This is taken from this blog post but instead of writing to a file, it writes to a WriteableBitmap.
public WriteableBitmap SaveAsWriteableBitmap(Canvas surface)
{
if (surface == null) return null;
// Save current canvas transform
Transform transform = surface.LayoutTransform;
// reset current transform (in case it is scaled or rotated)
surface.LayoutTransform = null;
// Get the size of canvas
Size size = new Size(surface.ActualWidth, surface.ActualHeight);
// Measure and arrange the surface
// VERY IMPORTANT
surface.Measure(size);
surface.Arrange(new Rect(size));
// Create a render bitmap and push the surface to it
RenderTargetBitmap renderBitmap = new RenderTargetBitmap(
(int)size.Width,
(int)size.Height,
96d,
96d,
PixelFormats.Pbgra32);
renderBitmap.Render(surface);
//Restore previously saved layout
surface.LayoutTransform = transform;
//create and return a new WriteableBitmap using the RenderTargetBitmap
return new WriteableBitmap(renderBitmap);
}