Thursday 28 April 2016

Every Mom Needs a Hobby...or 3: Quotes on a mixed-media canvas

I recently saw an amazing tutorial that inspired me to try my hand at mixed-media. I found a quote that I thought Kiddo2 would like and decided to make a picture for her room.

Stage 1: Conceptualization

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I started by crumpling up some crepe paper and then gently painted on some watered down white glue. Then I took a piece of lace and scraped some "wall filler" that we'd gotten at TESCO over the lace. I allowed it a few minutes to start to dry and then removed the lace to expose the lovely pattern left behind. 

I then rummaged through all my various collectibles to find bits and pieces to use as decoration.   

Step 2: Giving it life


I wanted to give the piece a very bright and hopeful look, so I chose a lovely shade of sky blue ink paint and (with a lot of water mixed in) placed color here and there between the textured bits. I then mixed a little acrylic red with some gold shimmer powder and (again very watered down) applied the pink/red to the left side. 

I finalized my arrangement, wrote the quote on the wooden thingies that come with the canvas (no idea what they're called...) and then proceeded to glue everything on. I actually ended up using white glue for everything, which sticks well enough, but not sure how durable it will be in the long-term. 

Step 3: The final touches

mixed media quote

et voila: the completed piece. 

-The heart is a piece I made years back when first learning to use polymer clay 

-The dark key (also polymer clay) was made a few months later 

-The flower I'd crocheted and the center of the flower is a button from my collection 

-The butterfly is a piece of lace pinned together to form the shape. The rest are pieces of jewelry from my "art" bag (also known as junk bag) 

-The blue charm is a semi-precious stone that I wrapped with silver wire back once-upon-a-time when I dabbled in wire-wrapping

-and the curly thingie up top is from a bag of potpourri (Kiddo2 think it looks like a caterpillar and decided it fit the quote splendidly).