Mini Memory for Jackie

Jackie is the February recipient for the Mini Memory swap in the DCI group and she chose vintage with earthy tones and gold as her theme.

I took a canvas and gessoed it then added scrunched up foil, cheesecloth and added some embossing paste with a stencil. I painted over the whole piece with various colours of acrylic paints to attain the vintage look.

I printed off  a vintage picture of a woman from digitalcollagesheets.com and glued it to the canvas. In my stash I found an old picture frame, which I touched up with paint. I cut out a piece of acetate and covered the picture, then attached the frame.

Added some vintage buttons that my friend Annie sent me awhile ago, a piece of paper tape and some book corners to finish the piece off.

Black and White pattern

The latest swap I joined is to create something with a black and white pattern repeated. I have not done any canvases for a while so thought I would do one for this swap.

I painted the canvas with gesso then added dimension with an old plastic doily and molding paste. When it dried I painted over it with white acrylic paint.

I printed off an image from moonlightjourney.com and cut it out. I then took a piece of black cardstock and another piece of white cardstock and put them through my Cuttlebug embossing folders. I put the black piece directly on top of the wet molding paste and it acted like a glue. I went over it and the picture with Judkins Microglaze to seal it. Added the white cardstock and the picture.

I stamped a hounds tooth stamp that I just bought at Michaels from the $1 bin, on white cardstock with Tsukineko Onyx Black Versafine ink. I cut three strips to go around the edge of the picture and attached them with double-sided foam tape. I punched out the flowers and added some centres to them.

I took some chipboard letters, painted them with gesso, then white paint and stamped them with the hounds tooth stamp.

Mini Memories

I belong to a small group DCI comprised mostly of Australians, but there are few of us from North America. The current swap is to make Mini items that can all be placed into a larger frame. Each participant has chosen a theme and a colour scheme. Some have stipulated a certain size and others have just left it up to the artist.

For the month of August Trizzy is the chosen recipient to receive a creation from 10 other people. Her theme is "Wings" and the colours blue and/or green with silver, with no specific size.

I recently bought a couple of stretched canvases at the dollar store and decided to use one for this project, but using the back instead of the front.

I covered the whole piece in gesso, then painted the inside with 3 different tones of blue acrylic paint. Still thought it needed "something" so went over it with blue H2O's - still not happy. So I took some silver fabric glue paint and slapped over the top portion and ran an old comb through it and rather like the effect as it looks like rain or a waterfall.

With my Cuttlebug I embossed some plumbers tape using the bird embossing folder (keeping the wings theme) and cut it to fit around the outside of the frame. I coloured the embossed parts with Adirondack pens then sprayed it with a setting agent.

I painted the inside edge in green but it did not seem finished so I tried several different things...stamping, lace, beads and even some green cording, however, none of them appealed to me. Into my stash!! I found some sea glass but it was too bulky; then I discovered some little plastic mosaic pieces and there were enough blue and green ones to fit around the edge. I adhered these with some of the wonderful Sookwang tape (Picture and giveaway on this blog) then used silver seed beads as the grout.

I stamped and coloured a cattails stamp by Hero Arts with Prismacolor pencils and and H2O's, and cut it out. I did not like it with the brown cattail head so cut them off and attached the rest of the image to the inside background. I had some little icicle embellishments in my stash and added them as more fauna. I added a jewell to a round paper clip and attached it to simulate the sun.

I have had the dragonfly ornament thing for years and this was the perfect opportunity to use it. I added some bead chain to the body and some beads on the tail, then attached a butterfly charm. I glued this to the frame with some super glue. However it would not stick. So I revised the piece. This was the original.

I took off the bird and replaced it with the butterfly. I cut off a piece of the dragonfly's tail and screwed it to the frame, then added a green jewell to hide the screw head. Much happier with it now and will mailing to Trizzy this week!!

Image transfer swap

I recently signed up for an image transfer swap and decided to do a canvas. Well it was one of those days when no matter what I did nothing worked!! I must have done about 5 attempts at the transfer and was really getting discouraged as none seemed quite right.

I coloured the canvas with gesso and then added layers of acrylic paint. I then used gel medium to transfer the image directly to the canvas. The final look is quite faint, but I think it just gives it an aged look.

I added some images from tissue paper, stamped and embossed swirls and then stamped a text stamp around the canvas.

I took a chipboard frame and embossed it with platinum embossing powder and UTEE, then stamped directly over it while hot to add texture. I used this to frame the picture. Fiinally, I added the little saying piece to complete it.

June It-Girl

Margaret is the It-Girl for June and here theme is Cemetery Angels. I decided to do canvas for her. I covered the canvas with Gesso then added a napkin to the middle. I colored the whole thing with blue and purple acrylic paint.

When it dried I added embossing paste and acrylic gold Mica flakes then stamped some impressions in the canvas when it was partially dry. I then went over it with USA artquest Mica watercolor paints.

The colour palette came from this gorgeous picture that I found on flickr (Onkel Wart) which I know is not an angel but it just spoke to me, so I hope Onkel will not mind that I used it for my canvas. I printed the picture off three times and then glued it to 100 lb cardstock and cut them out and used double-sided foam tape to give it dimension. Attached this to the middle of the canvas with 3-M 465 transfer tape.

Above the image I put pearl embossing powder on and embossed it then stamped "eternity" with pewter pigment ink. Below the image I stamped the saying on a piece of acetate using Stazon black and adhered it with glossy accents. Finally I rubbed some Goldfinger copper around the image and some gold on the top.

I hope Margaret will like this piece even though it is really not an angel, but it is from a cemetery.

April It-Girl

The it girl for April is Debbie and her theme is botanicals. I know, it's still February, but I just wanted to do something other than cards and ATC's, so thought I would get a head start on this while I was in the mood.

I had done the background of this for another theme, but was not happy with the end results, so had put it aside. I decided to revamp it and use it for Debbies. I removed some of the previous images I had added and in the process revealed some of the layers underneath, and quite liked the look. I had some floral napkins that I received from friends who used them to wrap other swap items, so I decided to use them for this project. The one I settled on was flowers and vases.

I took the napkin apart and glued the top layer down with gel medium, and in the process of placing the gel over the top the napkin started to fray and fall apart. Rather than panicking or cussing at myself (as I normally would) I decided to just "go with the flow". The end result to me has the look of an old picture that has been left somewhere, and I am quite pleased with it.

SSSHHHHH! It's a Secret!!

On one of my groups we are doing a secret swap ( similar to the Secret Santa). We are to make a gift and also send a gift which costs a maximum of $10; handmade or store bought.


I decided that handmade gift would be a canvas. I started by painting the canvas with acrylic paints, lavendar, yellow and green. I added a couple of pieces ripped from an old dictionary. I then went over it with an iridescent violet using my PearlEXpress mica watercolours.

I stamped and embossed some flourishes (Hero Arts) around the edges. I then added some opals embossing powders around the the canvas to give it some texture.

I stamped the image (Stamps Happen "Harmony Angel) on tissue paper and colored with coloured pencils, then very carefully attached it to the canvas. I wanted to try something a wee bit different for the angel, so I painted her with my glass paints. after the paint dried I added the stars on and around the angel with gold stickles.

I also decided to make a necklace using the Faux Carnival Glass technique by Zeb Loray in addition to a store bought gift. (http://www.amstamps.com/fauxcarnival/index.html).

It-girl for October

This month on Artventure Chrissy is the "It Girl" and she chose Nature as her theme. I am running out of ideas for something unique, but decided to do another canvas for this month.

I started out by doing a canvas which represented a misty day...i.e. the saying I used. This is my first attempt, however, I was not completely happy with the whole thing. The saying stuck out like a sore thumb and all attempts to make it better failed.

So back to the drawing board!! I love autumn because where I live all the leaves change colour and they are just beautiful. This made me think of another idea for the It-Girl canvas. I gessoed over the original one, then painted it with yellow, green and orange paint.

When it dried, I added tree trunks then the "leaves" with a larger paint brush using red, orange

and green arcylics; I added brown and yellow on the bottom to simulate the forest ground. Added some bushes with the green acrylic.

Still not quite right, so I printed off some birds and squirrels and added them, because anytime I have been in a forest they are always around. I think I am finally happy with it and hope Chrissy will like it.

So what do you think? Any comments or critiques would be appreciated.

September Tag-It

This month's "Tag-Your-it" person is Adrienne and she chose Medieval as the theme. I have been trying to come up with something for the last month, and finally sat down tonight and worked on a canvas.

I painted the canvas with purple and red acrylic paint and then stamped some words in gold ink. After it dried I added the picture of the woman.

I painted some cheesecloth with acrylic purple paint and then dipped it in some porcelain stuff that I had bought eons ago. I then draped it around the edge of the picture. To add more dimension I added some crackle molding paste around the canvas.

When it was dry I brushed gold, purple and red paint over the surface. I continued adding layers of paint to get the desired colour I wanted. I also sprinkled some pearl embossing powders over the surface and dry brushed paint over it again.

To complete the piece I removed the backs from some brads. dabbed gold paint over them and glued them at the top. I then took an old heart shaped earring and painted it gold and added a cross charm and glued it to the bottom left. I attached a piece of Magenta border sticker to the bottom; muted it by rubbing Concord Grape Distress Ink and gold acyrlic paint over it.

Not sure if this is "Medieval" enough, but hope Adrienne will be pleased with it.

Misty Mawn Style Canvas

Sweetpea is running a Misty Mawn Style swap in CCSwaps. The instructions were:

"These works of art should be created on either canvas board or the stretched canvas. Size - no smaller than 4" x 6" - no larger than 8" x 10". The backgrounds should be hand painted . . . the images may be cut from magazines, paperback books, etc. Please adhere with a good strong bond! Gel medium works VERY well. Please use some stamping on this project . . . background stamps, flourishes, writing, etc."

As usual, I jumped in with both feet and signed up for this swap as I love a challenge!

So anyway, here is what I did to make the swap piece:

1. I had some canvas boards and decided to use one of the 5" X 7" ones. I coloured it with acrylics and stamped a large hero art background tree with gray Versafine ink. I then stamped some flourishes with gesso and fluid chalk inks. Also added some "writing' with a stamp and fluid chalk ink.



2. I used magazine pieces and some left over printables for the image of the woman.



3. Now I can't draw if my life depended on it, but I was determined to try something on this canvas, so I drew the tree, the bird, the sun and the woman's legs using white paint as the base, filled them in with acrylic paints, then outlined them with black acrylic paint.



4. I went over the body of the woman with a bit of gesso and some of the acrylic paint (watered down) then dabbed it off a bit. I did this, as it seemed to make the image blend into the background a bit more.

This is my first attempt:




I felt it still was not quite right so I added more stamping, this time in black and some more colour around the edges and in a few other places. I think I am happy with it now.


I had absolutely no clue as to how to do this type of swap, so I did the best I could with it and had a lot of fun. Now whether it is acceptable or not ... who knows? Any comments or critique would be appreciated.

Finished some Art

I took time out tonight to finish off a couple of projects from an online class that I took from Karyn Gartel some time ago.

The first is a canvas using some of her techniques.

The second is from the "Softly Spoken" class.