Cardboard Canvas Guide

Cardboard canvases are low-cost and versatile, suitable for a range of creative mediums. Find out everything you need to know to create with cardboard canvas, as well as why you should stock them. 

What is cardboard canvas and what are its advantages?

For hundreds of years, canvases have typically been made from fabric stretched over wood panels or bars. This traditional stretched canvas has been challenged recently, with many now making them out of different materials, such as cardboard, which is considerably more environmentally-friendly than chopping down trees.

Surprisingly, some of the biggest advantages of cardboard vs wood are the cardboard’s superior strength and the tension that can be achieved with the canvas medium – if using the correct material and method.  

Another main advantage is the premium quality corners that cardboard canvas produces, where it enables you to ‘tuck’ the medium inside the corners, whereas with a traditional wooden canvas, it is folded exterior to the frame, which makes it very challenging to get a neat corner (similar to a gift wrap corner). Therefore, cardboard is often significantly neater than the wood alternative. 

In addition to this, cardboard is a lightweight material that can be used to display stunning photographs in gallery format or painted to make your own beautiful art project. So if you’re wondering, “Is cardboard a good canvas?” the answer is yes, it is versatile, neat and affordable.

How to make a cardboard canvas from cardboard?

Some art and craft hobbyists have had good results in creating DIY canvas frames without wood, from hand-cut pieces of cardboard. They’ve created amazing cardboard art projects from just a few simple materials and tools.

However, if you are looking for more high-volume options, where time and consistency are important, there is the Adventa Quickpro system. We’ve designed these art boards to be constructed in just a few simple steps, so they can be created in small or bulk quantities.  

For canvas making, there are two designs with the Quickpro system: for smaller production i.e. for copy shops and small printers, the version that only requires a manual stapler is best to use.  Truly the ultimate DIY canvas board!

The Auto Stapler is for higher volumes of +100 per day to speed up production.  See the auto stapler in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Li6Z7k6xo However, the new version has an integral corner cutter which makes it even faster.   

In our experience, it is much easier to produce a professional premium result in cardboard than wood! It’s faster, neater, and more affordable, and the warped cardboard panels are lightweight and easily stored. What could be better?

What mediums can I use on cardboard canvas?

One of the big advantages of cardboard canvas is that you can use many different mediums if stapled correctly.  

The two main types of canvas are cotton and polyester.  Both are ideal for the cardboard canvas, but polyester is the most common and will give very good results when printed with the popular entry-level aqueous inkjet wide format printer. 

Also, papers work well, including embossed, satin and glossy paper. Normally, it is best to avoid laser printing as the toner print can crack on the edges.  We find inkjet best.  

Some companies have produced them by printing directly onto cardboard to create a printed cardboard ‘box’. However, this is difficult to market as a ‘canvas’ because it has no genuine canvas attached. 

What kind of paint can I use?

If you are creating classic cotton canvas panels, a wide range of painting techniques and types can be used on the finished canvas. Acrylic paint, oil paint, acrylic gesso, spray paint and more can be used. If you’re looking for the best paint for your cardboard canvas, however, we recommend acrylic paints in thin layers.

How to hang a cardboard photo canvas

Similar to traditional stretched canvases, cardboard canvases can also be hung up using conventional nail or screw wall fixing.  A feature that some companies like about cardboard canvas are they are so safe to hang in young children’s rooms as, if it does come off the wall, it is very unlikely to cause any damage due to its lightweight nature.

The Adventa Quickpro Cardboard canvas makes mounting easy, as it has holes for both portrait and landscape formats. This is a great feature as you don’t need to stop and think about what orientation to make your cardboard canvas!

Thanks to being lightweight, you can also use specialist removable adhesives. Examples include 3M Command and also the proven option from Adventa. Adventa have the unique StickY-Hook, which pushes into the back integral hole and you can wall mount your canvas easily and relocate whenever you like!  Simply visualise it in real-time before settling on its final position!

Want to stock Adventa’s cardboard canvases?

Our commitment to innovation, automation and quality products has made us an industry leader in designing, manufacturing and supplying unique, easy-to-use blank products to suit any requirement. Since 1983 we have been providing solutions for companies like yours, and we are proud to present our cardboard canvas range, which provides an excellent flat surface for photographs or paintings mounted on gallery-quality canvases.

To find out more about our fantastic product range, feel free to browse our website or get in touch with us at +44 (0) 1686 625 100.

Top 10 challenges for personalized gift companies 

Personalization has seen significant growth in recent years, with research estimating that the personalized gift market in the UK alone would reach £1 billion in 2022. This has been supported by customer research, which shows that consumers are willing to spend more on products that can be personalized.

While many businesses have started to take advantage of this recent trend, some businesses are still struggling to understand what personalization is, how the process works and how they can begin to meet personalization businesses. Here, we answer all these questions.

What is the personalized gift market worth?

Recent research estimated that the personalized gift market in the UK would reach £1 billion in 2022. While this is yet to be confirmed, the personalization industry has certainly seen a boom in recent years.

Customer research further supports these sentiments, with data indicating that consumers are happy to spend between 7% - 20% more on products that offer customisation. Additionally, consumers have indicated that they are more than willing to provide brands with their personal and preferential data if they [the brands] take product personalization seriously.

How do personalization businesses work?

Personalization businesses in the UK typically work by using data and technology to tailor products, services, or experiences to individual customers.

This can include using data on customers' preferences, past purchases, and behaviour to make personalized recommendations, customising products or packaging, or creating personalized marketing campaigns.

By leveraging customer data, personalization businesses can offer more tailored and relevant experiences, which can help to increase customer engagement, loyalty, and revenue.

Examples of personalized gift businesses

There are several different types of personalization businesses, each with their own unique approach to personalization.

1.  Pre-printed Retail Gifts

For decades pre-printed gifts have been available in gift shops on spinners and racks.  Examples include History and Heraldry one of their original products was square magnets similar to https://www.adventa.com/gb/adventa-square-fridge-magnet .  This has the big challenge of stock control, popular names selling out and new trending and more ‘wacky’ names never being available.

The Share-a-coke campaign was a simple but clever concept that had a big impact on sales for a well-established brand.  This had no obvious stock control issues, but the likelihood of finding your name always seemed slim!

2. Print in-store Retail gifts

This has been done for a while in Sports shops to add you name to the sports kit.  Other examples include engraving or personalized label in pop-up stores in premium department eg Selfridges stores specially at Christmas.  Challenges here are with staffing costs, unreliable software, slow print/personalization process, expensive space and with our local sports club lack of stock on some letters of the alphabet!

One system that has really perfected in-store personalized gifts is www.my-moments.com it is space efficient and fast, plus has the massive benefit of not having to commit to printed inventory that may or may not sell, designs can be added or switched off remotely – a dream for stock control!

3. Individually named Promo gifts

This is the next step from solely printing a generic brand logo or message, actually including the recipient’s name on the product creating an awesome reaction and a much higher ‘keep me’ factor!  Fun examples include desk calendars using software like XmPie to spell your name in flowers or balloons, etc!  Challenges with this system is that it relies on data being accurate, from experience expect last minute requests for additional names which become a hassle, slow and expensive. Adventa have a wide range of products that can simply and easily be printed and created on demand from an office toner printer, simply get a design preset, see the Uprint system in action here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqxoHS5Mjzc

4. Online Personalized Gift Companies

These companies represent the biggest part of the market.  Examples include Zazzle and Funky Pigeon.  An endless range of products is available, check out these best-selling lines where the blank products are mass produced and supplied wholesale to printers from Adventa including Canvas, Drinkware, GlitterBlox, Keyrings.  The challenge with this business model is being ‘lean’ in the process.  Order values may not be huge and each one is different!  Make sure you invest in proven software and consider the whole process from order to dispatch, cutting out ‘touchpoints’ can make or break an print-on-demand gift production process.  Check out this neat process example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2Li6Z7k6xo

Another challenge is the seasonality of demand, expect huge peaks around events like Mother’s day and specially Xmas where extra temporary staff will be required to produce Photo Baubles and Domes.  Well worth considering the reliability of your supply change, we know at Adventa how important it is to cope with unexpected peaks in demands!

5. Technology and software businesses

Several companies have developed personalization technology and software that can be used by other businesses to deliver personalized gifts, services, or experiences.  If you are looking for software make sure you get a couple of references you can speak to, as from experience software ‘features’ promises can turn out rather hollow!  Many major companies end up taking this in-house to deliver the results they need.

One neat feature is to cross sell at the basket, once consumers have spent time creating a design of say a greeting card there is a high chance they will want to simply add another product like a keyring with the same design.  It is specially powerful if you can actually visualise their artwork within the extra product.

Where can you connect with personalization businesses?

With an increased demand for customization from customers, businesses should be looking to see where they can incorporate personalization into their product offerings. However, for many brands, the cost of carrying out customization directly is not feasible.

This is why it’s essential to connect with other personalization businesses that specialize in carrying out such activities. Events such as the Personalization Experience (part of FESPA) look to bring brands together with printers and other businesses to see how they can make personalization a reality in their businesses. You never know, Adventa may even be able to help get you a free ticket!

How can Adventa help your business with personalization?

At Adventa, we specialise in delivering a range of customizable products, such as wall art, desk decor, candles and more. These products are specifically designed for lean manufacturing.  Contact us today to see how we can help your business on its personalization journey.

Adventa also offer a group innovation brainstorm video call – it is amazing what focusing the mind can really achieve!  We share experiences and successes, you can tell us about your challenges, we put ourselves in your shoes to deliver solutions and create new and unique products.

The personalization market has seen a significant boom in recent years as customers increasingly seek out customizable products and services. There are various types of personalization businesses that each operate differently. Brands should consider the benefits of implementing personalization, such as increased customer loyalty, engagement and total revenue. However, this should be carefully weighed against the associated costs in order to determine whether it’s feasible.