Forever & Ever by Kaye Halls

Good morning everyone,

I managed to sneak by while no one was looking to share a canvas that I've been working on. 

I've heard people comment that they want to try mixed media projects but they look to complicated, well hopefully after seeing my canvas you'll see that they can be as complicated or as simple as you choose to make them.

The first thing I did was to get the canvas and photo I wanted to use, then I raided my chipboard stash looking for all those pieces I've been holding on to since forever!

Once I found the pieces I wanted to use I laid them out on the canvas and played around until I had them how I liked them. I then took a photo so that I had something to refer to as I put the canvas together. 

The next thing I did was work out where I wanted my stencilled bricks to go, I added them using crackle paste and then I glued the chipboard bricks in place. The reason for this was that if the chipboard bricks had been secured in place first it would have been to difficult to keep the stencil flat on the canvas and I won't have been able to get a clean image which is what I wanted. 

I also added some texture to the chipboard bricks by dabbing the crackle paste left on my spatular over them.

After adding some more crackle paste through a different stencil I left it to dry to allow the paste to crackle. I've tried hurrying the process using a heat gun but the crackle has to happen in its own time.

While the crackle paste was drying I glued down all the chipboard with the exception of the main frame, the words and the little birds.

Once the crackle paste has dried and crackled I brushed white gesso over the entire canvas and ten set it aside to dry.

I then painted the words, the main frame and the birds with white gesso on a non-stick mat.

I found I had to give both the canvas and the seperate chipboard two coats of gesso to get the desired coverage.

Once the gesso was dry I set about adding the colour. The first thing I coloured was the words. I covered the words in clear ink and then sprinkled Lovely Lilac Colour Embossing Powder over the words. 

To get the depth of colour and shimmer I wanted I added a second layer after heating the first.

I then moved on to colouring the flowers by using Lovely Lilac Colour Shimmer Spray. I sprayed some on a non-stick mat,

And then using a paint brush I painted the petals, 

by doing this I was able to capture not only the lovely colour but the shimmer as well.

When the flowers had dried the only ting left to do was to adhere the remaining pieces to the canvas.

And here is the end result!

When I started the canvas I had intended to add additional colour by spraying the body of the canvas with other Colour Shimmer Spray colours but I decided against it as I loved the way the white background highlighted the black and white wedding photo I had used. Depending on the photo you use and your own personal taste this is another option you can try.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this has given you some ideas. Don't forget to share your projects with us over on the Colour Blast Creative Corner on Facebook.

Until next time,

Kaye