The Busted Canvas (aka exploding canvas) has taken over the craft world lately, so I decided to give it a try! If you’ve heard about this nifty DIY craft and want to learn more about it, this post is here to take you through all deets.

I’ll be showing you how to make 3 busted canvases with a Christmas inspired theme today- The Grinch (enough said), A cowboy snowman, and Vintage Santa. And to make your life easier I made all 3 of them using a FREE download you can use too (below).

That being said, if you’re hoping on this trend outside of Christmas season, you can still use the steps below and apply it to any seasonal busted canvas craft you have in mind (like fall/halloween, summer, Easter, 4th of July, etc.). The steps will be the same, just your paper designs will be different.

Materials List

You can get all the items for this craft from the Dollarstore (like Dollartree), with the exception of an iron and hairdryer. But most people have irons and hairdryers at home so it shouldn’t be a a deal breaker. If you don’t iron anything like me, and you don’t own an iron, you can always ask a friend, a neighbour or your mom to borrow one!

All the materials you need might initially seem like a lot, but many of the items you’ll have at home already. After gathering the materials, and using the easy steps below, you can make one in about 1 hour – on that note it makes an excellent group craft night!

Here’s the complete list of what you’ll need:

8×10 stretched canvas
8×10 canvas board
Wrapping paper
Tissue paper
Mod Podge
Brush
Hot glue gun
Hair dryer
Parchment Paper
Iron
Scissors
Ribbon
3 FREE Christmas Designs printed on standard printer paper (below)
Optional details like a branch, acorns, pinecones, pom poms, ribbons, etc

Using Wrapping Paper and Tissue Paper

Who doesn’t have extra gift wrap and tissue paper lurking in their basement? If you’re like me and ALWAYS forget you have tissue paper when you’re prepping a bday gift, and you pick one up from the Dollarstore “just incase” -then you’ll be happy to know you can actually put your tissue paper to good use with this craft.

As a bonus, I’m going to show you a solid technique that’ll transform your tissue paper into 3D flaps of luxurious textured (faux) leather.

Tissue Paper Texture

Take regular tissue paper and cut it to size (the size of your canvas + 1 inch all around so that it covers front AND the sides of your canvas). Then scrunch it up into a ball – and enjoy the satisfying feeling! Un-scrunch the ball and put aside.

Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the front of your canvas and place the tissue paper down to glue it down. Use your fingers to smooth it down and over the sides of the canvas.

Apply a second layer of Mod Podge over the tissue paper (use light, gentle strokes and don’t over brush, otherwise the color might bleed). Place a second scrunched-then-unscrunched sheet of tissue paper over top and smooth out with fingers.

Apply a final “sealing” layer of Mod Podge over the the tissue paper, then let dry ( or dry with a hair dryer to speed up drying time). You should get something super cool and similar to below!

oh, and the fun thing with this technique is you can do it on the front and/or back of your busted canvas for nifty/unique combos!

In the pic below, I did this tissue paper method on the BACK of the canvas, instead of the front. And when I busted it then glued the flaps down, I found the flaps looked like luxe (faux) leather. What do you think?

3D Flap Techniques 2 Ways

If you’ve come across this craft before you’ve probably noticed the “curls” or flaps all look pretty similar. With each flap curled to form a rounded shaped with the ends neatly glued underneath and hidden. Which looks super cool, because the curls are big, bold and 3D!

But there’s another, possibly cooler technique (my personal fave). With this technique you’ll be “double curling” each flap and glueing the ends down so they show. I feel like this technique looks more “busted” compared to the OG one.

And you can have more fun with it by varying the directions of the flaps. I learned this technique from an awesome channel CraftingWithKandace, and it inspired me to try it out.

In the video tutorial below, I’ll show you the 2 different flap techniques in detail so you can choose which one you want to try.

Yield: 3

How To Make a Busted Canvas With Dollarstore Finds

Learn how to make your own 3D Busted Canvas with this easy step by step tutorial. You'll learn how to craft one from Dollarstore finds and use items you already have at home.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Active Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Materials

8x10 stretched canvas
8x10 canvas board
Wrapping paper
Tissue paper
Mod Podge
Brush
Hot glue gun
Hair dryer
Parchment Paper
Iron
Scissors
Ribbon
3 FREE Christmas Designs printed on standard printer paper (below)
Optional details like a branch, acorns, pinecones, pom poms, ribbons, etc

Instructions

Watch the video tutorial for detailed steps of each Busted Canvas (Snowman, Grinch, Santa)
Cut your printed design so it fits your 8x10 panel
Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the panel and dry it with a hairdryer.
Place the printed design down on the panel and align/center it so it fits neatly.
Put a piece of parchment paper over the design (to protect it from the heat) and use a iron to "transfer" the design onto the canvas. The heat form the iron basically melts the glue enough so that the printer paper bonds to the panel. The smoothing action of the iron ensures the design doesn't have any wrinkles. This method also takes less time, compared to letting the Mod Podge air dry which can take hours.
Take your stretched canvas and flip it over to the backside (the wooden frame should be facing up). Add a layer of Mod Podge on the back of the canvas. While Mod Podge is wet, place a pre-cut sheet of wrapping paper down on it. Smooth with fingers. Take a brush and gently apply a thin "sealer" coat of Mod Podge overtop the wrapping paper.
Flip the canvas right side up (wooden frame should be face down now). Use the Tissue Paper Texture Technique from above to glue on 2 sheets of tissue paper.
Let the Mod Podge dry to touch (or use a hair dryer to speed up drying time)
Once canvas is dry, find the center of your canvas and mark it. Take some scissors and start cutting your flaps (this is the busted canvas part!). I personally like to cross a cross shape "+" first, then an X shape. You'll have a total of 8 flaps, but feel free to add more. Also, I don't like cutting my lines straight. I like to cut them uneven a bit, I find this gives a more authentic busted canvas feel.
Place the canvas overtop the Grinch panel and make sure your flaps are not covering any part of the design below. At this step you can still adjust the flaps by cutting them longer. This is important before we start gluing everything.I found I wanted my flaps not to form a symetrical shape, so going with the uneven theme, I cut some flaps higher up.
Start gluing the flaps down using hot glue. I also use a pencil to hold the curl down while the glue dries a bit. Some people find the curls don't stick sometimes, so you might have to go over the stragglers with another layer of glue. You can also choose here which type of curl you want to make. Take a look at the section above to learn how to make 2 different styles.
Now it's time to glue the panel and canvas together. Add a thick layer of glue to the frame. Then flip over your canvas and place it right onto the panel to glue it into place. Since the lglue will be thick it'll take a few seconds for it to dry which makes it easier to get the canvas and panel aligned nicely.
Let's add a ribbon to the sides of the canvas for a polished and designer touch! this also hides any mis-aligned edges as a bonus!
Now it's time for the fund details. Gather some Christmas bits you have laying around (or just grab a branch and acorns from your yard) and start adding fun details to places on your canvas to dazzle it up a bit. For this grinch piece I added, a branch and glued green pom poms on it, a pine branch from my christmas decor, and a green ribbon that I turned into a bow. I also glued 2 candy canes in the shape of a heart for a warm touch.

FREE Printable Downloads

Below you’ll find the 3 printable designs I made for this busted canvas project :The Grinch, Santa and our cowboy snowman! I’ve also included the rustic burlap background and the “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” sheet music background.

Just right click on the design you want to work with then select “save” to save the image to your device. Then you can print it on any printer you have!

You’ll then want to cut the white edges off to fit onto your 8×10″ canvas board. But if you’re working with smaller canvas boards, it should work too. The design would just be more zoomed in.

Completed DIY Christmas Busted Canvases

Below are some pictures of the completed busted canvases that I made for Christmas this year. Let me know in the comments, which one is your favorite!