Painted Canvas with a Message

A lot of crafters (a.k.a. artists) are making "mixed media" wall hangings. I don't know the official definition of "mixed media" but from what I have seen it means to use lots of different materials that wouldn't normally be used together to make a project. For example, use paint, paper, stickers, stencils, tissue paper, and Mod Podge. I have been making wall hangings that have a message. Not just nice words but meaningful words. I have been putting inspirational bible verses on many of my wall hangings lately and thought I would show you. Each of the canvases has 2 coats of matte Mod Podge to protect it from the elements. 

This a 10 in x 10 in deep wrapped canvas. I believe I used brown tissue paper for texture, while paint as the bottom coat. For the top coat, I used the Adirondack Brights Acrylic paint in POOL color. The Instagram filter I used made the color look darker blue. One of my favorite verses. My grandma (posted about previously) had horrible twisted feet from arthritis and couldn't wash her feet herself. When I would visit her, I would wash her feet. So this verse is of particular importance to me. 

For this canvas, I used a brown tissue paper for texture then I used a purple paint and a Heidi Swapp Hexagon stencil for interest. This canvas is 12 in x 12 in about 1 inch deep. All the rest of the canvases are this size as well. I have lots of letter stickers so spelled out the words I wanted to Romans 12:2a then blotted an orange and white paint on top. Once the letters were fully covered, I pulled them off to reveal the purple paint underneath. I like this because of the different font stickers I used. 

This was actually the first bible verse canvas I made. It has white tissue paper for texture, blue/white paint for the base coat. Then I used stickers to spell out what I wanted it to (one of my favorite bible verses for when I am anxious or nervous). I used a gray color paint on top and pulled off the stickers. 

This is my most recent canvas. To be honest, it doesn't really fit in with the other canvases. With the ones pictured above, I applied stickers, painted over them and pulled the stickers off to reveal the colors underneath. When I made this canvas, I used tissue paper, black paint, gray paint, and one Christy Tomlinson's She Art Vintage Doily stencil. Once I placed the white letter stickers on top, it just looked RIGHT. For those of you who are spell checking, there is a mistake in the spelling of one of the words. I know what it is, you don't need to point it out to me. In my defense I was spelling backwards and from the bottom to get the look of the right alignment that I wanted.

This one was a super fun mixed media canvas to make. It was time consuming in the respect that I wanted to make it perfect so I made it over several weeks. The camera in the middle is a die-cut I made. I sketched a picture of a camera I found online, transferred it to a piece of thick water color paper, then painted it in. The letters, from We R Memory Keepers chipboard alphabet stickers "For the Record" series in this nice off white color. I think it turned out super duper nice. 

I made this canvas for my cousin, Jenn Wiemann. She is starting a photography business and a new mom so it just made sense that I would make this for her. To be honest, I did not come up with this all on my own. I check out a lot of craft blogs and one of the many blogs I was looking at one day, I found a really great picture frame wall art with this same idea. If I can find the blog online again, I will post the link here. 

Thanks for stopping by. If you like it, let me know. 

Emma #1

Photo Album with a twist

Hi everyone (or my one follower),
It has been a LONG time since I posted and that is for many reasons including but not limited to: I ran out of photo memory available on my blog. I had to delete a bunch of pictures and didn't do it until now. So I made the decision to finally delete the photos I had in memory from my first trip to Israel. I deleted them because 1)I wasn't posting them on this blog and 2)I will be going back to Israel and taking a ton more pictures!
Now on to the photo album with a twist:

It looks normal, I understand, but it's not. You know those "photo albums" that you buy at any store for a couple of dollars and it holds 24 to 36 photos. I cut the covers (front and back) off, made my own cover (see above) and sewed the photo sleeves into the book. Here's some more pictures to give you a better idea of what I did:

First, on my craft sheet, I rubbed six different colors of Tim Holtz Distressed Ink (colors were, left to right, Vintage Photo, Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, Spiced Marmalade, Stormy Sky, and Bard Door), then I sprayed the ink with water. (Before doing this, I cut water color paper to the desired size and stray with water.) Next, I played the slightly wet water color paper face down on the row of color and let it sit for a few seconds. When I pulled it up, it looked like this: 

Once it dried, I cut chip board in three pieces to make the front, spine, and back of the album and glued it on the "wrong" side of the water color paper. (For the inspiration and directions on how to make a book cover like I did, you can check out Tricia Morris of Club Scrap video.) 

I didn't take pictures of the cover I made before sewing in the pages so here is a picture of the spine with the stitches. If you notice, the cover is shiny rather than dull. I coated it with Krylon Triple-Thick Crystal Clear Glaze. I used it first when I painted mason jars and wanted to be able to use the glass jar without the paint scratching off. I think I sprayed the book with three or four layers of the glaze, letting it dry each time between layers. 

Now on to the cool cut-out on the cover (seen in the next picture on the lower right side of the picture), it is from Paper Smooches I heart art stamp set. I used heat embossing and Faber-Castell PITT Artist Pen Big Brush markers to color it in. 

This is what the inside pages look like. I used waxed linen thread and I like how it looks on the spine.

So there you have it, a post of a photo album I made. I have done several of them in the last year and those who have received them as presents really liked them. I made one for my grandparents for Christmas and said "When it is full, let me know and I will make another one for you." and they took it to heart! I have made two for them and will probably have to make another by the fall. I don't mind. They are super fun to make and quite easy.
Thanks for stopping by.

Emma #1