Live Simply Canvas

Looking for a unique handmade gift? Maybe for a friend who needs some encouragement. Pick up an inexpensive canvas at your local craft store and personalize it with whatever you have on hand. I bought the canvas in a two pack at Hobby Lobby. But you can get them anywhere. 

I started by covering the white canvas with acrylic paint. I used whatever paint I had around. Some I bought on sale recently. Other acrylics I’ve had stored away for over 15 years and they were still usable. Using a piece of plastic packaging, I squeezed out ample amounts of paint. I applied the acrylic paint with a paint brush to the canvas. I also stamped a few images directly to the canvas. To stamp, I brushed the acrylic paint onto my stamps and pressed them onto the canvas. You don’t always get a clean, precise image. But it makes for a nice, subtle background. For clean-up, I took the stamps and brush to the sink to wash thoroughly with water. I did this pretty quickly after stamping. Didn’t want the acrylic paint to dry on them and render them useless.

For other images that I wanted to stand out more, I stamped onto Pop-Tone Cardstock. Then I either die-cut the images or fussy cut them. I adhered all images with Rangers Distress Collage Medium. 

I wanted the sentiment to be the focal point of each canvas. So, I stamped the sentiments on a coordinating color card stock but with a dark ink color. I used Versafine Onyx Black. I think the black ink makes it pop. I also heat embossed the sentiments with clear embossing powder. I did this to make sure the ink didn’t smear when I brushed the  Distress Collage Medium over top of the paper pieces. I used Ranger Collage Medium to adhere all pieces and went over top of everything with the same medium. For the green sentiment about sailing, I tore the edges to give it a rugged look.

The colors of Pop-Tone Cardstock, I used on the Live Simply canvas were Banana Split for the tag and some leaves, Gumdrop Green for most of the leaves, Grape Jelly and Cotton Candy for the flowers.  

Below is the Live Simply canvas along with a few of the supplies I used. I added some glass water drops and a wooden butterfly I found in my stash. The stamps and tag die-cut are from CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. I adhered everything with Ranger’s Distress Collage Medium.

For the sailing canvas, I used the Pop-Tone Cardstock in Berrylicious for the sailboat, Banana Split for the compass, and Gumdrop Green for the sentiment.  In the picture below, you can see the metal arrow and gear I added along with some sea glass pieces at the bottom. I like the added texture and depth they provide. I colored the sailboat with alcohol markers but when I applied the collage medium over top of the sailboat the colors smeared a little. I think it still looks good and plan to give it away anyways. 

Thanks so much for visiting.