Hold Hands Tightly and Hearts Gently

Here's a simple 8x8 canvas I made.  This was my first time using a burlap canvas.  I love the deep texture of the fabric, although it was a little bit different than painting on a traditional canvas.

The background was made with acrylic paint and then a little stamping to add texture. I bought a bubble wrap stamp to use with my altered art projects, but I like stamping with real bubble wrap better.  Too funny!

 I didn't use many rub-ons on this project...just doodling and some stamping.

 I used white Liquitex acrylic ink over book paper for the roof because I wanted it to be transparent so the words would show through.

 This is one of my favorite quotes!  I'm sure I'll use it on more projects.  :)

 To make the cloud, I used the negative portion of a die cut and swirled light modeling paste over it like a stencil.  I love how fluffy it looks!

Now it's off to live at a friend's house.  Hope she likes it!

Young Women Values Girl

In my church I am over a group of girls ages 12-18.  Our Young Women's program focuses on 8 values that we encourage the girls to develop in their lives.  

For an activity one night we made She Art Value Girls.  (I borrowed the idea from a canvas Christy Tomlinson designed).  The young women had so much fun getting messy with paint and mod podge!  To make things simpler (and less expensive) we didn't use rub-ons like I usually do on my canvases, but we had plenty of texture stamps there that they used instead, along with doodling.  

Here's the one I made that they used as an example.  It was so fun to see how each girl personalized hers with the paint colors she chose, the texture she used, and how she styled the hair.

 I prepped the backgrounds ahead of time by mod podging tissue to the canvas and then painting the blue and green.  Then the girls added their own texture with stamps and paint.  (At the thrift store I found a fabulous stack of old sewing patterns that I used for tissue.  They worked great)!

I created the blouse from muslin and mod podged it onto the canvas.

To save time, I made high quality color copies of the skirt and blouse from my canvas and printed it onto cardstock.  The girls added arms, legs, and a head from book paper to their own canvases, then glued the cardstock dress over the top.  That way they didn't have to deal with cutting and decorating the patterned paper layers.  This saved us so much time!  The girls did add their own lace and buttons as accents.  When they were done stamping and doodling, you couldn't tell it was a copy at all!

Love it!

More She Art Canvases

I made some more 6x6 She Art canvases for gifts awhile ago and realized I never shared them here.  I tried to make each one as personalized as possible for the friend who was receiving it.  I love how they all ended up having their own personalities!

"CANDI"

I love the little boots!

"KATHY"

 I had some problems with Kathy's hair to start with.  It turned out WAY too big!  It was actually quite comical.  Thank goodness for paint.  I just covered it up and started over.  :)

"AMMIE"

Did you know you can sign up at any time for Christy Tomlinson's She Art Classes?  Check out all her workshops here.

A New She Art Canvas

Remember the She Art Workshop I took a few month's ago?  Well I finally got around to making a girl.  (So far I've only made one boy canvas). This one is for a friend who helped us out with our youth conference and girl's camp this summer.  It's a small canvas (6"x6") and a super fun size to work with!  

I basically copied one of Christy's girls from class.  I loved the layered skirt she taught us to make and I wanted to give it a try.  I love all the dimension you can see on the actual canvas.  It makes you want to reach out and touch it!

I started out with the sky (which is Cerulean Blue Hue Liquitex Acrylic Ink) brushed across the canvas.  Can I just say how in love I am with these inks??  A little bit goes a long way and the colors are so vivid!  They do stain your hands (and anything else they touch) very badly so you'll want to be careful with them.  I had blue fingers for a week!

The grass is made from strips of green patterned paper cut with pinking shears that are layered across the bottom.  They are highlighted with Vivid Lime Green acrylic ink.

The sun is one of the funnest parts to create!  I love all the rub-ons and stamps and colors and doodling!  

I cut the flowers from patterned paper, then highlighted them with Pitt Big Brush Pens and a little doodling.

Then the entire canvas is embellished with paint and stamps and rub-ons and more doodling.  So much fun!!!

Christy Tomlinson is offering a She Art Workshop No. 2 this fall.  She will go more into depth on how to create details on your girls as well as using different mediums on canvas as well as other materials.  Both workshops are on sale for $35 each until October 1st.  After that they will be $44.95.  I'm so excited about this new class!  I needed another reason to get artsy!

My First "He Art" Canvas

A few months ago, I won a spot in Christy Tomlinson's "She Art Workshop."  I was so excited to start but life kept getting in the way.  Most of May and all of June I was consumed with planning and carrying out a youth conference for teens in my area.  It was an amazing experience!  However, it left me with no time at all to be creative and I have missed it a lot.  So this week I decided I was just going to do it and I'm so glad I did!  

I ordered a few art supplies online that Christy suggested, but they hadn't come yet and I was too impatient to wait.  So I decided to gather up what supplies I had on hand at home and I was so surprised with what I was able to find.  Part of Christy's objective is finding miscellaneous items that can create texture and add dimension and interest to the canvas.  I was able to see things in a new light and that might have been the most fun part about this class for me!

I was totally going to start with a girl on my first canvas, but when I sat down to create, I decided, "Why not make one for each of my boys?"  So here is my very first attempt at canvas art:

 There's lot of symbolism in this canvas.  The background consists of copies of a story Cam wrote, his sheet music, Yu-gi-oh cards, Harry Potter memorabilia, and a heart he drew.  Most of it got covered up, but we know it's there.  :)  I painted over the heart again, which you can see along the right edge.

 One of the things I love about Christy is the way she creates art so freely without worrying about whether or not it's perfect.  She layers paint, ink, paste, rub-ons, stamps, and doodles and it all ends up looking fabulous!  I really tried to not think about what I was doing and just go for it.  It was actually very liberating!

 Lots of stamps and rub-ons here.

 I wanted to add something meaningful with the phrase.  This describes Cam to a T.  He's so friendly and gets along with everyone.

 Last week we lost our Sadie dog who had been part of our family for nearly 14 years.  She was crazy and spastic and often in trouble, but we will miss her dearly.  Cameron was especially broken hearted.

 I really wanted to add some freckles, but was a little scared to.  I still might do it...

Well, that about sums it up.  I'm going to make one for Taylor next and then we will see what else pops into my head.  I have lots of ideas!  :)  Thanks for looking!