Europe: A Canvas

I have decided to push myself a little more on the mixed media front this year and am joining in with the International Tournament of Art & Craft 2017 organised by Aall-and-Create with challenges set from designers all round the world.  Challenge 1 is Europe and the list of prompts which could/should be included were: a face, papers, letters/numbers, blue, ribbon/twine/string or lace, textures, vintage and modern.

I worked on an 8"x 8" canvas board from Claritystamp.  I had a blue mop up sheet from a previous project so decided to work on that (Distress Salty Ocean).

I stamped the XXL Carabelle Studio Texture Texte stamp onto it using Jet Black archival ink.  Unfortunately the stamp moved a little and part of the stamping became blurred, but as I was intending to tear sections from it, it didn't matter that much.

As I teach both French and German, I decided to tear up a page from an old, now unused German dictionary to contrast with the blue of the background of the stamped French text.  The torn strips were added using Pebeo matte gel and sealed once in place.

This took care of the 'blue', 'papers' and letters' aspect of the prompt.  To add texture and bring in an 'ancient' element, I used Gloss White Dreamweaver embossing paste through small sections of the Measured (THMS012) and Chevron (THMS024) mini layering stencils by Tim Holtz.

To add a face and additional texture, I stamped the Paris mini stamp designed by Tim Holtz for Stamper's Anonymous, using Jet Black archival ink and the Tim Holtz stamp platform for a really solid finish, onto Sheena's stamping card.  I chose an small, ornate, MDF frame from the Bare Basics Mixed Frames pack by Docrafts and cut the Mona Lisa's face slightly larger than the aperture.

Before attaching the picture to the frame, the MDF was given a coat of white gesso and then (once dry), a coat of Pearl Shimmer Paint by Cosmic Shimmer.

Finally some Salty Ocean Distress paint was dry brushed over the frame, to tie in with the 'French' part of the background.

Salty Ocean distress spray was used to colour some thin satin ribbon and some twill ribbon and these were wrapped around the bottom of the canvas (once dry of course) and stuck to the back.

Next, I used some twine to attach a resin plaque which reads '4ever' (this and the ruler measurements provide the 'numbers' from the list of prompts).  It wasn't the same colour blue as the rest of the elements, so I went into the lettering with Salty Ocean distress paint and dry brushed some over the plaque to tie everything together.

I felt that the canvas was still missing something and was a little bottom heavy, so introduced some narrow strips of white corrugated card, shaped into arrow points at one end to echo the embossed chevrons.  Before it was attached, I wrapped some of the bakers twine around each piece, having added some Salty Ocean paint to the raised edges.  One of them also served to point to the word 'Europa' from the German dictionary, which I had included at the start of the process.

Finally, I added a layer of Glossy Accents over the Mona Lisa portrait within the frame, to give the impression of glass.