How to DIY Your Pottery Barn-Inspired Santa Canvas – Step 3: Transferring the Image

Welcome back to the journey of creating your Pottery Barn-style Santa canvas! By now, you should have your canvas prepped, your Santa image printed, and your materials ready. Let’s dive into step 3: transferring the Santa design onto your canvas.

@essentialpath77 #CapCut We are finally at STEP 3!! 🙌 Lets get our Santa image transferred on to the canvas! #glittersanta #santadiy #christiantiktok #christmasdiy #christmasdiydecor #diyholidaydecor #holidaydecor ♬ original sound – Alicia Nicole

What You’ll Need

• Prepped canvas
• Printed Santa image (trimmed to match your canvas size)
• Scotch tape or masking tape
• Graphite paper (enough for your canvas size)
• Colored pencil (or regular pencil)

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Trim Your Santa Image

• If your printed image has excess white space, trim it down so it matches the size of your canvas.

2. Secure the Image to the Canvas

• Center the Santa image on your canvas.
• Use tape to secure one side of the print to the canvas.
• Ensure the print can be flipped up and down while staying aligned.

3. Position the Graphite Paper

• Slide a sheet of graphite paper underneath your Santa image.
• Shiny side down: This is the side that transfers onto the canvas.
• Align the paper carefully so it covers the area you’re about to trace.

4. Start Tracing the Image

• Use a colored pencil to trace over the dark areas of the Santa image.
• The color helps you see which areas you’ve already traced.
• Focus on transferring the main outlines and shaded areas.
• As you trace, check periodically to ensure the image is transferring correctly onto the canvas.

5. Move the Graphite Paper as Needed

• Once you’ve finished one section, slide the graphite paper to the next area.
• Reuse unused portions of the paper to maximize its use.
• Replace the graphite paper if it stops transferring effectively.

6. Add Details for Clarity

• For intricate areas, like the pompom or hat, fill in the shapes lightly as you trace.
• This will make it easier to apply glitter and glue in the next step.

7. Check Your Progress

• Once you’ve traced the entire design, lift the print to review the transfer on the canvas.
• Touch up any missed spots by repositioning the graphite paper and tracing again.

Pro Tips

• Don’t worry about cut-off edges. If parts of the Santa image (like the pompom or sleeve) extend beyond the canvas, that’s intentional! The original design is meant to look cropped.
• Secure your materials. Keeping the print aligned ensures a clean, centered transfer.
• Save your graphite paper. If parts are still usable, save them for future DIYs!

Next Steps

Congratulations! You’ve transferred your Santa image. Give yourself a pat on the back—you’re one step closer to your glittery masterpiece.

Take a break if needed, and when you’re ready, head to the next tutorial for Step 4: Adding Glue and Glitter.

Don’t forget to like, share, and favorite this guide to spread the DIY joy with other Santa canvas makers. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments—I’ll be happy to help.

Happy crafting! 🎨✨

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alright Pottery Barne Santa people

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we are at step 3! FINALLY!

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by this point you should have your canvas painted and prepped

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you should have downloaded your image and have that printed

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if you are working with the big size

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you’re going to have a big print

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if you’re following along

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you saw the last video where I talked about the blueprint printing

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this is it as you can see

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I’ve got some extra up here on the top that needs to be cut off

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if you do too go ahead and do that

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we only need the Santa image to be the same exact size as our canvas

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so if you haven’t already trimmed off the excess of yours

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go ahead and pause the video right now and go get that done

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I’m gonna do the same so grab your canvas

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some scotch tape or masking tape

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and a colored pencil of some sort

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we’ve got our canvas and we have our print laying on top

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you need to get this centered and fit over your canvas

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you’re gonna take your tape

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and you’re going to put pieces to secure one end of your print to the canvas

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we need to be able to flip this up and down

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whatever side you go with

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it does not matter but you need one side secured

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go ahead and pause and we will both do that

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you’ve got one side secured

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so do I we’ll be able to lift things

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up and move around as we use our graphite paper

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so go grab your graphite paper and your colored pencil

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let’s move on the reason I like to use a colored pencil

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is that once you’ve gone over an area of tracing

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you can see what you have already done

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do you have to use a colored pencil

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no you can use a regular pencil

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for me this is easier

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okay I wanna get up close for this one

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this is a sheet of the graphite paper

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you can see how thin it is

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how flimsy it is

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you can see that there is a kind of shiny side and then more of a matte side to

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to it when you’re doing this

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there is a correct side that needs to be laid on the canvas

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versus the side that faces up

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does that make sense it’s not a big deal

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I’ve done it a ton of times

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but I’ve traced over an area and not have the right side down

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and then where I’ve traced didn’t transfer over

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so let me show you what side that is

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okay so what we’re gonna do

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we’re going to put the shiny side facing down

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the shiny side down on the canvas

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and you are going to put this underneath your paper

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you can actually see the outline of it through the white paper

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going to simply take your color pencil

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and you are going to outline

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this Santa everywhere that it’s dark is where glitter will go

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and you just start this outline process

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there’s not any specific order in which it needs to be done

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this will now transfer this image onto your canvas

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I am usually able to use these sheets in about two

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maybe three sections then you’ll need to get another one

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there are plenty of sheets in this package

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for you to get through your entire canvas

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and you’ll still have some leftover

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you just need to monitor

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is it still transferring if it’s kind of stopping to transfer

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then get a new sheet so let’s finish this out

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when you get to the areas like this that are on the Santa cap

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we’re down here where the pom pom ball is

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I find it helpful to sometimes go ahead and color this in

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as I’m doing the tracing

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and it just kind of makes those lines a little more clear

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so that when you’re doing the glue and glitter step

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which is next

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you know exactly where it’s gonna go

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I know that some of you may have questions about the cut off pom pom

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and the cut off sleeve it is supposed to be that way

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it is supposed to be cut off

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the original was cut off the image was cut off

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he is supposed to fill the whole width with just a smidge on the edges

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cut off that’s normal

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so don’t stress out about it

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do you see how this is transferred

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we’ve got part of the pom pom coming

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we’ve got part of the edge of this Santa hat coming

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never mind this this was my seven year old

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and I will paint over it I don’t know how well you can see this

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but you can see where I have used the graphite paper

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sometimes you may want if you wanna not use as many sheets

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you can turn it use some areas that are not used

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and go ahead and keep tracing

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I would prefer if it were my own self to go ahead and get a new paper

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I might use this one more little section and then I’ll get a new sheet

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see this is matte and shiny now shiny

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so shiny side goes down on the campus

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okay guys

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that is really it for step three

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you are going to take that graphite paper

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you were going to move it around in sections and stages underneath the print

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and get that print image transferred onto the canvas

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I’m gonna give everyone a little bit of time to get this completed

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I know all of our schedules are different

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all of our responsibilities are different

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so I want to allow enough time for people to get caught up

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and get to this next step

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but again these videos are not going anywhere

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they’re under the playlist

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they will stay in the playlist

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but what I will ask you to do is go ahead and hit that like share

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favorite button so that this gets pushed out to the FYP

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and to as many of our fellow Santa makers as we possibly can get to

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as always if you have any questions

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please leave them in the comments

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I will get to them as soon as I possibly can

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and I will see you for the next step in a couple of days