A canvas tutorial....

I made this canvas a little while ago and posted it at A Cherry on Top and one of the sweet ladies there asked if I could do a tutorial on how to make it- well I was beyond flattered!! First of all, here is the canvas that I made

I used the My Minds Eye collection Sky's the Limit. I have become a huge fan of MME!! I was super pleased with how this canvas turned out, I just love it. I did it as a challenge over at A Cherry on Top- the challenge was to scraplift something from a manufacturer's blog. A lady did a wall hanging over at MME and I "lifted" that.

Ok, so I obviously couldn't do a tutorial on a canvas I already made, so I made another! It's quite different in style with the first one being so bright and cheery and this one being more of a steampunk style- that's what I call it anyways, see for yourself

I love the steampunk/vintage/grunge style/shabby chic, whatever you want to call it. I am a huge lover of Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz :) Of course I will use stuff from other companies, I am not that selective lol

So, on to the tutorial. There is really not that much to it. Firstly, start with your canvas- hehe, Miss Obvious I know! You can see by the picture how big it is, but of course you can have it whatever size you want.

I just started with brushing on my paint with a dry brush. No need to be very particular. You need to basically cover it all but if a few white spots show through, that's great, and seeing the brush strokes is even better, just gives it more character. I used Delta Ceramcoat Trail Tan. 

Once I did that I dried it with my heat tool. If you don't have one, just let it dry on its own before you add the next layer of paint. The next thing I did was to add the paper. It's Graphic 45 from their Steampunk Debutante collection- that is still my favorite G45 collection, I just love it!! I adhered it by using Mod Podge- I coated the back of the paper, brushed some of the canvas and once I stuck it to the canvas I brushed a little around the edges to ensure it stayed down.

 Then I added Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Tea Dye. This stuff is awesome! It comes with a brush already attached to the lid for one thing. And the best part is how it dries- the thicker you put the paint on, once it dries, it gets all cracked and distressed looking- so cool! You can see in the picture below what it's like. I basically applied it around the perimeter of the paper until I liked how it looked.

I really put a big glob of it on in the left lower corner and it crackled so nicely!

Once I did that I stamped a birdcage image towards the upper right corner but it didn't turn out right!!! Slight panic haha, but a little more paint fixed it up. I used a couple of different colors of Delta Ceramcoat paints and  fixed it up, as you will see further down the page.

The next step was to choose the embellishments that I wanted to add. I definitely wanted to use this wooden corset piece. I LOVE corsets!!

Then you need to finish it somehow. I inked it all over with Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo- that is my fave Tim Holtz ink!! I just find that it's the perfect color for vintage layouts. So, here it is all inked up

I then covered it with clear embossing powder, and tapped off the excess, like so

Then comes the best part! Once you heat it with your heat tool, the powder melts and makes it all shiny and cool looking :) it may be difficult to see in the picture, but it's very nice in real life. Once I did that, I inked some of the edges in black ink (Kaisercraft) and used Ultra Thick Embossing Powder (UTEE). This stuff is neat. It's just a really large particle embossing powder that adds extra dimension. Here is the end product. It is difficult to get a good picture, it really does look much better than in the picture!

I adhered the corset to the canvas with Mod Podge. I used the same technique on the lock in the upper left corner. The corset is by Kaisercraftt and the lock is by Blue Fern Studios I knew that I wanted to use some flowers so I used these beautiful mini roses from Prima . I wanted to add a contrasting color and thought that the turquoise color looked nice. 

Then I cut out the tiny picture of the lady in the corset from a Graphic 45 tag and adhered it with Mod Podge down in the corner, along with the butterfly which is also G45. I cut up a piece of bling that I had and put various pieces around the canvas for added interest and dimension. 

Oh! I added a small crown stamp above the corset- it's a Prima stamp and I used the TH distress ink. I also used the same ink and inked around some of the edges of the finished canvas. 

Voila! All done. I am super happy with it :) I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and I welcome any comments or suggestions. Thanks for reading!!