"Romantic Summer" Canvas Tutorial for Cherish the Memory

Roses and the Sea :

A Romantic Summer Canvas Tutorial

Cherish The Memory Store

Materials :

1) A primed Canvas

2) Modeling Paste or any heavy medium for texture

3) A background stencil. I used a Tim Holtz gauze stencil

4) Romantic Summer Paper Card Kit Pad from Cherish the Memory 

5) Acrylic or Ink Sprays in your favorite blues. I used Lindy's Stamp gang colors Tilt-a-Wheel Teal and Blue Hawaiian Blue. Acrylics used were Finnabair's Art Alchemy Metallique Rich Turquoise and Opal Magic Pink-Blue and a basic Titanium White acrylic paint for the painted veneer (or other color of your choice that will stand out against the blue)

6) Cheesecloth and Natural Fibers

7) Paper flowers of your choice. Some flowers used were Prima Marketing flowers. 

8) Heat tool (optional for drying)

9) Hot Glue Gun

10) Rhinestones or Druzys for bling decoration

11) A framed wooden veneer or chipboard for framing

12) Blue Raffia from Cherish the Memory

13) Scrapbooker's mounting tape for a 3D effect

Tutorial 

Start by priming your canvas, if not already primed with gesso and use desired stencil with paste. *Note* I did not prime my canvas, as it was store bought.

These are the colors that I used on the canvas once the modeling paste was dry. The sprays were used first, dried, then acrylics were used for accenting and contrasting. This part is really up to you in terms of what look and shades you want to your background!

I used white acrylic for some added dimension to make the stencil work pop. At this step, you should start playing around with the cheesecloth or mesh of your choice to get an idea of what parts you want to cover the canvas with.

I decided to use natural fibers toward the center, and here I was playing with placing it in different parts of the canvas to add dimension and height underneath where my paper elements will be placed.

Decide where you would like your papers to go according to your focal point. In this picture, I painted my wooden veneer with white acrylic paint and fastened it over top of my placed papers. You can do all of this before gluing anything down, in case you change your mind over the paper placement. I love having the opportunity to have a preview if I can! 

Once paper placement is decided, adhere mounting tape to each of your layers to create the level of dimension you wish to achieve. I go crazy with mounting tape because I love dimension! 

I used the blue raffia from Cherish the Memory to tie and secure the veneer as a decorative option to the canvas which doubled as a way to hang the canvas later on when putting it up for display. 

After you have decided on your paper placement and have glued and mounted all your layers (cheesecloth/gauze, natural fibers/raffia, wooden veneer/chipboard and paper layers, feel free to adorn the surroundings of your canvas with accessories such as paper flowers and rhinestones to make the shadowed areas (if any) pop! 

Here are some close ups :

I hope you all enjoyed my tutorial! This project would not have been as beautiful without these gorgeous papers from Cherish the Memory's Etsy store! Find the link below this paragraph. Please also make sure to take a look around at other beautiful papers and check out my previous posts for more ideas.

Cherish The Memory Store