Mixed Media Canvas

Hey everyone!

Wow, it has been a year since my last post! Sorry about that. Life happens, though, right? I am back today with a new process video for you! This canvas was made for an Art Recipe Challenge in a group on Facebook. The lady putting out the challenge was looking for people to make samples and I said I would help her out! The ingredients we were to use were:

Inks for the main source of color,
Tissue paper,
Music paper,

A black pen,
and a creature with wings.

I had fun doing this challenge! I have been trying to use the things I have on hand and not buy new supplies. We are moving in just over a month and the less I buy, the less I have to move! I did have to go to the thrift store and buy a Barbie, however, because my kids wouldn't let me use theirs for art purposes...

You can see the video I made of this process here:

 


Keep reading for some pictures of the process, as well as the materials I used on this canvas.
I started out by laying my Barbie down and covering her torso in paper mâché.  The idea here was to make a dress form using her shape. I did this several days before I continued with the rest of the project, to make sure it would be totally dry when I was ready to stick it down.

 

After she was dry, I removed the cast from her torso. I then trimmed the neck and sleeves to the length I wanted them. After that I covered the openings at the arms, neck, and legs, making it an enclosed dress form! Then I covered the entire thing in music paper. I also inked the dress form using Coffee Archival Ink.

 

 

Once my dress form was dry, I started working on the canvas itself. The canvas I used was 9"x12" . I started by doing some stamping on my canvas, using a Tim Holtz stamp from the Mixed Media set and a grey ink pad. On a cream colored piece of tissue paper I used another Tim Holtz stamp, this time from the Reflections set. Then, using matte medium, I glued the cream tissue paper and a pink piece of tissue paper down to the canvas.

                      

After this was dry, I applied a watered down layer of gesso to the canvas, just to mute the pink a little bit and to put the tissue more into the background. Over top of the gesso I applied two colors of brown Lindy's Stamp Gang spray ink, letting the darker run and blend with the lighter. I also added some Coffee ink to the edges of my canvas.

Once this was done, I started to work on the base for my dress form. I made the stick out of a drinking straw and the foot part out of more paper mâché. I had way less patience for drying this time around however, and so I used my heat gun to dry it faster. I also didn't want to wrap the base in paper mâché after I had the shape I wanted (again, impatient!), so I used masking tape instead. After wrapping it in masking tape, I wrapped both the straw and the base in a piece of brown paper bag that I had crumpled and inked.

 

 

To make the wings for my dress form, I stamped the swallowtail stamp from Stampin' Up! in Jet Black ink on to a piece of clear packaging plastic. I then used four colors of Pigment IZINK to color the butterfly. I used quite a bit of turquoise and bamboo color, and if you watch the video you will see me remove quite a bit of it again after a while. I just wasn't happy with how dark the wings were turning out. After removing more of the dark color, I added more of the amethist and opaline to make it more purple and brighten it up. I also cut the butterfly out.

Before I stuck my elements to my canvas, I decided I wanted a bit more visual texture on it. I got out my small reverse chicken wire stencil by The Crafters Workshop and used my grey ink pad to add a bit more texture and color randomly over the canvas. I also used it on the base of the dress form. Then I glued my three elements on top.

I added some shading around the  dress form using my brown big brush marker, my finger, and a blending stump to reach into the spaces my finger wouldn't fit. All that I needed now was to sew the skirt that I had planned. I bought a scarf at my local thrift store, but about eight and a half inches off and stitched a quick running stitch along the top edge. I used my FabriTac to glue it in place. A quick run around the edge with my fine tipped black Pitt Pen to give it a sketchy border, and it was done!

Materials ListModge podge diluted with water

Newspaper

Barbie

Saran wrap

Music paper

9" x 12" canvas

Stampers Anonymous stamp set 'Mixed Media' CMS125

Stampers Anonymous stamp set 'Reflections' CMS111

Archival Ink in 'Watering Can'

StazOn Ink in 'Dove Grey'

Pink tissue paper

cream tissue paper

Liquitex Matte medium

Liquitex gesso

Lindy's Stamp Gang Flat Fabio sprays in 'South Shore Sand' and  'Sandra Dee Sepia'

Tim Holtz scissors

Drinking straw

Brown paper bag

Art Basics soft matte gel

Clear plastic packaging

StazOn Ink in "Jet Black'

Stampin' Up! Stamp 'Swallowtail'

Pigment IZINK in 'Opaline' 'Amethist' 'Turquoise' and 'Bamboo'

Archival Ink in 'Coffee'

The Crafters Workshop 'Mini Chicken Wire Reversed' stencil TCW259s

Big Brush Marker in 'Nougat'

Blending stump

Second hand scarf

Needle and thread

FabriTac

Baby wipes

Fine Pitt Pen in 'Black'

 

Thank you so much for stopping by!