I've ventured outside of my crafting box in an effort to learn new techniques and to use elements which I may not work with on a regular basis. I've had these canvases sitting in my studio for some time, begging me to put them to use, so I took the plunge!
I began with a canvas which is about 11' x 17". I got out several colors of distressing in and began to blend them with my Tim Holtz blender on the canvas. I learned quickly that canvas material is very forgiving if you're willing to be abstract with it. I inked up a section with one color, applied another, rubbed them together and applied more color if I was so inclined.
Once I was satisfied with the inks, I began t build the collage which would rest on top of the canvas. I cut the base squares at 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" - I find that keeping things square for collages makes them much easier to work with! The next layer is 2 1/" x 2 1/8". Once I had all of these cut out I began digging through boxes and bins to locate embellishments to top the squares with. Once I had all the squares built, I began placing them on the canvas but quickly realized that using the word "Family" required a picture so 4 of the squares had to go and were replaced with the center picture.
Once the canvas had all the squares on it, I felt it was missing something (crafters intuition!!) so I wandered through the house looking for something I could use as an accent across the top of the canvas. I took a twigg from the bedroom basket (it won't be missed) and combined that with this gorgeous wood flower which came in a diffuser bottle my sister gave me (Never throw those flowers away!!). I added some nice greenery I found in a box and added a little distressing ink to the flower. I tied twine around each end of the sticks to hold them together and used a glue gun to hold everything into place on the top of the canvas.
The finished canvas is now displayed in my kitchen and I must say, it adds a nice fall feeling to the room! The picture of my Dad and two nieces, Vali and Morgan makes me smile as they are all special people in our family!
Hope you enjoy! Until next time.
Theresa
