Return from the Wilderness



Well Here I am.........returned from the wilderness! Lol!  Sorry I have been absent from the blogsphere for so long.  It's the combination of school holidays and becoming more than a little acquainted with the route from our house to the children's hospital in town here as I have been taking our youngest back and forth from appointments.  But the kids are back to school and I am back now and looking forward to spending more time blog hopping.

                         

Earlier this year myself and the family holidayed in Australia and went to a family wedding.  While we were there I went to a class at a local craft shop where I made this gorgeous canvas.  I had such a fantastic time and am really happy with the way it turned out.  During the class I learnt all about using a grounding medium on the canvas so as the be able to use Pan Pastels and get a vibrant colour result as well as about the Faber Castell PITT Big Brush India Ink pens for shading.  I just love these now and NEED them all! Lol..

We started by adhering scraps of patterned paper with matt medium, then applying a coat of a grounding paste for pastels, then using the Pan Pastels to create a coloured background (just LOVED this part and can't wait to get my hands on some of that grounding medium).  Using crackle, random alpha and reversed chicken wire stencils, stamps and inks we created pattern and layer, until we were happy.  Then we sprayed it with a fixative.
Now the fun part.......creating the scene and embellishing the canvas! Yeah! The door was made using a chipboard rectangular frame with strips of chipboard to create the dividers, it was then painted brown. In three of the door panes a scrap of script paper was adhered behind the apertures. The arch was made using a Tim Holtz distressed clock die which was cut to fit the door and then painted in a turquoise metallic paint. Glue the door and arch to the left hand side of the canvas and then distress the script panels with turquoise embossing panels. Add a  Tim Holtz hitch fastener as a door handle and hang a chipboard key on it that has been coloured and distressed.  Once the door is in place cut a piece of card to look like a doormat and stencil with the crackle mask and stamp and glue in place and embellish with coloured baby paper roses and metal butterfly, that has been coloured with alcohol inks.
The bunting was made by cutting strip of co-ordinating patterned paper, folding and gluing over bakers twine and a "V" cut into it. The drape over the top right hand corner of the canvas and adhere with dimensional glue.  Cut the tops of some co-ordinating brads and glue at either end of the bunting. Next embellish above the bunting with baby paper roses that have been spritzed and a metal dragonfly.  If you look very closely, you will see that I have put two tiny wooden birds that I have coloured with distress stains and placed one on the bunting and the other on a door panel.
The words were stickers that were shaded and stuck on thick card to give it a bit of strength than glued to the canvas on the right hand side under the bunting.
Once I was happy with the positioning of all the elements I shaded around all of the pieces with the PITT Big Brush India Ink pens to create shadow and depth by laying done the ink and then rubbing it in with my finger to blend it ( which can be done because of the coat of matt medium allows it to blend)and help the elements look like they are part of the canvas rather than being just stuck on top.  To finish off the canvas I went edge with a black marker roughly to create frame and tie everything in together.
I had a ball making this and hope to really get into creating more canvases and larger ones.  I hope you like it.