Jo - Canvas Art using Botanical Odyessy

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first blog for Artfull Crafts 2013.  

This project was created using the January release of papers from Kaisercraft, Botanical Odyssey, and the new stencils from Kaisercraft.  

The idea was taken from a book by Julie Nutting.  A very talented lady, and I have done this project a few times now. If you click on her name it will take you to her blog. 

What I used on this project:
Two identical black and white laser copied pictures of a lady in some sort of dress, short, long, evening, day what ever you like.
A canvas, size dependent on the picture you have photocopied, mine is very big 20 inches x 16 inches.
One sheet or more of a range of paper, (Botanical Odyssey of course)
Some paint, Glimmer mists or whatever you want to cover the background with.
Modelling compound, or gesso. 
Gel medium or glossy accents
Stencils Kaisercraft.
Printed or plain tissue or serviettes. 
Decorations, Collectables, glitters, flowers etc. 

 Firstly I used some tissue scrunched up and flattened,  I used gel medium to adhere to the canvas.  I also had a few floral serviettes that I also adhered. I used some tissue from Tim Holtz with words printed on it.   I used the Modelling compound on the Kaisercraft clock stencil.  I added some muslin over the tissue to add some interesting texture.

This picture is not the one I am describing, but I wanted to show you what it looked like, I lost my data on my phone, so I redid this part to show you.    
 

  
 I painted most of the canvas with a cream paint (leaving some parts clear), and then sprayed glimmer mists all over the canvas. I used distress ink around the edges and over the clock to add extra colour, and the stencil I used down the top right and bottom right hand corners.

Then I cut out the lady from one of my laser printed pictures and adhered to the canvas using gel medium. This is why it must be laser printed, otherwise the ink would run on my canvas. 

I then cut out the second photocopied picture, but I only cut out the dress this time.  I turned it over, and put it on the back side of the paper that I wanted, like this:

Originally I had been going to use several different colours of paper to make the dress, but decided on one colour.  As you can see above, I cut the dress originally into three parts.  You can glue or tape this down before cutting out, or you can just trace it.  When you turn it over, you have a perfect replica of the dress.  Note I didn't like the way this dress finished, so I actually added a bit more to finish it off.  

Adhere that to the canvas using gel medium, also go over the top of the dress.  Now that the messy part is over, it is time to start decorating, and making the dress your own.  I painted the edges of the dress, and the folds.  I gave her hair a little colour using Distress pens. Once distress pens are dry you can gel medium over them.   I added the butterfly and the birds and cage and some of the flowers, from the Botanical Odyssey collection.  I used Kindy Glitz to make the butterfly more interesting, and some kaisercraft flowers.  I used glossy accents to adhere the necklace and earrings on.  I also used it on the bling, as the sticky will not stay on for long, especially in any heat.

I used rubons on rectangles of paper, making lots of fun words, that I thought might be appropriate for this lady.  I used a big swirl of Zva bling to add some interest to her dress.  I had this pleated white ribbon which I used on the bottom of the dress, it keeps pulling, so it will be interesting, and I used the cut off piece from one of the pages, which had more positive words on it, and hid the join of the fabric and dress.

I didn't mind the wrinkles under the dress, like normal fabric would have, if you didn't want that, you would have to ensure you didn't put anything on the canvas under the dress.

This is a great project for the younger girls in your life to do as well as yourself.  I have done this project with a group of 12 girls aged from about 6-11 and they all did a great job.  
 
I hope you are now inspired to start making something special.  Did you promise yourself that you were going to be more creative this year?  Then what are you waiting for?