Who You Are is Completely Up to You

Julia here today to share a canvas I made using lots of Dina Wakley products.  I recently attended 3 workshops Dina taught and subsequently ordered lots of her 'stuff' from eclectic Paperie!

 I have quite a few photos to share showing how I got from plain canvas to done! So far in my 'mixed media' career I've only made a couple of canvases - I'm still in the learning stage! I started by brushing Gesso over the canvas, laying a torn edge sheet of tissue wrap over the Gesso and brushing with Gesso again.  I smoothed out most of the wrinkles - but left the ones that wouldn't smooth out.  I left this to dry overnight.

Then I dry brushed Sky and Lemon Dina Wakley acrylic inks over the canvas.  The great thing about dry brushing is that it dries quickly! (I REALLY hate waiting for things to dry!)

I stenciled the women with Watering Can ink which is a little softer than black.

Love the look of them!

To add some texture to the piece,  I used Wendy's white embossing paste with Dina's Affirmations stencil

I stenciled one sentence in the top left corner

and another in the bottom right corner

I inked a sun stencil from Dina's The Basics with Archival Orange Blossom

I inked little sections of Plastic Canvas around the canvas using Cornflower Blue Ink and stamped some sentiments from Dina's Face in the Crowd stamp set around the sun.  A little hint for stamping on a canvas that only has the wooden frame around the edges with the canvas kind of bouncy in the middle -  I placed an ink pad under the canvas where I wanted to stamp to give me a firm smooth base to stamp on

To finish it off - I sponged around all the edges with Ranger Distress Frayed Burlap and stenciled some Leaves with Fern Green Ink.  I spritzed the canvas with Dylusions White Linen Ink Spray - but it washed it out too much - so I quickly dabbed most of it off with a paper towel!

Dina kept telling us to 'JOURNAL' on our projects in the classes I took -  so I could hear her telling me to do it on my canvas -  but I haven't developed a good scribble journaling technique yet - so I used some of her stamps from Hand Written Notes with Archival Jet Black ink to get it done! (see how much darker it is than the Watering can?!)

As with any mixed media project I attempt -  I always have difficulty knowing when to stop adding things!

I sponged over the stenciled sentiments with Cornflower Blue ink - but that didn't make the words show up enough - so I wrote over each letter with a black Stabilo All pencil.

Then I stopped.

My canvas is 12" x 9" and I think it will look nice on my wall - I just have to figure out which wall!

I hope I've inspired you to try 'painting' a canvas!!???

Here are the supplies I used that you'll find at eclectic Paperie

Dina Wakley Stamps:  Face in the Crowd, Hand Written Notes

Dina Wakley Stencils: Affirmations, Stenciled Women, The Basics, Plastic Canvas, Leaves

Dina Wakley Paints: Lemon, Sky

Dina Wakley Brushes

Accessories: Pallette knife,  Wendy Vecchi White Embossing paste, Gesso, Stabilo All Black pencil, Dylusions Ink Spray - White Linen,  Archival Inks - Watering Can, Orange Blossom, Fern Green, Jet Black, Cornflower Blue, Ranger Distress Frayed Burlap, Tissue Wrap/Melange, Blending Tool.