by Karen Endress | Nov 1, 2016 | Mixed Media
While cruising the clearance aisle at Michaels one day I saw some canvas letters. I didn’t need a leftover ‘Q’ or a ‘Z’ or ‘V,’ so was about to give them a pass when I spotted an ‘I’. I decided for only $.20 it would make a nice little canvas 🙂
It’s only 8”x2 ¾”x1” and the “Scatter Joy” vellum (see complete quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson here) piece fit onto it perfectly. I had that vellum in my stash for a long time along with some clearance napkins from Joann Fabric. I used the top layer of the napkin for the main background of white, blue & green floral and stripe patterns, positioning it so the blue pattern appeared on either side of the canvas.
The next layer was Golden fluid acrylic in green gold spread through The Crafter’s Workshop “Art Is” stencil. I also brushed the same acrylic onto the rest of the canvas and rubbed it off in several places with a baby wipe to let the background show through. At this point I also added some gesso to tone down parts using my finger rather than a brush.
Other layers included Golden molding paste through sequin waste on the top left and bottom right as well as some Tim Holtz Botanical Remnant Rubs rub-ons (flowers & music staff) in the opposite corners. I tore positive affirmations from Christy Tomlinson’s She Art coffee filter sheets text and placed them around the canvas.
Last was the quote, which I trimmed closely around the letters and used a very light touch with some of the green acrylic around the edges to integrate it. I smudged a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen from this set to add a bit of shadow around the quote.
I used Liquitex Matte Medium to adhere all the elements, including to seal on the rub-ons. It has always held everything for me with no problem but for some reason it just didn’t want to work on that vellum. I had a terrible time trying to get the quote to stick! Perseverance 🙂
Scatter joy! Karen
by Karen Endress | Oct 16, 2016 | Mixed Media
Thought some of you might be interested in this memory box I made for my mom with several photos from our family’s cottage on the Chesapeake Bay.
I had NO idea how this was going to come together, so I just started by picking a small white 7 Gypsies shadowbox (stash). I printed three copies of each photo because I knew I would mess up and it’s a good thing, especially the boat pic. That took many tries because I had to cut four people out of the photo to make it just my mom & me 🙂 Getting the acetate positioned for the boat windshield was no picnic either!
The boat needed a background, so I took a piece of textured cardstock, masked off some clouds (MFT Cloud Trio & Simon Says Stamp Talk Bubbles) and lightly sponged some Distress ink over the background. Since the photo didn’t show the entire boat, I needed something to cover up the bottom. Head to my ScrapRack’s “Summer” section for some inspiration! I pulled quite a few items that didn’t make the cut, but did find a use for the sand and waves border stickers, “Gone to the Beach” embellishment, the flip flops and a small container of teeny tiny seashells I bought my daughter on a field trip long ago. I rescued it from a give-away pile when she was cleaning out her room. Good thing, huh?
Before surgery…
…and after surgery!
The embellishment in the right opening lost more petals every time I touched it, so I replaced the flower with a tiny starfish and shell. The middle section has an actual shell from our beach, one of maybe 20 I’ve saved all these years. Instead of stamping the date and place, I ran the vellum through my printer and carefully placed the adhesive under the flip flops and shell.
For the left-hand section I took a second copy of the photo and cut just the inner tube & feet portion to place over the full picture, using foam tape for dimension. The larger shells are also from our beach and the tiny one is from that rescued container 🙂
The last thing I did was print out the sentiment onto vellum and die-cut one of the same clouds from it. I placed it over but slightly offset from the masked cloud on the top right. I did a lot of agonizing over all the details of this project, but in the end both my mom & I loved it!
Hope you enjoy!! 
