Homemade Pet Portraits

Sponsored by Canon

Picture Purrfect

Almost everyone in the studio has a pet (or two or three!) at home, and we can’t help but gush about them while we are at work. As an ode to our favorite furry friends, we created this fun and simple DIY pet portrait project with Canon to make your pet memories last a lifetime. This framed art is great for displaying around your home, or as a thoughtful homemade gift idea that you can craft in an afternoon. This project works especially well with pet photos where you can easily trim away the background, so find one of your favorite shots from the past, or set up a photoshoot to take new frame-worthy pictures! 

Preparing to Print 

Once you have chosen the photo or photos that you would like to frame, you can choose the background that you want to showcase. The PDF download below includes a number of different backgrounds and designs that are great for adding a burst of color to your DIY pet portrait. These backgrounds are all 5 x 5, perfect for the PIXMA TS8020 printer we have in the office which prints directly onto 5 x 5 paper (you can also print on a larger sheet and cut out the design). We printed both the colored backgrounds and the pet photos onto Canon’s glossy photo paper. You also have the option of printing the background onto cardstock. If you want to get a good preview of what your photo will look like in a 5 x 5 size, we recommend bringing the photo into a photo editing software like Photoshop or cropping it square before printing off your phone or tablet.

Customizing Your Portrait 

Along with the portrait backgrounds, the set of downloads comes with printable speech bubbles that say hello, woof and meow. Print your word of choice and you are ready to put together your adorable homemade pet portrait. The main technique for these is layering for a 3D look. To recreate this, you will need a square frame and some adhesive foam. Trim the pet photo and the speech bubble, then attach them to the background with the adhesive pieces (link in Shop this Project). We used our go-to shadow box frames, the Ribba square frame from IKEA, which happens to fit perfectly with our 5 inch prints. Pop the finished print into the frame and voila! Your pet portrait is ready to display! 

Explore More

If you want to explore more DIY projects that you can make for your pets, browse our collection here. We would love to see how you are bringing your pet portraits to life, so please share your crafty photos with us! Use the tag #DIYDreamingWithLia and #CraftyWithCanon on Instagram so we can admire your lovely printables. Head over to our membership page to start downloading, or subscribe to our daily or weekly newsletter for inspiration delivered straight to your inbox. Cheers! ~ Lia & Team 

DIY Pet PortraitPet Portrait Project

TS8020 | Photo Paper | Square Frames | Adhesive Foam