English Country Garden Canvas for The Mirror Crack'd Challenge Blog.

A big welcome to all my new followers, hope you enjoy the journey.

Hi Blogging friends   Angela  here  to  welcome you to the Crafty Card Makers new Blog called The Mirror Crack'd Challenge Blog. 

My first offering for this new challenge blog is:
an English Country Garden Canvas. 

It's a rather photo heavy post so you may wish to get a cuppa before you start Lol!

 

 I began with the blank canvas and turned it over to use the back to make a shadow box effect.

 

Then applied the moulding paste.

 

I stamped into the paste with the crackle stamp

 

which was then sprayed to give colour

 

and left to dry.

 

Next I made the leaves, stamping onto black card, coloured them using gel pens and attached them into a pleasing arrangement.

 

I made the base to look like water using fusible fibres and then embossing this using the swirl stamp.

 

I added extra sparkle with stickles glue.

 

Onto the dragonflies using a PaperArtsy die and grunge board.

I coloured these with the big and juicy Hydrangea ink and melted UTEE onto them which I stamped into.

 

Then I constructed the flowers using a Tim Holtz die with grunge board which had been coloured and stamped.

 

The finished flowers looked like this.

I added small beads to the centre of each flower.

 

 

I decided I wanted to break up the texture on the border so I shaped some copper coloured metal sheet and stamped onto this with a textured stamp then using an embossing tool, shaped it. I applied glue to the back to ensure it would not flatten when attached.

I covered this with acrylic paint to age it then rubbed some of it away so the metal showed through.

 

I attached the metal to areas on the edge of the canvas,

to which I also added some Tim Holtz crackle paint.

Further spraying was done until the colour was deep enough and everything blended back together.

 

I made some paper beads,

 

bubble embellishments

 

and shrink plastic fish.

 

 

 All of which were added to complete the canvas.
Here are the materials used to complete the tag and attach the fish.

 I have tried to give you as many instructions as possible hopefully without boring you too much but there were many techniques used to make this project so if there is anything you don't understand or you would like more details please leave me a comment and I will try to answer you questions.

Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and if you have not come by way of the new blog I hope you will pop over to The Mirror Crack'd to see what my team members have to offer you in this first challenge.
I also decided to enter this project for the following challenges:
Anything goes - Altered Eclectics
Anything but a Card - Dragons Lair Design
All the pretty Flowers - Craft Hoarders Anonymous

                     

                      Happy crafting,

                          Angela x

Lavinia Stamps: Fairies on Fabric.

Hi  Bloggsters  following my post earlier this week, I am now making the canvas for this project.
I do have a tendency to get a bit carried away when working with the Fairies on Fabric downloads.
I so love the designs that I want to be sure that the techniques I use do justice to them.
Just a reminder, here is the picture I have been working on.

 

As promised here are the instructions for completing the canvas.

I am using a 30x25 cm canvas as the frame for this picture.

To start this, I turned the canvas over and covered it with Gesso to seal the wood as I am using the underside.

 

 

 

 

 

To decorate the canvas I started by spreading moulding paste fairly thickly over the edge.

I stamped into the moulding paste using Lavinia stamps and then painted this with diluted Eco Green paint as a wash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then painted this with diluted Eco Green paint as a wash.

 

 

 

 

To add colour to the canvas I used Moon Glow's Starburst stain dabbers.

I like these because they are translucent and colour without the thickness of an acrylic paint so you are more likely to retain the texture below and they contain Mica which adds a nice glow to the finish.

 

 

This close-up shows the textural detail.

 

 

 

To help the stamp images stand out better, I went over the stains with black distress ink using a blending tool.

I rubbed this on lightly so that it caught the top of the texture rather than colouring the whole image.

 

You do not need to paint the inside of the canvas as the fabric is going to cover this space.

 

I decided to make some embellishments by printing the digi downloads onto shrink plastic and then cutting these out and shrinking.

This is the shrink plastic I used which is available from

The Stamp Man. 

 

 

And these are the embellishments.

Not quite decided where they will go yet.

 

 

Here is the decorated canvas:
I added extra stain with a paint brush to highlight the images.
Then sealed the colour with Spray & Shine by Crafter's Companion.
I prefer a spray glue as there is no smudging with colours that are not waterproof.

 

 

To complete the picture, I wanted to edge it and for this I used silk fabric which I had coloured with dye and then added salt to remove some of the colour (Watercolour Salt Technique) and a shear ribbon.

The effect can clearly be seen here.

 

 

This is the edging when complete.

 

 

Close-up of the stitchwork.

 

 

And the finished panel with the embellishments added.

 

 

 

 I hope you like this project and will go over and visit
Lavinia Stamps to view the range of stamps and downloads available.

Happy Crafting

Back soon,

Angela x