't take acrylic paint. Do you know if those canvas photo prints have some kind of paint-proof finish?

If we don't do the canvas print of the Etsy template, it's possible I could personally paint something similar on a blank canvas and do the handprints on top, but I've tried that for grandparent gifts and they've turned out awful. I'm a really bad painter.

Is this a terrible idea in the first place? Do you have any better ideas for a personalized keepsake for a tutor? They've been hugely influential on my kids' development over 2+ years. That's like half their lives. And they've gotten to be especially close because of working conditions under lockdown. I'd really like to give the tutor something special to commemorate their impact and also remind them of the kids at this point in their lives. Paint handprints seem perfect, but I don't know.

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