The First Art of 2009 - TRY SOMETHING NEW

This is my first post of 2009. It is a Brand New Year with lots of promise and potential. I am determined to make every day count. I don't want to waste a single day on negatives. I want to count my blessings. I have been taking at least one picture every day, as I try to follow the Creating Keepsakes Project 365 Photo-a-Day Challenge. I will post them to this blog every once in a while.

A New Year calls for a new technique or art form. I have been thinking about trying my hand at making some Altered Canvas. I have been frequenting some of the Altered Art sites and of course am a big fan of Tim Holtz and his techniques. I made a trip to Aaron Bros during the holidays and picked up a few canvases while they are having their penny sale. Buy any canvas and get the second for a penny. After browsing some online galleries to see what appealed to me, it was time to decide on a subject. The answer was easy. Pictures of my family. So I started looking through pictures and found a darling picture of Adler that we had taken New Years Eve. He is walking now. Mike and I were having him walk back and forth between us and then we would clap our hands and say "yaaayyyy". He would clap his hands big time too. This picture actually looked like he was trying to fly, so it was perfect for an Angel Picture.

First I painted the canvas with light blue acrylic paint. When it dried I placed a Tim Holtz Mask on the left side of the canvas. I used Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood, and a little Black Soot Distress Ink to ink over the mask.

I used Autumn Leaves Snap Frame Alphabet Stamps to stamp Alder's name with Faded Jeans Distress ink. I then inked around the edges of the outlines with Faded Jeans ink and highlighted the outline with an EK Success Zig Metallic Writer and wrote Angel Boy with some little scrolls under the name.

Next I cut out Adler's picture and inked around the edges with brown ink to hide the white lines where I cut the photo. I formed the halo by twisting gold wire around my finger several times and then 'braiding' the end in to hold it all together. I taped it to the back of the photo. The grunge board wings were painted with my gold paint dabber, embossed with my Cuttlebug, using the Textile Textures folder. I then highlighted the texture with metallic rub-on paste. I used Modge Podge to glue the center of the wings and picture in place. I lifted the ends of the wings with pop dots for dimension. And then coated the whole canvas and picture with Modge Podge to seal it.

In the upper right hand corner I attached a Bookplate frame with brads. I printed the words "What a blessing" on regular printer paper. I then used temporary spray adhesive to place my scrap of paper, that was cut to fit the frame, over the original lettering and ran it through my printer again to get the words centered just like I wanted them. I adhered the old watch face to the canvas with Glossy Accents by Ranger. The watch face is set to 5:35 which is the time of Adler's birth.

To finish it off, I painted a grunge board heart with my Red Pepper Paint Dabber by Ranger. I then embossed it with the Script Texture Embossing Folder and my Cuttlebug. I highlighted the texture with metallic rub-on paste. I used my Dymo label maker to create the words and adhered the key and all the labels with Glossy Accents. I used pop dots to adhere the heart for a little dimension.

I have a picture ready to make a similar canvas for Drake. I really enjoyed this "experiment" and will be doing more of this type of art. Stay tuned for Drake's canvas coming soon to this blog.

Happy Creating in 2009