Friday, August 12, 2011

Mixed Media Flower Canvas- a mini tutorial!

Hello lovely friends! I hope you've had a great week and are looking forward to a fun weekend!

I know that we've had a lot of requests (coughcoughShannoncoughcough) on the message board for mixed media tips; Britt has shared several great ones here on the blog, and I wanted to throw in a few too!

I started off with a background I'd already created and cut a simple flower, with circles cut from the Salt Water Taffy kit and some text paper.
Tip #1: to make it look less like paper just glued to a canvas, add some paint on TOP of the patterned paper. You can see that the big red outer circle is completely painted over, and I've added some streaks of red around the outside of the whole flower. I also began adding a few rub ons (from the Salt Water Taffy kit) around the edge.
Here you can see where I began adding paint to the stem and leaves. This is all just acrylic craft paint.
Tip #2: paint with your mists! I unscrewed the lid of my mists and dipped my paintbrush inside, and began painting on the stem and leaves with a green mist.
Tip #3: let your rub ons do the work! I bought some great Hambly rub ons from Noel a while back, and began adding them onto the outside of the flower. I have a small stash of rub ons now saved just for canvasses!




Tip #4: Outline with pen & marker! This step is crucial to making everything really stand out and look defined. I grabbed this marker a while back from my LSS. It's a big thick marker, and it's made for this kind of art.
It dries quickly and is permanent, so I do small sections at a time. Just outline a little and then rub with your finger to get a smudgy affect.
And here's my final piece!

(Final tip- don't forget to finish your canvas edges! I did mine with the washi tape in the Salt Water Taffy kit!)
I hope you guys start trying out mixed media! Make sure to share your results with us! :)

12 comments:

Britt said...

Love love love love stinkin' love. You are a mm genius!

Gretchen said...

wow! brilliant!

Michelle said...

This is so cool!!!

Christina Carnoy said...

that flower is just plain gorgeous!

Poppyseed Vintage said...

This is pure eye candy!!!

Becky Marie said...

I love this artwork. Beautiful! Thank you for taking the time to post it.

Becky
Ucreatewithkids.com

Catie Cuddles said...

Just found this courtesy of Pinterst... Simple but beautiful and effective. Might have a go at this myself!

Anonymous said...

Super beautiful!

Team Craftwell
blog.craftwellusa.com

Unknown said...

So cute <3

Cindy~ HeartandSewInspirations.com said...

I love this type of artwork! I have never attempted it myself although I have tons of rubber stamps, paints, chalks, scrapbook supplies...now I just need some time. :) Thanks for inspiring!

Nikki Gillette said...

What a fun, whimsical piece! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Lovely work! Same exact process that Christy Tomlinson teaches. Have you taken her classes? I've always wanted to try them.