The World of Imagination

 Happy Friday everyone!  I'm so excited to share my project for today...A canvas!  One that I created just for the holiday season and is now hanging right by our front door.  I had such a great time creating this project and it includes a boatload of techniques and products!  Yes, my kitchen table was covered with products for two days...Isn't that the best!?  Let's get started...

 I started with a 12x12 canvas that I had in my stash of crafty goodies, along with a few Claudine Hellmuth paints.  I took a Donna Downey class a few weeks ago and she did this very cool technique with paint, using liquid acrylics, and I wanted to see if I could re-create the look with the Claudine paints.  I'm happy to report that they worked perfectly!

First step (my canvas was already prepped with gesso but this would be your first step if the canvas wasn't prepped) was to apply a layer of Traditional Tan paint.  I then used my heat gun to gently dry the paint.  I then combined a blob (that's a technical term) of Sky Blue and Smidge of Blue paint on a piece of cardboard.  Using a wide brush, I loaded up my brush with paint and dragged the brush across the top edge of the canvas.  Then I got crazy with a water bottle...spraying the blue paint with water, allowing the paint to run down the front of the canvas.  LOVE!  The water also made the tan run a bit and I love the bits of white showing through along with the tan, light, and dark blue.  It has the look of an old plaster wall.

Once my paint layer was dry I grabbed a new stencil from Dylusions, Let is Snow, white embossing paste from Wendy Vecchi and my frosting knife (that's right...I used my cake frosting knife to spread the embossing paste...it works perfectly!) 

I added stars across the top of the canvas and then...I thought about what to do next.  Wendy had posted a project with a snowman last week and she used the paste to create snow banks so I decided to follow suit!  Once the paste was added, I sprinkled extra fine glitter all over the paste.  Fabulous result...super sparkly!

While the paste dried, I got to work on my snowman.  This is a snowman die, designed by Tim, from last year (or maybe two years ago now?) that I cut out from chipboard.  I made the snowman out of four layers of chipboard so he's weighty.  Out of the fifth snowman I cut out the snowman's nose, arms, and hat.  I colored the arms brown with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, the hat was painted with a Pitch Black paint dabber, and the nose was painted with a Sunset Orange paint dabber. 

 

These pieces were set aside to dry while I got to work on the snowman.  He's completely covered with torn pieces of tissue tape.  I used a few different designs on the snowman but you can use any design!  (I'm thinking washi tape could be fun too!)  Once the snowman was fully covered, I went over the entire snowman with the Picket Fence Distress Stain.  The stain helped to tone down the tape and adhere the tape to the chipboard. 

 

Once the paint was dry I glued the arms, hat, and nose onto the main snowman.  I added a few leaf die cuts and red stickles to the hat.  I also added three black (coal) buttons to the front of the snowman, using Enamel Accents.

 

Of course my snowman needed a scarf so I grabbed some Crinkle Ribbon (love that you can buy this in 10 yard packs now) and my Wild Honey Distress Ink pad.  I colored the ribbon with the ink, misted the ribbon with water, crinkled the ribbon, and dried the ribbon with my heat gun.  Love that pop of color on the snowman!  A metal brad finished off the look!

 Here's a closer shot of the sentiment I added, along with a faint swirl under the words.  Both of these stamps are from older Tim Holtz sets.  I love this saying...  And what about those snowflakes in the paste?  Aren't they amazing?  Love them!  Oh, and I added a year date to the edge of the canvas, surrounded by a metal ring.

 My last element was a die cut tree (also from Tim) and this showcases a technique that I learned from Tim during one of his 12 tags of Christmas postos.  The tree was covered with Distress Crackle paint, the trunk with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and once the tree was dry I used Glossy Accents to add some snow (aka sparkly fluff) to the tree branches.  Then I just added some twine around the trunk and a metal star.

I had so much fun creating my canvas and it was great to just kind of "go with the flow," which isn't a way I typically create.  I'm looking forward to making another canvas (I have one more hidden in my stash!) and creating a video to share the process with you!

Enjoy and tell me...what will you create today?