Guest Blog Post, Laura's Canvas

Hello to all our crafting friends, Antony here! Samantha and myself are

handing this post over to our Guest Blogger Laura Herbert.

Laura has been admiring Samantha's work and her willingness to help her

and others in the inkettes for nearly two years now!

Laura has also followed my own personal crafting journey from Dufex to Pinflair.

She even came to the NEC where I gave her a masterclass in

Pinflair's blending paints... although I later discovered she opted for

Tim Holtz's Distress Inks... can't win them all!

Recently Laura finally plucked up enough courage to

dip her toe into the wonderful world of canvases and mixed media!

As you will soon see Laura is Tim Holtz crazy.... so over to you Laura. 

 

Hi I’m Laura Jane, I’m mainly a card maker and have been for the last

15 years, I also like Cross Stitch, Dress Making, and Jewellery Making.

I have always admired mixed media, and with some helpful advice

and encouragement from fellow crafter’s Patricia, Antony and Claire.

I took the plunge and this is my first ever mixed media project. I knew

that I wanted to use my favourite stamp set which is the Umbrella Man

by Tim Holtz. I can now say that I love mixed media and can't wait

to get started on my next project.

Products used to make this project:- A4 white canvas from Poundland,

Bronze and Yellow Acrylic paint from Poundland

Poly-filler from Poundland,

Distress Inks in Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo

Walnut Stain by Tim Holtz, Distress Stain in Tarnished Bronze by Tim Holtz,

Umbrella Man stamp set by Tim Holtz,

Mini Harlequin stencil by Creative Expressions,

Flourish stencil by Tim Holtz, Spotty stencil by That Special Touch,

Heat Embossing powder in copper by Whisper, 

Heat Tool by Wilkinson, Perfect Medium ink pad by ranger,

Flake and Glitter glue by Creative Expressions,

Copper Gilding Flakes by Creative Expressions, 3/8” Letter Dies by Tim Holtz

Step 1 Cover the canvas in Gesso but if you don't have any it's not a

problem I used White Acrylic Paint. I’ve since discovered that Gesso is

not essential as most canvas are all ready to go. Bonus!

Step 2 I used a bronze and a yellow acrylic paint.

(Yes I'm a messy crafter!) I placed a piece of scrap paper
in the middle of the canvas and I smudged the bronze and then the

yellow with my finger to look like sun rays.

I repeated this method until I got the look I wanted.

Step 3 After the paints dried from step 2 I made a mask (using a post-it note)

of the Umbrella Man stamp, and positioned him where I wanted him to go

later on. Once I did that I used my spotty stencil (by That Special Touch)

and poly-filler as texture paste along the top of the canvas. Major tip!

Soak the stencil straight the way otherwise it sets like concrete!! Oops.

Step 4 I had a few things going on, I didn't like the starkness of the

texture paste so I blended some Mustard Seed distress ink over the top of it.

Then with Vintage Photo Distress ink I stamped the clock

(from the Umbrella Man stamp set) randomly over the canvas, Then

using the Tim Holtz flourish stencil I used Tarnished Bronze Distress Stain

for a slightly different look.

Step 5 I went around the edges using Mustard Seed,

Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain distress inks. This helps
make the canvas appear smaller to fit the size of the stamp.

Step 6 Using a clean paint brush I flicked water around the edges

to make splatter marks. I then lifted the excess water off using paper

a towel to give it a more distressed look.

Step 7 To add more detail into the background I used the same

three distress inks as in step 6 through my harlequin stencil,

then moved the stencil over to a darker area of the canvas, and

spritzed using a water bottle through the harlequin stencil, leave the

water on for a few seconds before blotting it off with a paper

towel to lift of the water. This will cause a faux bleaching effect.

Step 8 Using a flourish stamp from my crafty stash I added gilding

flakes by stamping Gilding flake glue instead of ink onto the canvas.

I also added more gilding flakes (remembering to add the glue
through the stencil first) using my harlequin and spotty stencils

randomly over the canvas to balance everything out.

Step 9 First I stamped the Umbrella Man using Perfect Medium

(sticky ink) and added my embossing powder to the sticky ink and using

the heat tool I melted the powder, once all melted and still warm
add another layer of Embossing powder and heat with the heat tool again,

this is Double Embossing. I then cut him out by hand with the card

stock that was left over, I double heat embossed it.

Step 10 With the remaining heat embossed card stock, I die cut out

3/8” letters for my quote as said by Winnie the Pooh

“When life throws you a rainy day play in the puddles”.

I then die cut another set of letters in a lighter colour to give them

a drop shadow and glued them all down with my tacky glue.

WOW!! Thank you so much Laura, for that our first Guest Blog.

I'm sure you'll agree that Laura did an amazing job and even more

so when you consider that was also her first canvas project ever!

Both Samantha and myself hope that Laura's post has inspired you

to have a go at creating a canvas!

Until next time, Happy Crafting!

 
Antony
and our Guest Blogger Laura