New Canvas

I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful holiday(s). Our family has enjoyed an extended holiday since my husband has been on vacation and both the girls are on break from school. On the other hand though, I will be so glad to get the Christmas tree and decorations down, (planned for tomorrow), and for my routine to return to normal, (whatever that is).

I had a little time for creating and was hit by an urge to make a canvas, (I love canvas art and plan to spend more time on this passion in 2012). This pretty little lady was made from products I found over at Vintage Street Market. 

Using pieces torn from their Dimestore Vogue Paper Sheets and Tags, I created the first layer of the background. Other layers include acrylic paint dabbed on with bubble wrap, painted lace used like and stamp and rub-ons. I even threw in a little Distress Stain in Vintage Photo. The "Mother" was created from VSM's Family Fashion Set; a collection of vintage style paper dolls featuring mom, dad, son, and daughter along with their various fashions and accessories. (I haven't played with paper dolls since I was a little girl - I cut them out much better now than when I was six). The flower was cut from a piece of a Prima Decorative Border and attached with Helmar's Liquid Scrap Dots. All other papers and embellishments were applied with Golden Gel Medium in matte.

I think I enjoy canvas art so much because it allows me to combine many different art mediums, (hence mixed media), and it can be so MESSY, (I love messy). Canvas and other mixed media art forms help use up scraps and give artists the opportunity to play with art forms in an almost experimental fashion. If it doesn't work, all that's necessary to fix it is just to use another art form. No one will even know and your accident or experiment is easily covered up or maybe even enhanced by another media form.

I'm so glad you stopped by today. 

Happy Creating.

Susan

My Banner of Thanks

This cute little banner was made from a naked chipboard book that I purchased from the $1 bin at Michael's and a bunch of scraps, along with the awesome cutting ability of my Cricut.

I hadn't even planned on sharing the banner until The Paper Variety posted a challenge that required the use of the word "Thank" somewhere on the project. The chance to win a prize from My Creative Time was all it took to encourage me to go ahead and post my "Thank"ful banner, (I know, I'm so cheap and easily bought off).

Thanks for stopping by and I encourage you to visit The Paper Variety and My Creative Time. Both sites have great products and super crafting ideas.

Happy Creating.

Susan

And Yet Another She Art Canvas

I've been busy busy on my canvas projects. I am so loving this workshop. Christy Tomlinson is a great teacher and she talks to us like we are in her living room, just one on one and we've known each other for years. She is truly a wonderful person.


So here's my latest. This is the last canvas in the first week. Yeehaw, I finished my first week.

I thought she had a zen kind of look. That wasn't intentional, just how it came out. Maybe I was feeling rather relaxed.

I tried a few new things with this girl. Using a lace doily for a collar and as an edging on her pant leg and the bottom of the dress. I also tried my hand at doodling. And lastly, I shared my craft table with my oldest DD. She made her own girl and is already working on a second. She really seems to enjoy it and I'm enjoying being creative with her.

This is KC's, (my daughter), first attempt and I think she did a wonderful job. She seems to be way less inhibited than me about how things go on. She is just trying everything. She is so brave.

I especially like her use of color and her free hand painting. She painted the little flower in her girl's hair, (that would just scare me to death at this point).  She also put her She Art phrase on at an angle. I think it looks so free and daring. Pretty much just like my little girl.

Happy Creating.

Susan

Spring Wreath

The last couple of weeks have been so busy and productive. I've not been distracted at all, but not getting much done in the way of crafting either. I have a spring cleaning bug and my house is being decluttered and cleaned floor to ceiling and wall to wall. When I took a few minutes to sit and craft for a while, I was shocked to see that it's been two weeks since I posted. 

I thought I would share this wreath that I made last October. Wish I had a picture of it without the spring decor but I can share one later in the year when I switch out the theme. So far this wreath has served as a fall and Christmas decoration and now it makes my front door bright with spring colors. I’ve been changing out the embellishments on the wreath seasonally with themed wired garland I pick up at Michaels.  

The original design came from an older post at Tater Tots and Jello. I altered the plan a little by using a 12" straw wreath and wrapping it in muslin. All the flowers are cut from pages of a dictionary using three different sized flower dies. After running the dies and paper through the Cuttlebug, (I used about 200 pages from a pocket dictionary), I spritzed them with water and then lightly sprayed on some Glimmer Mist and then crumpled them up. Next I opened them and let them lay flat to dry, (the thin paper dried really fast). Once dry, I began hot gluing the flowers to the wreath alternating between the sizes. This was all done very randomly with no real plan or design. The original blog post suggested wrapping the flowers around the eraser end of a pencil before putting on the hot glue. This made the whole project a breeze. I just wrapped, glued, and stuck the flower down. Once it was stuck to the wreath I just pulled out the pencil and went on to the next flower. I was so pleased with how it looked. Even undecorated it was beautiful.

Learn from my mistake though. Put some type of hanger on the back before starting to glue on the flowers. I made a loop from a piece of florist wire that I wrapped around the wreath after I put on the flowers. It would have been much easier to do this before instead of later. Another tip, don't use this as an outdoor wreath. It probably won't hold up to the weather. I hang mine on the inside of my front door. I'm thinking of making a smaller one to hang above my foyer table.

Don't be turned off by the number of flowers I glued or the spritzing and drying. All together I think it took me only a couple of hours to make this wreath and I spent only a few dollars. I used a dictionary I bought on the dollar table at the local bookstore, the straw wreath was just a couple of dollars from Michaels and I got the muslin from my friend Cheryl, over at Cheryl's Window. She's a sewer and had some leftover from a project. (Friends are great resources for small quantities of a product that you might not have on hand. Just remember to pay it forward or back in kind).

Happy Creating.

Susan


 

Canvas Art

Finally I’m getting around to posting those canvas art pieces I made around the holidays. Here again I’m going to apologize for my horrible photography skills. This picture was taken with a less than stellar camera under not so great conditions. I promise it looks much better in person.

I started this as an experiment after reading Christy Tomlinson’s tutorial on creating on canvas. (while this isn’t the same tutorial that inspired me, it is AWESOME). Honestly it scared me to death. I’ve never been one to worry over making a mistake, (I live by the motto, “it is what it is”), but this project was way far outside my box. I really shouldn’t have worried because the more I worked on it the more fun I had and the more comfortable I became.

I started by using Mod Podge on the entire top of the canvas. While it was still wet I added the paper and another coat of Mod Podge. The paper wrinkled and curled a little but I just pushed it down, wrinkles and all, and added more Mod Podge. At one point I found a huge air bubble so I sliced a small “x” over the bubble with a razor knife, pulled up the edges and added some more MP, smoothed down the cut edges and continued on.

After the sticky mess dried I put down a couple of Tim Holtz Timeworks masks and spritzed the entire canvas with some Radiant Rain Shimmering Mist in Key Lime. What a  mistake. The color was awful. No worries though, I just took Distress Ink, (Walnut Stain or maybe Vintage Photo), dabbed it here and there using my homemade ink applicator.

        

(my photography skills are greatly improved by using a better camera)

By the time I was done I had almost a patina look with the green underneath.

Next I started adding the embellies and shaded around them with some inexpensive brown craft paint. I even shaded around the pictures. After the paint dried I outlined everything with a black fine tipped Sharpie to add some dimension, (a rollerball type pen would work better for this). I put one last coat of MP on top of everything except the picture and let it all dry. Lastly I added a handmade tissue tape flower, (instructions courtesy of Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas) popped that puppy down with some glue dots and slapped on a sticker for the middle. That was it. All done and nicely so if I do say so myself.

I also made a second canvas for the other side of our family. As you can see it the same theme, layout and title but that’s ok. Why mess with perfection. This piece was easier to do because I wasn’t as scared about ruining the canvas. (Such a silly thing to worry over. It only cost a couple of bucks and anything the doesn’t look just right can always be painted over)

Through it all, I had a blast. It was like the messier it got, the more fun I was having. My inner pre-schooler jumped out and started coloring outside the lines.

I plan to make more canvas art. I’m going to try some different projects though. I’ve got a yard or so of duck canvas that I want to try some projects with.  My plan also includes continuing to work on photographing, first the thing I want to scrap and second the thing I’ve scrapped, I hope you and I will see some improvement. All that really matters though is that I stay on task and have fun doing it.

Happy Creating.