Mixed Media Monday - VIDEO - Take a day away from STRESS and visit my HAPPY PLACE!

Today is also a new installation of a new feature called Designers Craft Connection.  The 1st Monday of each Month - this post will also become part of a Designers Craft Connection Blog Hop.  Below this post and on the side bar you'll see a badge that will allow you to hop forward or backward.  This is a great way to get your month kicked off on a creative adventure and  I know you'll enjoy all the gorgeous projects that my fellow designers have designed.  So don't forget to click the badge and hop on...

....but now on with the story....

I was at BlackBerry Creek B&B in Rogersville, MO attending our girls creative retreat  weekend when I first designed this canvas. 

 I can get lost for hours just playing with paints and texture.  It’s a real respite from life’s little challenges.  

For me, it’s about discovery, not following a recipe, not purchasing a lot of pre-made embellishments, I prefer to create my own, not follow any rules and get down right messy. 

 The possibilities that the die templates give you in creating your own foam stamps is beyond amazing and fits right in with my “make it yourself” philosophy.  

When I took a step back at the canvas I was working on, I really loved how the colors bounced off of each other and I really thought – “Yeah, this IS MY HAPPY PLACE!”

Making your own HAPPY PLACE Art Canvas
Linda Peterson

Project Dimensions:  8 x 10 Canvas or any canvas size you choose

   

Spellbinders Supplies:

MMM-001 Spellbinders® Artisan X-plorer™ Machine

MD1-007 Spellbinders® Media Mixáge™ Circles One Die

S5-151 Spellbinders® Shapeabilities®  Expandable Patterns Basic Lattice

S5-143 Spellbinders® Jewel Flowers and Flourishes Die

(You can also add your favorite patterns and dies to this list)

Other Supplies:

8 x 10 Canvas ( or size of choice)

Dictionary pages, music sheets

Craft foam – any color

Clear packing tape

Repositionable tape

Plastic sheet

Decoupage medium

Acrylic paint in desired colors

Black ink stamp pad

Phrase/words printed on ink jet printer

Scissors

Brayer

Wax paper

Baby Wipes

Instructions:

Creating your own foam texture stamps with positive and negative images

1.      Cut foam using Shapeabilities® Expandable Patterns – Basic Lattice

2.      Apply packing tape over the entire back surface of the foam, press foam firmly

3.      Carefully remove lattice pattern leaving the small squares attached to the packing tape.

4.      Spray backside of packing tape and one side of lattice work with spray adhesive

5.      Align foam stamps onto plastic sheet and cut out

6.      Repeat this step till you’re blue in the face cutting out all different shapes using the various die templates.  You’ll want to have lots of choices

Creating the Canvas

1. Decoupage sheet music, dictionary pages and other decorative papers to front of canvas.  Let dry.
2. Apply paint to wax paper.  Load paint randomly onto brayer.  Hit and miss over different areas of the canvas.  Repeat with coordinating colors.  Allow paint to dry in between each color so that they don’t muddy together.
3. Add touches of paint with your fingers or a brush randomly over the canvas.
4. Selectively wipe away some of the paint in random areas allowing portions of the background paper to show through. 
5. Cut a heart out of music sheet paper and decoupage onto front of canvas over background patterns.  Water down paint and lightly paint over top with a coordinating color.
6. Apply paint to foam stamps with brayer.
7. Randomly stamp lattice pattern to canvas.  (I use darker colors around the edges to give it a framed look and lighter colors on the inside to add interesting texture and pattern.)  Repeat for as much pattern and color as you like.   Don’t worry if you do not stamp complete patterns
8. Repeat step 6 except this time use the circles stamp.  For this particular pattern I used black permanent ink.
9. When your background has been completed, cut out words from paper and decoupage to front.
10. Jump up and down because YOU DID IT! – You now have a certified HAPPY PLACE!

Designer Tip: 

You can’t make a mistake!  Baby wipes will take away paint in unwanted areas and are really handy to have when creating canvases.

If you are totally dissatisfied with your results, you can wipe away most of the paint with a baby wipe or simply decoupage more paper over the areas you don’t like and work from there.

I have mentioned the above dies because they are among my favorite shapes to work with when I create mixed media canvases.  EXPLORE BEYOND my suggestions and mix and match dies that you have in your collection to come up with your own unique stamps.

These stamps can be used with cardmaking, art journal pages and because they are flexible they are ideal to stamp curved projects – like paint cans, candles and more!

Your creativity is limitless - Explore Beyond™!

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