Welcoming Back Rub-on's

Hi, Annette Green here today with a project utilizing lots of rub-ons. Rub-ons were a big deal back in the day, but I don't see as much of them now. Thank goodness for Tim Holtz and his two new sets! I love these vintage inspired collections of numbers, words and phrases. On the surface, they have a manly feel, but check out how I used them on this very feminine canvas display.

All supplies used to create this hinged canvas display are from our very own eclectic Paperie store, of course, and are listed at the bottom of the post. Just click on those linkies and they'll take you right to the store.

Here's a quick look at how the project came together.

It started with two 5 x 7 canvas panels. These are flat, not stretched on a frame like regular canvases.

I covered each panel with tissue wrap using Studio Multi-Medium as glue to hold it securely.

Next, a coat of paint. Here I mixed Broken China and Peeled Paint Distress Paints to get a greenish/teal color, although my photo doesn't portray it properly.

I gave it a wash of Picket Fence Distress Paint to tone it down a bit, then set it aside to dry.

I wanted to try something different with my photo, so I tried printing it directly onto Sticky-Back Canvas. Worked beautifully! Before printing, I went in to PhotoShop and desaturated the color so it had more of a muted feel.

Next I cut from a piece of cardboard from the new Postage Stamp Frame die, then painted it with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Paints, then cut out along the crease to use the frame only. You'll see that I eventually changed the color of this frame to Fired Brick to coordinate better with the other elements in my piece.

From the French Industrial paper pack, I cut the word Artist using the new Stacked Artful Words die. Underneath, I stamped the paintbrush images from the Artful Tools stamp set. A few leaves were stenciled on using embossing paste, and when dry were painted over using a waterbrush and Distress Stains of various colors.

Then come the rub-ons. Here are four words from the Remnant Rubs Words collection.

The number 15 is from the Remnant Rubs Numbers collection. It worked perfectly on the new Enameled Tag.

I love the small inspirational phrases in the Words collection. I simply rubbed a bunch of them along the edge as a border, adding a dot of permanent pen between each phrase by hand.

A final cluster of flowers, buttons, leaves and some metal and my piece is done. I affixed two hinges to the back side of the piece so I can stand it up as a table-top display.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope this has inspired you to revisit rub-ons.