Mixed Media Canvas

Last week a few of us got together at the store to do some playing and working on some of our art journaling and mixed media.  I, of course, did the mixed media which I love.  I like to just sit down, get out a lot of "stuff" from my stash and begin planning out what I want to do.  So I gathered up some "stuff" from home, put it all in a bag and off I went to my playing session.  Below is what I gathered up.  For this project colour does not matter.  Just use up odd flowers you have lying around as well as chipboard pieces, leaves, metal pieces.   I will list all the items I used at the end.

I decided to use a 9" x 12" canvas.  I first painted the whole surface with a coat of gesso.  Then I started applying the other materials - cheese cloth, doilies, dry wall tape and crepe paper.  Place mod podge onto the canvas first  then adhere the product you are using .  Apply  the mod podge on top of the product.   First the doilie close to the top of the canvas, crepe paper wherever I felt, drywall tape here and there then the cheesecloth in the middle near the top.  I kept these products on the upper two-thirds of the canvas.  Because of the fence at the bottom, I felt the products would have been covered.  You can have the materials touching each other, anywhere will do.   When that was done I applied moulding paste with a brick stencil (to the left of the window) and then using my spatula I applied it below the window and above the fence.  Let all of this dry completely.  Using a heat gun helps especially with the moulding paste which will take the longest to dry.

I then began to place my "stuff" onto the canvas - do not glue just yet.  Make sure that you have everything where you want it.  I basically started from the top edge and went around the edges first.  I had some strips of chipboard left over from a set of chipboard shapes.  I cut them to size and used them as a frame around the outside of the canvas.  Then I die cut some vines out of chipboard and added them onto the frame first.  Then I placed my flowers onto the vines.  I began placing the rest of my "stuff", first the chipboard fence across the bottom, then the flowers and leaves on the fence.  I  got going so well on my placement of pieces that I did not take a picture of where I placed everything.   But you will be able to see in the pictures below.  I also used some metal buttons, a metal key at the bottom left side and a wood die cut butterfly on the window.   When you are happy, using a glue gun (for the best possible adhesion) adhere all your pieces down.

 Now for the next step.

Using white gesso paint the entire surface of the canvas - all flowers, chipboard, everything. This is why you do not have to worry about colours of your items.  Depending on how dark some of your items are you can apply a second coat.   Below is a picture of the canvas painted white.  I had already started the next step but you can see the white effect and the placement of items.

I decided instead of using sprays in different colours, which I have done on all my other mixed media products, I decided to do something a little different.  Using Tim Holtz distress stains, and some distress paints I hand-painted all the flowers and leaves using a paint brush.  It really wasn't all that bad, in fact, I quite enjoyed it and it really did not take all that long.  Below is a picture of the paint technique.  The pink, blue and green were the distress stains; the darker yellow was my own mixture of yellow kraft paint and gesso; the lighter creamier flowers was done using distress paint; and the green on the background around the window and brick wall was using distress stain.

 Below is a closeup of the bottom left corner.

When everything was dry and I was happy with the colours, I took a very light brown spray and sprayed here and there onto the canvas.  I removed some of the spray from the window and corners above it as I wanted it to remain as white as possible.  If the spray was too heavy in some spots, while it was still wet, I took a piece of paper towel and dabbed it off.  I only wanted a very light brown accent.  I also went back and added some more of the blue and pink distress stains to the flowers and the green on the leaves to pull out the colour a little more.   I added some diamond glaze to some of the darker pink flowers.  Below is the final result.

And a couple of close-ups.

Here is a list of the products I used:

Tim Holtz Distress Stains:  Tumbled Glass (flowers)

 Bundled Sage (leaves and background) 

Victoria Velvet (flowers)

A light pink spray from my stash - my own mixture (dipped my brush into it)

Tim Holtz Distress Paint:  Picket Fence(window and corners) Antique Linen (flowers and moulding paste above fence)

For the brown spray I watered down a brown spray (Lindy's Moon Shadow Mist) with water.

Other products:  White gesso; matte mod podge

Doilies, cheese cloth, crepe paper, dry wall tape for background

And I added in some white pearls here and there at the very end.  Applied dimensional pearls to the decorative chipboard shape at the top and the butterfly.

Let me know what you think.  

Until next time

HAPPY SCRAPPING!!!!

and remember

"The world of reality has its limits, but the world of imagination is boundless"