Mothers Love Canvas by Karen Bearse

Hi Karen Bearse here today with a fun canvas for this month’s challenge. This is one of my

favourite photos, when my daughter was young. I decided to use another page from the albums as my base. I realize that if I want to simply use it as a canvas it would be easy to fill the holes in with modeling paste.

I have a tutorial for you today and I encourage you to follow along, you can make this canvas

too! I started by marking off where my photo was going to go.

I knew I wanted to use crackle paste for the background and wanted the photo to sit nicely. It would be hard to adhere a photo to the paste so I left that spot open. Use a craft spatula or old gift card to scrape the crackle paste onto the background. You will want the paste to be spread a bit thick so it can crackle. Set aside to completely dry. This may take some time but let the paste dry naturally. For some colour Glimmer Glam is my go to. Start adding with a paint brush and wipe off excess with a paper towel. The colour seeps into the cracks and creates fabulous texture. I kept the colour light, more like a tint. Set aside to dry. Once dry I added some glass bead gel randomly. This product is super easy to apply, dries clear, you end up with clear tiny beads which adds great texture.

Time to colour the chippies! After a few attempts I went with 3 colours of emboss. Such a fast & easy way to add dynamic colour.

Painting the word Loveable with Glam left it shiny with a touch of glitter. Now for the magic!

This is one of my favourite techniques.

Adding highlights in copper really makes the texture pop. It gives the beads a metallic shine. I just put a tiny bit of Metallic Luster (a thick, creamy paste, with a metallic finish) on my finger tip, then brushed it across the top in spots to hit the high points.

Distress random bits of the background, edges, the beads, the title, flowers and edges of my

photo. Once this is dry it is time to assemble. For the photo I used Scor tape around the edges and glue stick in the middle. For the chippies go with a strong wet glue like Glossy Accents. Now that my assembly was done I ran into a problem.

The corner of the photo created a square edge in the middle of the heart, which did not look

good. Filling the heart with crackle paste helped to solve this problem.

After the paste was completely dry, I added a touch of colour with the Glam in the center of the heart. Once that was dry I put down a layer of glossy accents. Dropping glitter glass, micro beads, glitter shapes and some iced enamel made sort of a fixed shaker box look. 

Lastly I added a cute metal charm. I hope that you have time to get inky this month!

Southern Ridge Trading Chippies:

- Swirling Heart

- Word Mix #1

- Album (one page)

Other Supplies:

- Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam

- Liquitex Glass Bead Gel

- Ranger Glossy Accents, Glue Stick, Emboss Dabber & Glitter Glass

- Deco Art Metallic Finish & Crackle Paste

- Prima Micro Beads & flowers

- Bead Landing charm

- Thermo Web Tape

- Heat Gun

Remember to play along in the monthly challenge over on the Southern Ridge Trading Company blog. Each month enter for your chance to win 4 designs from the online store - chipboard.ca -$20 (before tax) retail value of YOUR OWN CHOOSING! 

- Karen