MIXED MEDIA CANVAS

I am trying to make some Christmas presents.  It will be here before we know it and, as usual, I decided to take on some projects that I should have started a month ago.   Hmm, that reminds me, I should really dig out the address book and Christmas cards and attempt to write some letters. 

Anyway, I've seen and admired enough canvases on scrapbooking websites that I finally got brave enough to attempt it.    My first attempt is for my nephew and his wife who were married this August.  A country wedding that I enjoyed so much!   We stayed at the Lazy M Ranch near Red Deer.  Most of the family stayed in the Lodge and the groomsmen stayed in the apartment suite on the second floor of what used to be a horse barn but now was a large hall with a stage, a kitchen, bathrooms and showers.  My husband and I parked our motor home in the lawn area near the hall. 

The wedding theme was country and the bride used burlap and brightly coloured flowers to decorate. 

 This was so much fun to do... a lot of prep work and steps and waiting in between steps for things to dry naturally so they cured.  I used Golden Mediums molding paste and a Dylusions stencil in all of the canvas's corners.  Then I experimented with texture on the rest of the canvas by spreading molding paste with a plastic spatula and pouncing it with a stiff plastic wrap off an embellishment package I had opened.

 When the molding paste was perfectly dry I used a blue Perfect Pearls spray and then a red one that I knew looked more like pink.  Because blue and orange/coral was in the bride's wedding colours I added a few spritzes of Dylusions orange spray ink.   



 

 

 

My nephew and his wife had a heart-shaped glass bottle on the table where they signed the register and they took turns pouring different coloured sands into it while their guitar player played beautiful music.   That stuck out in my mind so I had to try to recreate the bottle of sand.   I decided on a Tim Holtz corked bottle that I tipped on an angle to pour crystal and copper seed beads into it.  

 

The original bottle

 

While camping this summer we drove down a road thick with tall wild grasses on each side.  Something about those grasses... I rode my bicycle back later with scissors and a plastic bag and gathered a bag full.  I knew I'd find a use for them sometime.  I poured a little gesso onto plastic wrap and put a few stems of grasses down, folded the wrap over them and rolled them around and squeezed the gesso so that the grasses were fully coated.   Then gently slapped each stem on scrap paper to remove any excess primer.  I thought the gesso would protect the stems and keep them from drying out/falling apart over time.   The entire canvas is sprayed with a matte protective coating at the end so that should keep them together.    The key is a wooden embellishment I likely bought at Walmart.  I like digging through their $1, $2 section of trinkets for findings I can use in crafts.  I found these pretty blue beads that were very close to the bride's choice of blue so threaded some of them onto hemp string and tied them onto the key.



 

 

 

The Dusty Attic chipboard circle scroll seemed like a great choice for the hands picture.   The outside picture is one of my nephew and his fiance' making a heart with their hands.   I cut out the background showing in the heart they made and arranged this photo over top of the photo of their hands after the wedding ceremony.     I painted the chipboard with gesso first to seal the cardboard and when that was dry I used an acrylic metallic gold paint.  To give it a slightly antiqued finish I touched the chipboard here and there with my pinecone brown stamp pad.

 

 

I cut various different widths and lengths of blue card stock, wood-grain and faux peeled-paint cardstock and inked all the edges with my favourite, tiny Versa Color stamp pad in 171 Pinecone.  I'm sure it is the most used stamp pad I own; then layered the strips of paper until I had a haphazard arrangement that I found pleasing to the eye. 

 

 



 

 

The metal word stickers are from Momenta.

 

I have another wedding canvas to do for a niece that has already been prepped with molding paste; so I'm anxious to get started with some ink.   

 

I have a hospital procedure tomorrow so I'm on clear fluids today and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to craft this afternoon due to prepping for the procedure.   Hopefully I'll get to play a lot this afternoon as I love to get my hands covered in molding paste and ink!