Tulip Canvas {with ELB Tulip Die and Vintage I&D stamps by Helen Mazengarb}

Hello everyone or should I say G’day! My name is Helen Mazengarb and I am an Australian crafter who loves texture, stamping, stencilling . . . well actually anything that helps me alter the surface that I’m working on. I started scrapbooking 12 years ago and in the past 2 years I have branched out into mixed media. I am lucky as I get to teach art journaling at my local scrapbook store.

Last year on my holiday around Britain I purchased the Tulip #1 Cutting Die from Leandra. I have always been fascinated with tulips, they are my favourite flowers and I was even called ‘Tulip’ for a number of years (I am half Dutch) plus my front door has two tulip stained glass panels in it. This was my inspiration for today’s mixed media piece.

I decided to make a ‘Welcome’ canvas for the wall near the front door. I hunted around my craft room and found a 10 x 10 inch canvas board that I had previously glued paper pieces onto and coated with gesso. To begin I used a piece of Cut-N-Dry foam plus Mermaid and Bora Bora and dipped it into both colours and swirled the paint over the canvas mixing as I painted. 

Following this I stencilled the Reversed Chicken Wire with Archival Aquamarine ink in random spots.

I then mixed some Aquamarine Treasure Gold and Beach Hut with Grunge Paste and stencilled through the Mini Bricks stencil. 

To add some more interest to the background layer I used the script stamp from the Vintage Ink and the Dog collection ID01 and the Aquamarine ink plus the smaller postmark stamp and Archival Cornflower Blue ink.

Time to begin the tulips. I used some heavy art paper, GrungePaper is also ideal for this idea too, and die cut 3 sets of tulips from the Eclectica: Lin Brown Tulip dies. 

Using Candy Floss, Orchid and Claret to create a Hot Pink, I painted the petals and then edged with Royal Amethyst Treasure Gold. When piecing together I used some dimensional glue to hold the back two layers apart, which seems to accentuate the layers nicely. I curled the thin petal with my paintbrush for added dimension at the front. I painted the inside of the thin petal with Candy Floss and then stamped the script stamp, the one used earlier, with Claret. 

Using some vintage music paper I cut out some stems and leaves, these got painted with Limelight and Tinned Peas. After adhering the flowers to the canvas I used some watered down Beach Hut to shade around the tulips and leaves.

In my stash I found some canvas letters and adhered them on with gel medium. I coloured them with Treasure Gold Limited Edition #5 (Limited Edition TG is generally only available from PaperArtsy at the shows they do), buffed them up and then outlined them with a black PITT pen. I found some butterflies in my stash and coloured them with Treasure Gold: Copper. Finally I used my Cerulean Portfolio soluble oil pastel and edged the canvas and voila it’s finished.

I hope this has sparked your creativity, and inspired you to get out your PaperArtsy dies. 
See you again later in the year, Helen.

A huge thank you  to Helen from PaperArtsy HQ.The individual layers here, of paint, paper, paste and diecut shapes, all complement each other so well. This is a wonderful canvas, high impact but easily achievable, the perfect motivation to get out all those great PaperArtsy dies.

A little bit of a secret, but I've heard that the powers that be at PAHQ might be releasing some pretty stamps to go with those ELB dies in the next week or 2! shhhhhhhhh you didn't hear it from me OK! Just keep it between us!

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00 (London time) Sunday February 2nd 2014