Trending Tuesday with Altered Pages

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Trending Tuesday.  This month, the Altered Pages design team will be using stencils in collages.  We are also working with The Robin's Nest  our cross-promotion partner this month.  So hold onto your hats, this is going to be fun.

I decided to make an altered art canvas.  I have not done one in awhile, but with all these wonderful products at my disposal, I had a blast.  I am going to call this "Live Brightly".  

Supplies used:

Altered Pages Collage Sheets:  AP 1789-Vintage Bird Cards; Victorian Beauty Labels; Queen of Hearts
5x7 Canvas Art Board
Art Anthology Acrylics:  Orchid, Mint Julep, Baby Blue Eyes, Kona, Kenyan Copper, Imperial
Burlap fabric
Burlap flower shapes
Dylusions Diamond Border Stencil
Leaky Shed Wrought Iron Leaf Corner
Corners Antique Brass
Seam Binding Ribbon (yellow or havana brown)
Dylusions Ink Sprays (Cut Grass, Fresh Lime, Squeezed Orange, Lemon Zest)
Gel Medium or Light molding paste
3D Crystal Lacquer

The Robin's Nest Dragon Fly Rub on:  (Live Brightly)(3 mini dragonflies)
Floral sprays (Michaels)


I started with a blank 5x7 canvas art board.  I used a spatula to spread light molding paste through my stencil in a couple of spots.

Allow molding paste to dry.  You could also use gel medium if you don't have molding paste.

Next, I began painting my canvas with Art Anthology acrylics in Orchid, Mint Julep, and Baby Blue Eyes.  These paints are absolutely fabulous.  They are shimmery, translucent, and creamy.  I really love the look of them.  Next, I "framed" the canvas with the darker Kona color, just like when we edge our paper with brown distress inks.  I simply feathered the paint inward as I went around the canvas.

Next, I started on my embellishments.  I first chose this Leaky Shed chipboard corner and painted it with Kona and Kenyan Copper acrylics.  

Here is a closeup of the chipboard after I added the Kenyan Copper.  It gave it a bit of brownish red shimmer.  I love it.

Next, I fussy cut my three collage images and glued them down, as shown.  They are totally flat at this point.  

The three remaining corners looked a little bare to me, so I lightly sanded three of these gorgeous metal corners to make the embossed image pop.  Then I attached them by simply pressing the metal together with a pair of flat nose pliers.  Just be careful not to scratch the metal.  (See photo of finished project.)

Next, I knew I needed something to ground my collage images.  First, I needed a branch to place my "floating" bird, so I glued some botanicals down, and began the process of decorating my branch.  I wanted some bell-shaped flowers, so I used three of the smallest burlap flowers in the package, removed the paper backing, and cut two petals away.

Then I painted each petal with Art Anthology Imperial acrylic, spraying with water to allow it to soak in well.  I covered both sides, as they will show when my flower is formed.

I placed a stamen on the flower, some wet glue on one petal, as shown, and then glued that petal to the petal on the opposite side.  I used a PVA glue, which grabbed quickly so I did not have to hold it for very long.

This is how the flower looks when glued together.  The stamen can be moved in and out at this point, depending on how far out you want them to show.  Aren't they pretty?

I then decorated the branch with these flowers, some faux eggs, and more gems, as shown in the close-up photo below.  

To make the faux bird nest to hold my eggs, I used strands of burlap fiber, folded and glued together, and arranged around the eggs.  

Next, I used seam binding in a yellow color, spritzed with Dylusions Cut Grass and Fresh Lime, and allowed to dry.  For the peach flowers, I spritzed with Dylusions Squeezed Orange and Lemon Zest.

To make tiny vintage ribbon rosebuds, I put a blob of hot glue on my craft sheet and began  scrunching up the ribbon into a wrinkled bud.  Be very careful as you do this.  The hot glue is VERY HOT!  I used a metal piercing tool to manipulate the ribbon, but as the glue cooled, I could use my fingers to squeeze and tighten the flower.  

Here are three peach rose buds waiting to be pulled up off my craft sheet.  Don't they look like those old vintage roses you see on needlework and cards in antique shops?

These were used to ground my "floating" woman.  I also added small pieces of a brownish stamen to add to the collage image to simulate the grapes in the image.  I also added 3D Crystal Lacquer to the grapes in her hair.  This just gave it a bit more dimension.

Now, to make my "flat" collage images have more dimension.  You know I love my dimension.  So, I cut out another bird image and placed it onto a piece of fun foam.

I embossed the bird from the back so that it would have this puffed up shape for the body.  As you can see in this photo, is does not sit flat any more like the photo above.

To help my little bird retain it's shape, I added a puddle of hot glue in this area before adhering it over my first collage image.

I used the same process for the banner in the Savon de la Rose collage image.

With this image, I embossed from the back and the front, where the banner would flow in and out if it were real.

Hot glue added to the middle.

After the hot glue dried, I then used PVA (or white glue) to adhere the pieces down.  Here is a close up of the banner.  I also added some Crystal Lacquer to the roses.

In this photo, you can see a bit of the bird causing a shadow from the dimension it is displaying, as well as the leaves I cut out and reattached in the same way.  I also used The Robin's Nest Dragonfly rub ons to adhere my title for this piece, "Live Brightly", and three tiny dragonflies.  TRN rub ons are so easy to use, and adhered beautifully to my painted canvas.  Here, you can see that tiny dragonfly.  It looks like it was painted on.  

I hope you enjoyed my canvas project as much as I enjoyed making it.  This is going to be an inspiration piece for me, which I am sure, during the winter months, will brighten my day.  For now, it just reminds me of the beauty and brightness we are about to experience with Spring finally here.

Please be sure to shop Altered Pages and The Robin's Nest for all of your art supplies.  And visit the Altered Pages blog to see what the rest of the team has created to inspire you with collage and stencils this month.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful, creative week!

Barbara