With Brave Wings She Flies - mixed media canvas

Canvas Corp Brands is a company like no other. So when you’re in a crafty mood, we’re the best place to visit. You need canvas? – We’ve got them! You need paint? – We have plenty! Paper? – Yes, of course! Embellishments? – Here they are! Specialty papers? – Oh, yes! We have Mixed Media Origins AND Pure Mistable Papers! New technologies? – Have you heard of Architextures? They’re ours! WE HAVE IT ALL!!!

Our Crew member, Tracy Dickinson mixes and matches all our products in her mixed media project called ‘With brave wings she flies’.

‘I wanted to make a project made using the wings from the Tattered Angels Mixed Media Origins – Grace paper. This paper is so sturdy; I thought I could have the wings extend beyond the edges of my canvas. This was also my second time playing on a raw canvas, so I wanted to explore getting more depth with just Tattered Angels sprays.’ – says Tracy.

Materials used:
Tattered Angels Mixed Media Origins – Grace
Canvas Corp Stretched Natural Canvas – 8 x 10 Chunky
Canvas Corp Scraps by the Pound (#)
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist – Patina, Turquoise Blue, Key Lime Pie, Nougat, Graphite and Dazzling Diamonds
Tattered Angels Chalkboard Mist Paint – Sprout, Teal High Heel and Black Orchid
Tattered Angels High Impact Paint – White
7gypsies Ordre Du Jour 8×8 Paper Pad
7gypsies: Architextures™ Collection

Other Supplies Used:
Homemade stencils
Caran d’Ache Neocolor II Turquoise Blue, Olive Brown, Aubergine, Malachite Green
Amsterdam Acrylic in Titanium Buff
Liquitex Basics in Naples Yellow Hue
Golden Soft Gel (Matte)
Liquitex Matte Medium
Master’s Touch Acrylic Gesso
Faber Castell Graphite Aquarelle pencil 6B
StazOn in Stone Gray
Scrap of fabric

Tools:
Cutter Bee Precision-Cut Scissors
Heat gun
Paint Brushes
Catalyst Wedge
Bienfang water brush

Tracy also shares step-by-step instructions for the project:

I had the Tattered Angels Mixed Media Origins – Grace paper and wanted to use the wings on a canvas. I began by cutting them out from the background. I’m using an 8×10 Canvas Corp Chunky Stretched Natural Canvas and decided the wings fit best with the canvas in a landscape position.

To fill the background, I selected several of my home cut stencils and an array of blue and green Tattered Angels mists. My goal was to cover the majority of the canvas with some color so the stencil I selected has medium sized openings over the entire surface. I sprayed Glimmer Mist in Patina through the first stencil and dried it a bit with my heat gun. I then replaced the stencil in a slightly different position and sprayed again using Glimmer Mist in Turquoise Blue. I switched to a second stencil with smaller openings and sprayed Chalkboard Mist in Sprout, repositioned and sprayed Glimmer Mist in Key Lime Pie. The curve and placement of my stencil leaves the upper corners without any green. With my third stencil, I sprayed Glimmer Mist in Nougat. When working on a project, I try not to over think my choices, which helps me to keep moving forward. Sometimes, this leads to unintended results. The color Nougat is similar to the raw canvas and glimmer mists are translucent so this layer only added additional shimmer, but no noticeable color. I placed the fourth stencil on the upper half of my canvas and masked the bottom with some wax paper. This time, I used Chalkboard Mist in Teal High Heel to darken the upper corners a bit more.

My next step was an experiment since I had not used raw canvas before. Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons are excellent for adding grunge that fades towards the middle to the edges of a canvas. You just apply the crayon to the edge and use a water brush to activate the pigment. Trying this on raw canvas that has glimmer mists already applied resulted in the mists and crayons blending together. Maintaining the depth of those misted layers was important, so I applied a layer of gel medium to make the mists permanent and allow me to work on additional layers on top of them.

While the canvas dried, I added some paint to the wings. Applying Tattered Angels High Impact Paint in white pushes the marble pattern into the background, and Liquitex in Naples Yellow to the shaded areas adds depth. A layer of Glimmer Mist in Dazzling Diamonds adds some shimmer.

The 7Gypsies Ordre Du Jour 8×8 Paper Pad had several papers that I thought would help the wings stand out from the background. When adhering a large piece of paper to a canvas, applying a layer of matte medium to the canvas AND to the back of the paper makes it easier to smooth out all of the air bubbles using a Catalyst wedge. Spreading the matte medium over the top of the paper seals it to the canvas. Applying gesso to the entire background unifies the paper and misted areas of the canvas.

After determining the placement of the other papers, a piece of burlap and two Architextures embellishments, I adhered the papers to the canvas, added a bit of naples yellow, and adhered the burlap and Architextures with Golden Regular Gel. While the Architextures are already adhesive, I was applying them to a textured surface and wanted to ensure they would not come off.

Using Neocolor II crayons, I gave the edges of the canvas the grungy, fading color I had tried to achieve earlier in the process.

The piece did not feel complete yet, so I found some words to support the feeling I wanted to include. After stamping the words on a tag, I tried them on a piece of canvas duck that was included in a Canvas Corp junk pack and liked that much better. To add some color and grunge, I applied mists in Turquoise Blue and Black Orchid using the tube of the sprayer and misted the canvas with water.

Behind the words I included some fabric strips colored with Glimmer Mist in Graphite. After attaching the words and the wings, I think I will call this one done!

What an ingenious way of showcasing the wings and playing with raw canvas at the same time!