Canvas Corp Brands mixed media 4 by 4 canvas 'Finnabair style'

 Hi all!

It feels like it's been forever since I created something and shared it, though I know it's not. Not really. It's just been very busy around here because my little man turned 3 years old last Thursday! That meant shopping for a present, extra grocery shopping, celebrating his actual birthday with a select few and then on to baking cake, muffins, preparing the place where the party was held (grandpa's bar) and the actual party itself. 

Connor liked lighting the candles and blowing them out (a gazillion times) even more than the presents...

Back to normal life after those celebrations, so time was short again. and I wanted to start/finish the mini canvas for the Canvas Corp Crew so badly! It's a small canvas ( 4 by 4 inch) everyone in the Canvas Corp Crew is supposed to decorate to show (off) their own style. Today I was finally able to put the final touch on my 4 by 4 inch canvas, and even more importantly, take daylight pictures of it.

It has to be said that I work different on canvas than I do when I scrap layouts. Lately I like the canvas method a whole lot, and I want to try and incorporate this style more into my regular layouts. I'm not sure what to call it, besides the 'Finnabair' mixed media style.

Here you can see how tiny the canvas is. And the rawness of the cloth shows too. This is pure canvas, whereas usually canvasses for artists are treated with a layer of gesso already. I decided not to do that to this one, to see how the pure canvas would work with the mists.

First I applied some modeling paste through the 2 stencils, as you see below. A negative and positive version of the same pattern.

Because of the size of the canvas I didn't add more stenciling, just went ahead with embellishing. a lace border, lace figure, some chipboard and wood figures, a metal Prima picture frame, some flowers and a leave, and a cute little cherub watching where I was headed.

Next I covered it all in white gesso. After the gesso I added some glass beads texture gel here and there. Coincidentally I spotted the back of my mannequin and it was crackled. It hit me that that was because of the glue. 

Recently I saw a video of a woman who made her own crackle effect by covering an object with white glue (this was Tacky Glue from another store), let it dry a bit and then added paint while the glue was still sticky. It caused crackles indeed! The only shame is, you didn't see them anymore after I had sprayed the whole thing. (But hey, it works!)

Also I mixed some 13Arts Magic Powder with my gesso, to create some structure paste. I put that on the mannequin, swirl, scissors and crown.

Really, it's all just playing with textures until you like what you've accomplished.

I have no more further steps to show you now, but the finished canvas. I spray and ink until I'm satisfied. It's just playing and discovering what I like and what not. 

What I did not like was how the mists turned out on the un-gessoe'd parts. They looked a bit filthy. So I would advise you to apply some base coat on the canvas after all. Yes, the colors soaked in more intense, but like I said, they looked a bit filthy.

The glimmermists were first to go. I used Periwinkle Bouquet, Verdigris, Walnut Gold and Boardwalk for this canvas. Very shimmery colors and beautiful shades. I love the copper glimmer in the Verdigris!

On the text (which again is my scrap (and life) motto: 'Less is Bore') I used 2 shades of Glimmer Glam: Tail Fin and Tanzanite. They dried a bit glossy, which was exactly what I wanted. However, when I played with the coloring some more, I ended up dulling them somewhat, so I added a bit of (Tim Holtz) one step crackle medium. (Any brand will do.) I also added some more on the mannequin, because she looked a bit too boring to me.  

I gave the whole canvas a finish with some Inka Gold. On the main section I used Browngold. On the metal items I added later, like the little feet, handle and corner bits, I added some Hydrangea and Turquoise Inka Gold.

Hope you like it! Let me know! ;) 

My facebookpage is: Less is Bore!

Happy scrapping!

"Valentine, you're the chocolate chip to my cookie!" Mixed Media layout

Hey all,

So as promised I'm back with my first layout for the Canvas Corp crew! (Check my previous post for more details.) I've linked up my layout on the Canvas Corp Blog here. Make sure to check out what the rest of this talented crew made!

While I was anxiously awaiting my first box of 'Canvas Corp' goodies to arrive, the "Words and Paintery" challenge blog challenged the Canvas Corp Crew to participate in their latest challenge.

That's the 'moodboard' and you can still enter until the 15th of February if I'm not mistaken! You can find the challenge here: "Words & Paintery" January 2016 Challenge

I had sort of planned to do a Valentine's  layout and use another one of my Scrapiniec monograms. And I figured the blue in the challenge would go nicely with a picture of Connor dressed like Cookiemonster. (I sewed that outfit for him last year.)

I started out with the Canvas Corp paper "White & Kraft Tile Reverse"

and applied modeling paste through my Tim Holtz hearts stencil.
Once dry, I sprayed "Crimson" glimmermist over my paper and stenciled sections.

Later on I splattered some "sapphire" glimmer glaze on the page as well.

Now for the chipboard. (All from Scrapiniec.) I sprayed the "V" first with "Crimson" glimmermist. Then I made a blend with that shade of glimmermist and glass beads texture gel. Applied it all over my heart frame, edges of my "V" and the heart-part from the winged heart. (I gave the wings a spray of 'walnut gold' glimmermist and added some one step crackle medium afterwards.)

When that was almost dry I sprayed on a little more "crimson" glimmermist to create more color nuances. (It was a bloody valentine, I'll tell you that! :P)

I love how chunky the mixture came out! Glimmermist can be blended with glass beads texture gel very, very well! ♡
Afterwards I brushed some 'browngold' Inka Gold on my chippies to emphasize the textures.

This was my first time ever using "glimmer glass". Lately I have been into blue, teal and turquoise shades and this intense blue colour ('Sapphire') spoke to me so much. It has the consistency of glimmermist, it's very liquid. I was disappointed about that at first, because I already paint directly from my bottles of glimmermists lately, rather than spraying and wasting.  

However, the glitters inside the "glitter glam" are way more chunky and provide a little structure even!

Applying it to my mini mirror-hearts was effortless and gave me the result  I hoped for. It sort of worked like glass paint. When I tried the same with a regular glimmermist later, the mist 'pooled' together. It did not cling to the mirrored surface. Another quality the 'glimmer glams' offer you.

Time to sort out my embellishments. Added some brown/copper swirls, ribbons, leaves, a heart shaped tag and flowers. (Which I coated with glimmermist and glimmer glam to obtain the right colour!)

The blue from the hearts was too strong so I toned that down by adding a bit of 'browngold' Inka Gold on those as well.
My quote "Valentine, you're the chocolate chip to my cookie" was written on the kraft heart, which I sprayed with 'walnut gold' glimmermist first. I covered it with one step crackle medium and let it dry overnight.
(I can't warn you enough about this. You can NOT speed up the crackle process by using a heatgun. All you get is a bubbly mess!)

Time to move things around till my liking and get out the glue gun. You can see the result underneath. any questions or comments? Much appreciated!
You can also find me on Facebook: Less is Bore!
Or Instagram: ladyguinevere77

Happy scrapping!

Canvas Corp Crew Member

                        Hey everyone, 

     so I realised I haven't even blogged              about becoming a Canvas Corp                            Designteam member! 

At the end of last year they had a design team call and being a fan of many Tattered Angels and 7Gypsies products I decided to give it a go. Not expecting anything, really. It was my first try to be on a design team. Ever. 

I checked my mail in anticipation of their rejection, but nothing came. 

On November 21st I checked my Facebook and saw that one of my friends had posted the video in which Canvas Corp announced their new designteam. Figured I might as well check it so I could see they hadn't picked me. 

Guess what though...? 

MY NAME APPEARED IN THE VIDEO! 

Canvas Corp Crew Members 2016

My heart started pounding like an idiot and I got hot flashes and I almost burst with excitement and disbelief. 

My husband and son just left so I couldn't tell them. My creative sister didn't answer her phone so I left her a very giddy voicemail. 

The rest of the day my confidence went from through the roof to the bottom of the earth. They chose ME! Yeah! YEAH! They chose ME... Oh help... I'm not good enough... No... They picked ME. They must like something about my style. But wow... The others are so GOOD! (Checked the canvas corp blog and other designer ofcourse. Some of which were already my Facebook friends because I admire their work. And now I was gonna be on the same team as them. How cool is that?! How wrong is that?! I am nowhere near how good they are... )

Well I went from happy and confident and psyched to very insecure. 

So now we're a little further. It's sort of clear to me what we're supposed to do. And that we are very free in the number of assignments we do. Which sort of relieves the pressure, but enhances it at the same time. 

I've gotten my first box of goodies last weekend and have begun on my first layout. Having seen what some of the others created already I'm feeling insecure again. But I know only one way to scrap, and it's MY way. So it will have to do ;) 

My next post will be about my first layout for the canvas corp blog. And it will star a very lovable cookie monster! ♡ 

Hope to see you around! 

My facebookpage is Less is Bore!

Sea themed mixed media canvas

Hey all,

Recently I started working on a mixed media canvas with a beach theme. This is going to be a gift for my friend Monique who (finally, LOL) gave birth to her daughter. She shared the decorating of the new baby's room with me, and I was inspired immediately to do a canvas once I saw the sea/beach theme. Running into a steering wheel with the perfect size brought my ideas even more to life!

I started out with a blank 12' by 12' canvas and painted the upper 2/3 section with a light blue paint. The section below that is supposed to be the sea, I painted that with a mix of texture paste and teal mica.

The bottom section is supposed to be the sand/beach so I painted it with a structure paint turned a sandy colour and sprinkled sand on it afterwards. 

First, I draped some fishing net over the canvas.

Then I started embellishing with everything sea/beach themed I could think off. 

A firehouse, shells, seastars, fish, boats, seahorses, a bottled message, anchors, steering wheels, beach houses, slippers, seagulls. 

Quite the colorful display :P My aim was to end up with the colours of the canvas, because those are the colours of the baby's room. 

So I added a few coats of gesso on everything. Painted a few clouds with gesso while I was at it.

Then it was finally time to bring out the glimmermists and Lindy's stamp gang sprays!

I'm ashamed to say that I have about 50 different colors... But still didn't really have the colors I had envisioned! 

I chose for a blue/grayish one for the top section, a mint one for the sea part and a brownish tone for the bottom part.

In the meantime I distressed the too white steering wheel all sorts of ways. 

Covered it with a crackle medium and painted light blue over that. Felt it became too blue then so I added some more white paint. Brushed a few little streaks of Inka Gold here and there, etc.

Because I needed 3 e's I couldn't use any of the chipboard alpha's I had wanted to use. Chose for these felt alpha's instead and altered them later on by painting them with a mixture of glass beads texture gel mixed with mica powder teal.

Once my spraying was done it was time to emphasise everything with Inka Gold. I chose to use an anthracite color. 

Afterwards I added some of the glass beads texture gel here and there, which I probably should have done earlier. It dried up looking very shiny and glassy, absorbing the Inka Gold. So I redid those bits a little.

I wasn't happy yet but that's just me. So I sprayed a different tone of brown at the bottom section, and used my glass beads texture gel with teal mica powder (left over from coloring the alpha's) here and there some more. Used a bit of brown Inka Gold to emphasise things, after I tried to dry brush some parts with a linen colored paint.

Finally I was (rather) happy and glued some thick rope around the steering wheel and canvas. Which I sprayed with the same color sprays I used on the canvas. Glued the steering wheel down and then it was done.

I really hope my friend will like it. It's not as subtle as I was planning. Though she's not into pastels, these aren't the exact colors of the baby's room either. Well, it's a gift I lovingly made for her and her baby and that's what counts. Right? ;)

Happy scrapping and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! You can find me on Facebook too: Less is bore!