Heartfelt Creations - Bella Rose Leaves Canvas

I love a great find! I was milling around TJ Max and found a five pack of canvases on a random clearance table. I figured hey, this will come in handy some day! Well guess what? Today is the day! I'm dipping my toe into mixed media. I needed a daily reminder for my weight loss journey so I chose an appropriate quote and my fav stamp (that I own) by Heartfelt Creations - Bella Rose Leaves.

To achieve this look, I stamped the image in the upper left hand corner with Stazon ink. Then I painted the entire canvas with gesso. When it dried there was a light outline of the stamp showing through the gesso. I used those guidelines to trace the stamped image with Stickles. After about a couple of hours drying time, I used brush stix (chisel and round tips) to add color to the leaves with Tim Holtz distress inks.

I then added the quote in my own handwriting and faux stitching around the edges using a Copic marker. Next, I sponged on distress inks to blend a two-color background. To activate the ink and leave a subtle spotted background, I sprayed on some sheer shimmer spritz by Imagine Crafts. The final touch was some bling of course!

Supplies:

• Flat canvas 7 1/5 x 5 3/4"
• Heartfelt Creations - Bella Rose Leaves
• Gesso
• Stazon Ink - Forest Green
• Copic Marker - 100 Black
• Stickles - Pine
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Forest Moss, Evergreen Bough, Salty Ocean, Broken China, Worn Lipstick
• Recollections - clear bling
• Imagine Crafts (Tsukineko) - Psst! Sheer Shimmer Spritz: Sparkle, Brush Stix
• Nicole Heat tool

Here's a close up of the Heartfelt Creations - Bella Rose Leaves. I think it is a great focal point for my  daily reminder. This stamp is versatile. It can be used alone or with the Bella Rose stamp set and/or the Bella Rose Die set.

Thanks for taking a peek at my latest project. I'd love to hear your opinions on my work and Heartfelt  Creations.

La-Vie

Challenges

• Crafting from the Heart #33 - ATG
• Fan-Tastic Tuesday #50 - ATG using a square or rectangle
• Inky Impressions Challenges #174 - ATG use a stamp or digi
• Cute Card Thursday #336 - ATG
• Brown Sugar Challenge Blog #109 - ATG
• Creative Fingers Challenge Blog #46 - ATG
• The squirrel and the fox #76 - Spring or Autumn
• Creative Corner Challenges - ATG

Keep Calm and Hop On

Today I went out of my comfort zone to create a mini canvas. The 5 challenges I entered today required and Easter theme (Stampin Dragon Designz) with a humorous twist, clean, simple design that was NOT a card (CAS-ual Fridays), pastel colors and ribbon (3 Girl JAM) and buttons (Craftin' Desert Diva's). The challenge is freestyle at Hiding in My Craft Room - HIMCR. Hopefully you will play along. Here are the links:

• CAS-ual Fridays - CFC96 Funny Bunny
• 3 Girl JAM Challenge #15 Pastel with Ribbon
• HIMCR #91
• Stampin Dragon Designz - Easter challenge
• Craftin Desert Diva's Craft it up; link it up party #3

Because this project was out of my wheel house it caused my creativity to soar! I used all new materials and techniques. First of all, this is way too small. I usually create A2 cards or 12x12 layouts. Smaller = stress for me. However, I challenged myself to make this without becoming stressed. Pre-planning and then letting my imagination run wild as I was creating were key.

The first step to creating this project was stamping the bunny. I wanted him to be blurry a little to show motion. He is hopping into a cartwheel. Then I stamped the same image on cardstock, cut it out and adhered it to the stamped image on my canvas (masking). Then I used a stippling brush to layer color on the canvas to make the background.

Once the background was the way I desired, I used a small portion of a flower stem stamp to create the grass at the bottom of the canvas. I inked the stem and lightly (yet randomly) stamped it several times before re-inking. The light and dark parts help to create depth. Adding the clouds (one half on the right and the other half of the stamp on the left) in the same ink as the sky worked well. The sentiment was supposed to say keep calm and shop on. However, I removed the ink from the "S" with a Q-tip. I was feeling very cleaver.... All that was left to do was remove the mask, add the button, ribbon, twine and chipboard button. In strategic places I added double-sided tape to hold the ribbon still.

Supplies:

1. Artist's Loft primed wooden cradle board 1" (4 x 4")
2. stamps - bunny and grass: Sandylion girl clear stamps, clouds: Recollections Fun Borders, Sentiment: Stampin' Up! Carry On
3. Ink - Technique Tuesday green chalk ink, TPC Studio Clearly Better Green Ink pad, Clear and Simple Stamps Hybrid ink perfect black dress, paint the town pink, Simply Blue-tiful
4. Ribbon/Twine: Stampin' Up! Marina Mist striped grosgrain ribbon 1 1/4", Mon Ami Gabby Couture Accents twine
5. Buttons: Chipboard patterned button and mini blue button - stash
6. Stippling brush
7. Adhesives: Zots glue dots, Scotch ATG, Scotch double-sided tape

La-Vie