Mixed Media Canvas

I made these for my husband and was shocked that he wanted to proudly display them at work, and still does. 

I started by painting the canvas in a dark brown, mixed with various paints that I had in my stash. It wasn't my intent, but the effect ended up giving the canvas a sort of leathery look. 

I rouged up and inked the edges of the three papers I picked. It's a bit hard to tell in this photo, but I chose papers to blend with the wall in the background of the photograph. We were at a wedding in a courtyard. The wall must have been painted blue at one point, most of it had peeled away. I loved the vintage blue.

The photo corner, brad in the center of the flower and metal label on the right side were embossed using Ranger's Copper Embossing Powder. I think they discontinued this product, which is a shame. I stamped the top and right edge of the first paper using Distress Ink and the same Copper Embossing Powder, but didn't use the heating gun. I didn't want everything covered in rust. 

I made this in 2010 and it's still holding up nicely, minus the two coffee stains on my clavicle, which I suppose adds to the vintage/grunge look!?

This one I made for him for Father's Day, of our lovely son Ollie. I didn't want to take the focus away from his sweet face, so I used a soft color palette. 

I painted the canvas in a light cream, then glued down a sheet of Core'dinations embossed pattern paper. I used one of my favorite stamps, which is about to fall apart from over-use, it's a large detailed butterfly. Instead of having huge butterflies everywhere, I used the edges of the stamp for a slight detail on the paper.

I love the ribbon and decorative butterfly. I think the ribbon is from Prima and the butterfly came from a pack of 6 from Recollections. I found a cute metal frame with a little butterfly on the corner. 

I usually grunge things up, but I kept this relatively clean.

The 'Cherish' title used to sit centered on top of the cream cardstock that frames the photo, but apparently it's become unglued and I wasn't about to ask my husband to fix it before taking a picture of the canvas.