"Beautiful" Mixed Media Canvas

Hi all,

The other day my sis sent me some pictures of my beautiful niece, dressed up for Carnival.

When they were visiting recently I had already noticed the growth my niece had gone through again, turning her into a real adolescent little lady instead of a kid. The costume she picked and the tough pose that went with it, emphasised everything even more: she's becoming a beautiful woman with a mind of her own.

Looks aren't everything, but luckily she has a beautiful heart that goes along with her exterior as well. She adores her nephew (my son), as if he were her own brother.

That being said, those pictures and the moodboard over at

Our Mixed Media Moods,

immediately inspired me to create my own little gothic fairytale about her.

The current More Than Words Challenge made me refine my theme and

settle on the word that was already bouncing through my head the entire time anyway: BEAUTIFUL.

The butterflies symbolising her fragile frame ready to take off

on what will be her greatest adventure: LIFE.

The new moodboard of the Creative Embellishments March Challenge 

sparked my imagination even more.

I've used some of their chipboard butterflies on my layout as well.

Down to business ;)

Adhere a Studio Light 'Industrial' Collection paper to a canvas with TCW gelmedium.

Apply black modeling paste through a (Andy Skinner?) snakeskin stencil.

 Apply Viva Decor 'Rusty Paper' through the Tim Holtz swirl stencil (032).

Flick some Tattered Angels Glimmermist onto the page, after spraying water onto certain areas first. Then splatter some more around. On this project I used:

*Dragonfly *Verdigris *Boardwalk *Rolling Tide *Simply Sheer Teal *Simply Sheer Black *Baseboard Wave

Using your diecutting machine, cut out the Tim Holtz Weathered Clock from brown paper and apply the Viva Decor Rusty Paper onto it.

Finally I found use for this mirror frame I bought on vacation many years ago. I tried using different paints and mediums to age, rust and distress it, only to find the smooth surface was hard to work on. I used a base coat of Tattered Angels High Impact Paint Metallic Silver, then tried to use the Tattered Angels Paint Kit Rusty metal. I used some more Viva Decor Rust Paste and who knows what to achieve the effect I ended up with.

I gave the full picture of my niece wings. They came from a broken butterfly Christmas ornament.

I made her hair 'real' by unravelling some rope and pushing it through the picture.

I played with my composition by adding chipboard and wood butterflies from Creative Embellishments and Action.

The word 'Beautiful' is from 13Arts.

I gave most of the chipboard the same treatment by coloring it with 2 or 3 different shades of

Tattered Angels Glimmermist, then adding one step crackle medium.

I glued some beads to the butterflies, and on some other places..

Behind the clock I used a very small scaled Moroccan tile chipboard from Scrapiniec.

The words "You are beautiful inside and out"come from a sheet of Kaisercraft paper. I cut them up, colored them and glazed them.

Using my hot glue gun, I drew branch shapes underneath the frame and on the top left of it. I used glimmermists and glimmerglaze Tail Fin to color them a bit.

I colored a piece of bandage and cut/shred it into strips, placing them underneath the main picture.

I colored the sides with black gesso and then used several stencils and black modeling paste to give them some pattern. I gave the sides some color with glimmermists and water.

To give the canvas a little extra, I added a piece of canvas which was also colored in the shades of the project, then stapled it to the sides and top.

I'll leave you with some more close-ups. Comments and questions are always welcome!

Find me on Facebook too: Less is Bore!

And Instagram: mandylessisbore

Happy scrapping!