Boundless Imagination – Canvas board for ScrapThat

I had so much fun playing along with the Scrap That sketch challenge last month, that I decided to see what they have going on for this month. For July, they again have a sketch challenge, but they also have a “create a canvas” challenge and a round robin (sign ups are currently closed)…for the round robin, I’m team 4 – week 3 and I reveal my lift tomorrow so be sure to check back. 😀

For the canvas, the only criteria was to show dimension. I didn’t actually add a bunch of physical dimension…I did add chipboard fairies and lifted their wands and wings a bit from the canvas board, but I don’t think that shows very well in the photo. I tried to create more visual dimension with this piece instead.

To create the layers of color and texture in the background, I first blotted the canvas board with forest moss distress stain where I knew I was going to be adding grass and streaks of walnut stain and black soot where I wanted the trees to be. I let that dry completely then went over it with acrylic paint. The great thing about distress stains is that it reacts with water even after it’s been dried, so you can get a variation of color in each brush stroke that wouldn’t be there otherwise. It helps create a really cool texture that I love. 😀

Now unfortunately, I messed up the next step…I’d wanted to create a couple of translucent glowing orbs but my mixture was too opaque. I mixed a thinned out blend of iridescent medium, blue and white acrylic paint and that didn’t work out the way I’d anticipated. I guess I should have blended in more gel medium. In an attempt to thin it out, I made the circles on my painting too large and they’re still way too opaque. I hadn’t actually intended to cover up the trees in the background. 😦 Since that part didn’t turn out the way I’d wanted, I was then focusing on damage control and decided to add swirls of glitter radiating from where the fairies’ wands would be. To do that I used Stickles and spread it with a small soft brush. To create the other glittery specks on the page I dabbed iridescent medium randomly on the piece and then applied a drop of Stickles on top of it once it dried. Here’s my finished canvas:

Materials:

8″ x 10″ Canvas Board
Distress Stains
Distress paint
Folk Art Acrylic Paint
AC Moore Acrylic Paint
Iridescent medium
Stickles
StazOn opaque white ink
Petaloo chipboard fairies
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp

TFL! If you’d like to check out the fun challenges at Scrap That, CLICK HERE!

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Inspirational Journal Challenge for Tracy/Helmar

Soooo, back at the beginning of May, Tracy Weinzapfel of Helmar USA threw down a challenge to join her in creating a personal Inspirational Journal. You can see the recorded Ustream video clip on her blog here along with further details: Tracy’s awesome blog. The challenge was from the beginning of May through the end of June, to complete this album. Well here it is with less than a week of June remaining and I finally finished my COVER. Yes, my cover. lol So, here we go…

I knew that I wanted to use this one perfect image off of the Webster’s Pages diecut paper from the Spring Market collection. I knew I was going to use this specific quote with this image from the first moment I saw the paper months ago, so when Tracy announced the Inspirational Journal project, well I already had an idea in mind…but how to make it look like I imagined? Not a clue. Here’s what I ended up with instead. This is a 2 part cover here’s the outside/cover of the entire album (the quote reads, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…it’s about learning to dance in the rain”:

When you lift the acrylic cover, this is the inside page/second part of the cover which actually illustrates the first part of the quote (the fussy cut image from the WP diecut is coated in iridescent medium, but you can’t see it in the pic):

So as you can see, it’s a bit backwards, but so am I…so I think that’s about right for me. 😉 If you’re thinking hmmm…that acrylic looks kinda hazy…you’re right! It’s not your eyes and it’s not me trying to get a photo on a castover day, it’s diluted acrylic paint that I coated on the backside of the cover to make it look like a hazy, rainy day. TFL!

Materials:

Webster’s Pages Spring Market diecut
Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium
Folk Art Acrylic paint
Strathmore watercolor paper
Kaisercraft large square acrylic album
Stazon ink
Stamp by Victorine Originals

Adhesives:

Helmar 450 Quick Dry (make sure to test before use on acrylic)
Helmar Zapdots
Helmar Acid Free Glue

Entry for Cardabilities Sketch#22

This card was created using Webster’s Pages Hollywood Vogue and Garden Gala Papers, a Lullaby Lane Fabric Fancy, Butterflies cut out from journaling cards, Kaiser pearls, Distress inks and iridescent medium (on the butterflies).

To view the sketch or create your own entry, CLICK HERE.