2015 #9 Canvas Crossword {by Darcy Wilkinson. PA Signature Designer}

2015 Theme 9: Words

Good evening everyone, Darcy here with a fun,wordy canvas. I love words, text, book pages and above all... alphabet stamps. I could not possibly admit to how many of those I have. So, this was a great theme for me, I knew I wanted lots of words, I knew i wanted bright and layers, and I wanted some quirky bits. 

I began by gluing all sorts of leftover patterned paper to my canvas, all the pieces had text on them, but they were all different colour and fonts. The canvas measure 41cm by 51cm. I used gel medium, to attach the papers and also added gel medium over the top of the papers. 

To begin creating some cohesion I first added a light layer of Snowflake and then wiped it back a bit, made easy because of the layer of gel medium. 

Now the canvas is more neutral, but we can still see most of the text. I started to add colour with a dry babywipe, just smearing a little here and there and blending it in. I started with Haystack, then Autumn Fire ,Tangerine Twist and a little Toffee. 

Next I added Chalk with a brayer, then Bougainvillea and South Pacific, again with the babywipe. once these were dry I used watery Toffee to add some drips. 

I mixed more Bougainvillea with Metallic Glaze and used this to stamp randomly with Words 2

Words 2

I also used the Haystack to add a little stencilling at the edges, and an old credit card to add lines with Little black 'Dress. i was really happy at this stage, I could have gone on and added more layers but sometimes you just have to stop and say 'this is enough'

I collected a whole load of panel pins, screws,washers, beads, broken jewellery and jump rings. I also die cut these hearts from shrink plastic. I painted them with Bougainvillea and Caribbean Sea before stamping with text from EDY01 and EDY02 and ESN 10  I also stamped on the buttons. 

EDY01

ESN10

I measured out each of the 4 sides into equal spaces and started adding the hardware. This shows the top.

This shows the bottom edge, you can see I added broken jewellery and even a key. The shrink plastic hearts were added to the sides. 

Now I had nails/screws and decorations all around the frame. I could then use these to create a grid for my crossword. 

I took some paper string and painted it with Bougainvillea. 

Once dry I was able to string this across the canvas, tying it off at each end around a nail or a screw. I even have a bit of a broken zipper on there. I felt it needed a little something more, so I used watery Blueberry to add some flicks of paint. 

I carried on creating the grid. 

Until it was all done and this was the crossword base complete. Now to make letter tiles. 

I took a piece of heavy weight smoothy and using my brayer I covered it with Space Cadet, Smurf, Tinned peas, Hey Pesto, Blue Oyster, Chalk.. in that order. Alternating between blue and green and getting progessively lighter. I finished with a watery layer of Beach Hut. 

I then covered the card with text from EDY09, EDY10 and ESN11 using Watering Can Archival ink. I chose these 3 stamps as they are all very similar fonts, quite small and would work well in the background. 

EDY09

EDY10

ESN11

I cut this sheet into 3cm squares, and on those i stamped my chosen letters using Jofy 21. I coloured in each letter using a posca pen. 

JOFY21

I gave each tile 3 coats of Gloss Glaze and then attached them to slightly larger squares of greyboard that had been painted with Snowflake. I used foam squares to raise them up a little. When I see embellishments raised up i do not like to see the white of the underneath, so here you can see I coloured the backs of the tiles, and also the white edges of the foam. it's a picky little detail, but it can make all the difference. 

Now to start glueing the tiles into the grid. 

Here you can see the shrink plastic hearts. 

I hope you liked that, I had so much fun making this. The background was all free and easy which contrasts with the very angular and measured grid and tiles. I love the added bits and bobs on the edges, who knew a hammer would come in so useful for arting?Have a go at making your own crossword, or using text on shrink plastic or perhaps stamping on buttons?

Darcy

Twitter - Follow me HERE

See projects on FB with my stamps HERE

My blog is HERE. 

We would love you to join in with challenge #9: Words If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Words link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, May 24th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.