Mixed Media on Canvas tutorial

Hello, I hope you will take part in the LNS (late night stampers) Fall Treasure Hunt. See the details in yesterdays post. My clue is RE-INKERS. It will be made clear to you why I picked that item as my clue when you view today's tutorial on how I do my mixed media. If you have been following me on Pinterest, you know that I have an entire board dedicated to this. There are some good video tutorials on that board also. I'm sure there are others ways to do mixed media, but I will be sharing what works for me.

This is the project I will be showing you. I feel in love with the card designs by Bright and Merry and have adapted them onto canvas. I have used Stampin' Up! materials where appropriate. So let's get started.
I purchased all my canvases from Michael's simply because it is the closest craft store near my house AND because they were having a BUY ONE GET ONE sale last week. I used an 8x10 canvas for this snowman.

1. Begin by preparing your canvas and background. I covered my canvas with a coat of Modge Podge Matt. I used several different designs from the Winter Frost Designer Stack (132183 found in the Holiday Mini). I tore each page into uneven pieces and used front and back designs if they fit into my color scheme. I put modge podge onto the canvas with a sponge brush and again on the back side of each piece of paper and glued it to the canvas covering the top of the paper as I went. I used my heat tool to quick dry the modge podge. Keep the tool moving as you do this to avoid large air bubbles from forming. If they do, stop and smooth them out. Note: I don't always use different papers on my background. Most times I just use one design and cut it about 1/4 inch smaller than my canvas.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Now it is time to start layering on the paint. Here is where the re-inkers come into play. I start with a dime size blob of white paint I purchased from Michael's, you know, those cheap bottles that are about 80 cents. I used an empty SU embellishment plastic container. They are perfect for mixing the paint in. I added 4 or 5 drops of Tempting Turquoise re-inker into the white paint and mixed it with my sponge brush. I brushed the paint over the paper and sides of the canvas. You can decide how opaque you wish to go.I covered my fairly well. Then I mixed together some white paint and Old Olive re-inker and painted the lower portion of my background, also adding some of the green to the sides onto top of the blue. In the photo below you can see what I did. I also mixed together some white with real red, not much white or it will be pink, and added some splashes of red on the edges.







 3. Now comes the fun part, added all kinds of designs to the background using your stamps or any material that will add texture. I used  paint directly onto the stamps. Heat set paint to dry, then add a coat of Modge Podge. The colors of the blue and green will intensify as you add coats of Modge Podge. I did have some problems with the white paint fading as I dried it with the heat tool, but I just kept moving forward.


4. At this point I could also start adding texture using by black stazon ink or other permanent black ink. On this project I added it later, as you will see. Next I started building my design with pieces of designer paper. I started with the tree and added some washi tape as well. I used the Modge Podge on the background and backs of the papers, then put a coat over the paper. Heat set to dry.


 5. The snowman was next. I started at the bottom and worked my way up. Every part of him started as a piece of paper glued down with Modge Podge. Then paint was added. I sketched the snowman onto a piece of copy paper to get the right shapes and proportions. Then laid my sketch over the desired print paper and traced around the pieces with my stylus. This left enough of an impression for me to follow to cut out each piece.


The hat is actually cut as one piece, but could easily be done in stages. I used black and white paint to add shadows to give the hat dimension. The carrot nose is cut from Tangerine Tango by hand. The red bird was punched from Cherry Cobbler cardstock using the wing section of the SU bird builder punch. You can see I had added old olive polka dots to the background using the new stencils from the Build a Banner kit found in the Holiday mini.I hand painted the holly leaves and berries. Everything is heat set to make sure all the modge podge and paint is dry.





 6. The final step is to add all the black details using stamps and black permanent markers.
Some of the stamps you could use to add details are: Happy Day, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron, Background Builders, Clockworks, Festive Flurry. There were also some great stamps I found in my Paper Pumpkin  boxes! I used two kinds of markers.  I used Prismacolor Premier in Jet Black to outline all the pieces.Then I used an ultra fine black Sharpie for the skinny details.

I wrote my title onto the white sheets of tag that back out designer paper packs, cut them out, glued them down with Modge Podge, and heat set. When they were dry I outlined them and then added the scratch marks around them. I gave the entire canvas one more overall coat of Modge Podge and heat set to dry, be sure to add modge podge to the edges of the canvas as well.


As a last step I used the tip of my stylus and dipped it into white and red paint to make the lights and snowflakes on the tree.  I hope this tutorial was helpful. You can leave comments and questions if you have them. I will be posting many more canvas projects that I have finished as the days go by. I hope you will check back.