GD: Wanda Hentges Project #3 Winter Canvas

Hello there, Wanda here. We are on day 3 of my first month already!!! I do hope you are inspired to make something. We've made some Christmas cards and now it's time for something to decorate with or this could even be used as a gift. I'm working on a 4" x 6" box canvas and then a piece of grey board cut to 3 1/4" x 5 1/4".  

Again I'm using the latest collection of Lin Brown stamp sets and her Limited Edition Paint Set 2.  

Starting with the edges of the canvas I knew I wanted texture!!! I used Grunge Paste applied with a palette knife and stamped into it with the pine branch stamp first sprayed with water. I did the edges one at a time - apply the paste, spray the stamp with water, stamp into the paste, if necessary wipe the stamp off a little (it doesn't have to be clean), re-spray stamp, stamp into paste, continue along the edge turning the stamp as you work. I did two edges and then left it to mostly dry before continuing (much less chance of getting my fingers in the wet paste this way). I did clean my stamp completely during this time as you definitely don't want the Grunge Paste to dry on your stamp. Once those sides were mostly dry, I did the other sides and left it to dry completely. 

Once it was dry I painted the sides and onto the front with a mix of Evergreen and Metallic Glaze, about 1/2 and 1/2. I love the little sparkles the paint gets from the Metallic Glaze; however, I realized later that I could have left that out of this step as most of it is covered up. There was no need to do all of the front because the grey board will be over it.  

Next I applied Crackle Glaze to the front of the canvas (it shows in the above picture because it was still drying when I realized I hadn't take a picture of the last step). After the Crackle Glaze was dry, I used a piece of Cut N Dry foam to apply a mix of Hint of Mint and Metallic Glaze. This layer did not crackle very well. I'm not sure if it was because of the Metallic Glaze or if I worked it too much trying to get good coverage with foam. I'll experiment at another time to find the answer to that question. I also rubbed some of the Hint of Mint/Metallic Glaze mix over the edges, adding a little and then rubbing with my fingers, to help bring out the texture. Since it didn't crackle very well I re-painted the front with Evergreen, dried it, added the Crackle Glaze again, dried it, and then added only Hint of Mint over the Crackle Glaze being extra sure not to go back over areas and not caring if specks of green showed through which actually looks really great. As you can see, I got fabulous crackling!!!

Now onto the Grey Board piece. I first coated the Grey Board, on the white side, with a few light coats of Gesso using Cut N Dry foam. I went horizontal, dried it, then vertical, dried it, and repeated. To add color I first used Marlin applying it in horizontal strokes with a wide brush not trying to get full and complete coverage. 

I went over the Marlin with Hint of Mint in exactly the same way and then right after the paint was on I also sprayed a little water, from a distance, so there was a sprinkling of drops in the paint and I left it to dry. Doesn't it look great!!! 

Now for a little stamping with the pine branch using Archival Ink Leaf Green. I inked the stamp, stamped at the top right corner and then continued stamping over to the top left corner without re-inking the stamp and dried the ink. This allowed the stamping to be lighter where I knew I would be stamping words. 

I used an anti-static bag over the whole board, stamped the quote with Archival Ink Jet Black, added detail black embossing powder right away tapping off the excess and heated it. Wonderful!!!!!

I stamped the word-tree image twice onto heavy smoothy cardstock using Archival Ink Jet Black. I cut one whole tree out and cut the individual words from the second image. I painted the whole tree with watered down Evergreen in the tree area and Mocha Mousse over the pot area. For the star I thought maybe a mix of Haystack and Old Gold, so I did that and dried it. Nope, not bright enough, so I repeated with Zesty Zing and Old Gold. Nope, the Old Gold is not working. I painted it again with just Zesty Zing and then put Metallic Glaze over it. This looked much better but the star needed to be more dimension to match the layered on words. I first thought I'd stamp another star to layer on top but then decided one of the Idea-ology mirrored stars would look great.  

After painting the whole tree I decided I wanted the individual words to be embossed in black so I stamped the tree again embossing with detail black powder and cut out the words individually. I painted them as shown with either plum or evergreen blotting off excess paint with a damp cloth as I went. I love that the color isn't all even and the shine of the embossed words.  

I then decided the board piece needed "snow", so, as with the cards yesterday, I mixed Snowflake paint with Grunge Paste and applied it to the board. I glued on the tree so the base was pressed into the "snow" and then added Distress Dry Glitter Clear Rock Candy. Once it was all dry, I added some Treasure Gold White Fire to the edges of the board and attached it to the canvas with a double layer of foam mounting tape.

Thank you for embracing me into the PA family, your support has been much appreciated. I look forward to seeing you all again next month.

~Wanda~

A huge thanks from all of us at PA HQ Wanda for a week full of inspired projects. The crackle effect and textures on the canvas look awesome, again such a lovely colour palette. Look forward to what next month brings.

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Sept 1st 2014 and Sept  30th 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time)  Sept 30th 2014