May Flowers - Scribbly Bird Canvas

Hello MAY! It always feels like the first unofficial month of summer. It's a lovely month and I'm certainly looking forward to May 2015! To celebrate May 1, of course, Mixed Media Monthly Challenge has a brand new theme... MAY FLOWERS

We want to see your projects that are filled with FLOWERS! We also have a fantastic sponsor and TWO PRIZES from Stampers Anonymous! 

The PRIZES include some sought after Dina Wakley products... she also happens to be our Guest Designer for May! Make sure you click over the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge blog to see her gorgeous creation.

Alright, now that the morning news is finished it's time to share my flowery canvas!

I even remembered to take some photos along the way!

I started with an old canvas that already had a lot of 'stuff' painted on it. No matter, because I just covered it up with some bold tissue paper using DecoArt Matte Medium. I created a lot of bunched up areas and wrinkles to add texture. 

Next I grabbed a LOT of flowers. Paper flowers. Burlap flowers. Wood flowers. Fabric flowers. It really didn't matter, because every one of them got a thick coating (or two or three) of DecoArt Gesso. I let the flowers and the canvas dry overnight.

I tried a lot of different arrangements until I settled on this diagonal pattern across the canvas. I made sure to keep the bulk of the flowers toward the bottom so the canvas didn't appear 'top heavy'.

Once the largest flowers were adhered, I filled in gaps with a mix of the smaller flowers. All of these items were adhered with hot glue (it's just faster and we probably all own a hot glue gun so dust it off and use it!).

Think you were finished with the gesso? Wrong! Now apply another very liberal coat of gesso over the entire piece. Again, I let it dry overnight. I then applied from DecoArt Crackle Paste to various parts of the canvas. Make sure it is COMPLETELY dry before moving on to the next steps.

This step is definitely 'where the magic happens'. Pick a few different ink sprays/mists and spray across the canvas. I used a scrap piece of paper to block off sections of the canvas while I was spraying. This helped keep the defined color areas throughout the piece (it also stops any chance of a beautiful MUD color from all those mists mixing). I used a combination of Prima Color Bloom Sprays and Heidi Swapp Color Shine sprays.

These Scribbly Birds from Stampers Anonymous are a FAVORITE of mine! I colored the bird with my Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Aquarelle pencils. These are watercolor pencils that are permanent when dry... perfect for mixed media. I also stamped a quote from the Collaged Hearts set by Stampers Anonymous and cut each word individually.

Now for the glamour close up shots :)

Welp, you made it all the way to the bottom of the post! Now click over to the MMMC blog to see what the rest of the design team created for the MAY FLOWERS theme. And you definitely don't want to miss what our guest designer, Dina Wakley created! 

I'm also adding this project to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Anything Goes"

Love,

Rachel