By The Sea Canvas

Good Day everyone!!!!!!

One of my most favourite places to see and to view is the ocean.  Even though I don't get to view too many oceans, pictures can inspire me.  Today's project is a canvas to bring the ocean into my home.  I have wanted to do a project like this for a while now and here it is.  I have included a short tutorial on the methods I used to achieve it and the products I used as well.

To start with, I applied heavy white gesso to the entire surface of the canvas (11" x 14") using a spatula and creating ridges as I went.  I wanted lots of texture on the background.

When the gesso was dry, I cut 3 strips of patterned paper, 3" wide by the full length and layered them across the middle of the canvas. I took some white gesso and dry brushed it onto the papers to blend them into the background.  When this was dry, I took two colours of turquoise sprays and sprayed all around and onto the papers.

After the sprays, I took a water effect stencil and applied the turquoise texture paste keeping it around the outside.  With a spatula I took some of the turquoise texture paste and swiped it here and there at the top and bottom areas of the papers.  Let this dry.   And for more texture, I took a stencil with different sized bubbles on it, and applied texture paste here and there around the outside edges.  I did go over some of the turquoise stenciled areas.

And now the fun begins.  Some time ago, I purchased a package of this fish netting at Michael's.  It actually looks like real fish net.  I took a reasonable sized piece of this and spread it out across the canvas starting closer to the left side and spreading it out to the right side.

I took my white oval resin frame and decided to do something to it as I didn't like the way it looked as it was on the canvas.  So I took some burlap string and wrapped it tightly around the frame until I had it completely covered.  I had this piece of chain, (I don't know where it came from) and wrapped this around as well.  I thought it looked like a porthole from a ship.  I also added a picture that I had from a package of Tim Holtz "Found Relative" cards.  You could use a picture of yourself or a friend or anyone else.  I adhered the frame to the canvas as shown.  Now for the rest of the items which is my favourite part.  I like to layer and tuck and layer and tuck until I have the look I want.  I start by adhering my main piece which was my star fish and from there I added the flowers and lots of shells.  I made sure the shells came out from under the flowers.  I had a small glass bottle from my stash which I added as well.  Sometimes you can find these bottles at the dollar store, but I do know that Tim Holtz has them as well.

For the final touch, I added Finnibair's "art stones" here and there (below the star fish, on the frame, above the flowers). These are the perfect accent for almost any project.  At the very end, I tucked in some greenery pieces (again in my stash) and small pieces of cheese cloth to soften the look.  I also dry brushed some of the brass patina paste from Finnibair for accent onto the stones and onto the canvas around the bottom below the star fish and the flowers.
Closeups

Products used:

Strips of patterned paper for background

Gel medium for adhering the pieces down (very strong holding)

Mega Art Stones from Finnibair

Brass Patina Paste from Finnibair

Heavy white gesso

Metallic texture paste (Heidi Swapp)

2 turquoise blue sprays

Fish net

Shells

Flowers

Resin oval frame

Twine

Glass bottle, greenery, and cheese cloth

I hope I wasn't too long-winded with my instructions.  Give it a try.  Just use your imagination and let the creative juices flow.

Until next time, this is Donna wishing you a safe and happy week of creativity and fun.

"HAPPY SCRAPPING"

"After you tell your husband where you'd like to go on your vacation he asks:

"Why? Is there a scrapbook store there?"

Wood Wall Plaques

Hello everyone!!!

I am back with another easy project that I did for my two younger granddaughters.  I am sorry for the long time in between postings.  I had to have surgery a few weeks ago and I am now able to get back into my craft room and start creating.

Do you ever feel that you lose some of your creative juices and you just can't get your mojo going.  Well I have been that way many, many times.  So I decided to sit down and start playing.  I had these two wood plaques for a very long time - so I decided to finish them and make a plaque that my granddaughters can hang on their bedroom door or set on their dresser.  I found the large letters at my local craft store for about 50 cents each.  They were a bit chunky but once I got them onto the plaque, they seemed to fit nicely.

I started by painting the plaques with heavy white gesso to give them a good protective finish.  I then stencilled using texture paste.  When this was dry I sprayed with 3 colours of sprays.  They both like different colours so I co-ordinated my colours to match their rooms.  Below is the turquoise one.  They like bright colours so I decided to go with the brighter colours as well.

I then painted out wooden frames which I set on top of a doilie at the left side.  Then I added my letters.  And finally I put flowers and leaves in and around the wood letter and the wood frames.  I topped off the letters with glass beads to give a little more sparkle.

Keep in touch.  I will be going like gangbusters to get more projects done.

Until the next time, this is Donna wishing you a safe and creative week.

"HAPPY SCRAPPING"

"Find the good in all you can,

and never be a quitter.

If you find a problem,

find a way to make things better."