Lovin' Art

Hi Everyone

Sue Here

Today I'm going to show you a scrap canvas.  I love doing these, both as commissions and for family and friends.  They are sooo personal and can look fantastic on a wall or shelf as a 3d photo instead of a picture in a frame.  If you start off with the photo, then either work with the colours in the photo, favouriate colours of the receiver of the gift or if the photo is of a trip to a foreign place, say America, use the colours of the flag, adding favoriate embellishments, sayings, and all types of mixed media.  You'll be surprised what goes together.  Have fun.

My theme was L.O.V.E.  As you can see the photo does not have to be large.  Look out for offers on canvases or watercolour canvases in places like Hobbycraft, The Range, Home Bargins or the Pound Shop.  There are offers and sales on all the time and I tend to keep a few in stock and only buy them when they are.  Also look out at car boot sales (If you've not already gathered, I'm a sucker for them)as again you can pick up unwanted canvases and paints at low prices.

Here's how I achieved my look:

Materials used:

• A4 canvas
• Spellbinders, Heartfelt Creations, Memory Box and Marianne Designs dies
• Pink and red buttons
• Ribbons
• Distress inks in worn lipstick, Victorian velvet, tattered rose, fired brick, barn door
• Memento London fog ink
• Clear embossing pad
• Quote from the Internet: In our life there is a single colour, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art.  It is the colour of Love. Chagall
• Copyright  free picture from the Internet of wedding couple
• A piece of plastic/paper (to use as a mask) with holes in it
• Love heart mask. I used Creative expressions.
• Antistatic bag.
• Background papers
• Lace
• Creative Expressions cosmic shimmer glue
• WOW pomegranate regular earth tone embossing powder
• WOW sherbert regular primary embossing powder
• WOW platinum regular metallic embossing powder
• WOW pastel pink regular, pastel opaque embossing powder
• WOW clear gloss super fine embossing powder
• WOW 'gratitude' stamp set
• WOW 'call me' stamp set
• WOW 'with love' stamp set

1. Start off with the canvas.  Take tattered rose distress ink and put some on a craft mat and dilute with water.  With a brush put it around the edges of the canvas and pull into the middle of the canvas, leaving white areas.  Do the same with Victorian velvet which makes the background into a wash with a light tinge of pink/red. Lightly heat dry. You could achieve the same look with diluted water colour paints or acrylic paints
2. Sponge some 'london fog' through the mask with holes in leaving dots in strategic places on your canvas.  Do not be particular about this, just let your creativity flow.  You can always add more later.Dry off with heat or leave to air dry.  Take an antistatic bag and brush lightly over the canvas.
3.  I used the antistatic bag because I didn't want the embossing powder sticking to the distress ink washed background
4. With the love heart mask, sponge clear embossing ink through some of the mask in the top right hand corner. Sprinkle pastel pink embossing powder over the hearts and heat set.
5. Take the scalloped edge die and halve the circle once cut out.  Use over the wrought ironwork die on the right and under the lace on the left.
6.  Print off the saying on white vellum and pour clear embossing powder over the words to raise them.. Heat set.
7. 
   Place a piece of ribbon down the right hand side of the canvas.  On this I placed a flower made up of 9 hearts from the gratitude set.  I used pomegranate embossing powder.
8. I then placed 4 pieces of thin lace around the canvas.  I love using cosmic shimmer glue as it is very strong and will dry clear.
9. On top of the lace I places two iron book binder posts one on each side.  Again I covered these in pomegranate embossing powder.
10. I then embossed the call me words frame onto pink vellum with London fog ink and clear embossing powder, then cut it out.
11. The two leave scrolls are from a memory box die in different coloured vellum.
12. The love hearts are Marianne designs and here I have sprinkled different red and pink embossing powders on them to get the effects.
13. 
    The 'with love' ticket is from the gratitude set, then the 'with love' stamp is from the 'with love' set and is stamped separate onto card using sherbert embossing powder then cut to fit over the front of the ticket masking out the original word 'gratitude'.  I then coloured with distress ink and distressed it slightly with black distress ink.
14. The lock is spellbinders and I lightly went over this in 'london fog'
15. The frame around the couple and the buttons are pure white card made from spellbinders dies.