Lilac Love Altered Canvas
I am so excited to share this project with you! As you may know, I bill myself as a watercolour painter, and I always thought I'd find a way to combine my passions more. I love that I was able to do that with my newest project. I was asked to contribute a donation to our local art society fundraiser, and was given a canvas to paint.
Watercolour painters don't paint on canvas. Instead, I decided to do a collage/painting/papercraft project, and I am in love with this canvas!
It measures 12"x12" and I started by covering the canvas with a thick layer of gesso, making it as textured as possible - streaks, splotches, etc. After the gesso dried, I picked up white and a secondary colour of acrylic paint on my brush, splotching lilac, pink and periwinkle "blossom" shapes on the canvas, using a vision of lilacs as my inspiration.
After my lilacs were dry, I got out my glimmer mists. I used a peacock colour, some khaki, a little shimmery white, and even some charcoal Maya Mist which was shockingly dark and most was wiped off - left just a bit nestled in the low spots of the textured canvas.
Post-glimmer mist, I threw streaks of Ranger Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint around the edges. It's transparent, and cracked as it dried. I then rubbed ink into the cracks - I think Ranger Walnut Distress Ink.
I stamped a music score background stamp in a couple of places along the top - it was looking a little bare. I used Stampin' Up! Craft Chocolate Chip ink for that. Be aware that stamping on stretched canvas is not an exact science - I had a few spots that didn't transfer that I covered up with my sentiment and my flowers.
This entire project was very intuitive - just like I usually work - I start painting and give the painting what it needs as I go along.
I decoupaged a piece of dictionary page that I'd inked and distressed - the word on the page was "kind" which I thought was appropriate for the sentiment I wanted to use.
I punched out pink, lilac and blue flowers and glued them to the canvas, clustered in a pleasing manner. Some of the flower centres received pearls, others didn't. I bent the petals up before I glued the centres down to make everything dimensional.
The sentiment is a Unity Stamp on pale blue paper - I misted it with a clear shimmer spray and inked the edges. When I glued it down, I let the edges curl up a little. Hid a button and little piece of mirror just under the bottom right edge.
The filigree charm was silver, I covered it with distress crackle paint in antique linen. The crackle wanted to flake off so I covered that with a sealer - mod podge, actually!
I painted the edges of the canvas and crackled that too, and it's almost ready to go to the art gallery. I'm going to keep looking at it for a few days to see if it needs anything else, but I think it's done. I had a few would-be buyers at my Scrapaholix class on Tuesday, so I hope it raises lots of $$ for the art gallery.