Heirloom Canvas -- Sisters

Several years ago I saw a tv show where a gal painted on a canvas, put a picture of her Grandmother on it, and gave it as a gift to her Mother.  Now, mind you...I'm not especially talented in the artistic painting department -- you might even call my painting "extreme abstract" IF you were to ever get a glimpse of one-- However...I decided I wanted to create a canvas for my Mom and Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day.  They were my first attempts and I liked the way they ended up turning out--though they were a bit chaotic.  I later created another one for my dear friend, Marla.  The key to this art was to come up with something heartfelt about that person, so that people could read it and understand what makes them special.  For my mother's canvas I joined in with my sister to relay things we remembered from our childhood (I did the same for my MIL by having my hubby and sister-in-law reminisce).  Recently I took it up again, and decided to do one for my little sister, Beth, who incidentally is much taller than me.

MIL Canvas

Mom's Canvas

For my sister's design I got to use my Cricut & Gypsy for the first time!  I used the Heritage Cartridge for the title block, 4 corner cuts, and Tree.  I cut "3rd" into the tree to represent her position in a family of six kids.  Of course, I'm 1st...ha ha.  I prepped and painted my wood mounted stretched & prepped (w/Gesso) canvas with brown & gold acrylic paint. I chose two different scrapbook papers & tore them into varying sections, then I distressed them with Distress inks - Tattered Rose, Brushed Corduroy, and Tea Dye using a sponge applicator tool. I adhered them to the painted canvas with mod podge and began adding a variety of ephemera such as die cuts, stickers, pictures, vellum, etc. (all distressed with distress ink as mentioned above). One piece of ephemera I love is the bottle cap, which I smashed with a mallet & used metallic silver Adironack ink to cover. Then I punched a hole with my crop-o-dile and added ribbon and stickers. On the computer I printed out a poem/saying I wrote about my sister and distressed that as above. On the "Sisters" title, I colored it with the same distress inks as above, adding Distress Pine Needles for the leaves. I added Distress Crackle over the title and after it dried/cured, I wiped a pad of Distress Brushed Corduroy over it to get in the cracks before wiping gently with a cloth to take off the top layer--outlining with a black permanent pen and gold metallic pen. I masked various areas and using Distress Tea Dye for the fencing, and Distress Barn Door for the swirls & hearts masking. I used white-out to write my sisters initials and adhered flat red marbles over it with Glossy Accents. Finally, I finished my distressing by going around the edging of the canvas with Distress ink, and accenting in various areas with Distress Pumice Stone (which is one of my favorite Distress inks).

Marla's Canvas

My Sister hasn't received her canvas yet...but I imagine she'll see it on here before it arrives.  It was fun to make but I do have a time-saving tip to pass on--it really helps to have everything you want to include on the canvas gathered together ahead of time.  Then, when you sit down to complete your project, it can be completed in one sitting. 

Be creative & have fun crafting!  Lisa

(some of the pictures aren't in the best lighting...but you get the picture)