Suzanne Czosek #1 Life Canvas ....

"Today starts my last week as a Guest Designer at PaperArtsy. I have really enjoyed playing with the wonderful Fresco Paints and the fabulous Stamps. Leandra and Gillian have been wonderful and this has been a lovely term"!

My project today is a mixed media canvas with a bit of paint, tissue paper, and stamping.  I love the finished effect. I felt a little like Van Gogh as I created my own starry night but for a sunny day with sun spots floating in the air. 

I started with a flat canvas board which I had already painted the surface with a coat of Honeydew and Ice Blue.  I then used a leftover die cut butterfly that I'm using on my project for tomorrow. I cut the butterfly from the Metal Card and had the leftover black paper which I glued onto the canvas.   I applied Versamark Ink to a scrap piece of cardstock which I then heat embossed using Stampendous Aged Gold Embossing Enamel.  I repeated the process two more times to give a nice thick coat of embossing enamel.  I inked up the "gear stamp" HotPick Xtra 01 - Backgrounds with Versamark and while the embossing enamel was warm and still in a liquid form, I stamped the gear in the wet embossing enamel.  I left it to cool off. When it was cool I pulled the stamp out, I repeated the process 6 times.  After all the gears were embossed I cut them out using my detail scissors.  I then glued them to the canvas.

HPXTRA01

I wanted to add a layer of texture with the Crackly Tissue Paper (sadly no longer available).  I decided to create a tinted glaze to glue my tissue paper. 

I poured white glue onto an extra clear plastic bag. I spritzed with water to make it liquid and then added a dab of Limelight Fresco Acrylic Paint.  I used a sponge brush to mix it all together and make a glue mixture that will dry translucent with a hint of the paint still showing through.  (NB you could do this with PaperArtsy's matte, satin or gloss glazes too)

Once I had my mixture I applied it to the canvas under the tissue paper and laid the tissue paper over the glue and applied the glue over the surface of the tissue paper.

After the tissue paper is applied, let dry completely.

The next step was to add touches of Ice Blue, Snowflake and Limelight over the surface until you achieve the effect you want.

I stamped the flowers from Hot Pick 1205using Black Archival Ink onto the canvas.  I then stamped a second time onto the tissue paper using the same ink. I heat set the ink on the tissue paper and the canvas.  I flipped the tissue paper over and painted the back using Haystack. I cut the flowers out and crumpled them and attached them to the canvas.

 HP1205

I then stamped the sentiment HotPick Xtra05 - Hardware using Black Archival Ink  onto the canvas.  

HPXTRA05

I decided to highlight the gears under the surface by applying blue over the circles.  That led to adding yellow dots and white dots.  I squirted the paint on the craft mat and used a paint brush to paint the surface of the gears.  I used an eraser on my pencil to apply the yellow and the end of the paint brush for the tiny dots.  I picked up a marker cap to add another size.   After I had finished with everything I decided to use the splatter stamp from the "Backgrounds" plate to add a nice splatter effect with a lovely light blue dye ink over the surface. I added highlights using a white gel pen  on the flowers and outline.

Come back tomorrow to see what I used the metal butterfly for! 

To join in with Suzz's GD challenges this week, simply click Here to upload/share your creativity.

Leandra Says:Ohh I love the layered tissue flowers Suzz, and the whole effect is absolutely stunning! Thanks for the clear instructions, you make it seem so easy, and the finished result is excellent!

Gillian Says: The background looks wonderful with all the layers, perfect spring colours to enhance those beautiful flower images, great dimension achieved.