Friends

I have been sitting on this post waiting for the recipient to let me know she received it. This is my first ever canvas and I made it for a swap the theme being Friendship.

I really wanted to take everything I have learned from the group that I swapped with and use it on this piece. So to start with I covered the canvas in Gesso. Once that dried I added some sticky letters spelling "Friends" across and down the canvas. Then I painted over the canvas with some shimmery paint, since we all know I can't do anything that doesn't have some shimmer. To add texture to the paint I mixed in some Gesso and I stippled it on giving it a bit of a ruff surface. You can see this better in some of the close up pictures further down.

Once the initial layer of shimmery paint was dry I dry brushed on some gold shimmery paint concentrating on the edges of the canvas which I still think are a bit bare but that is the custom framer in me. I would have framed the canvas if I had had time.




With all the paint said and done I moved onto the centerpiece. The stamp I used is now discontinued which is really sad because I just love love love it. So I stamped the image three times, once on white card stock and once each on the different decorative papers. I colored the white image and cut the dresses out of the decorative paper and "dressed" the woman images.

I mounted them on a foam cut. I traced the medallion like shape onto the foam and then cut it out and painted it with the same shimmery paints used on the canvas. The color looks different because I did not add any gesso to it. When that was dry I gold embossed the swirls. The embossing isn't really raised I think it is because the foam absorbed the embossing. It also bubbled a bit but I liked the over all effect.

I set the "friends" aside and tackled what I saw as a bare canvas. This is as far as my imagination had taken the canvas but I was not happy with all the open space. So I pulled down my dictionary and a sharpie and decided to write the definition of Friends done the left hand side. I must admit that if I had not joined Sarah on the Soul Journal experience I would have never had the courage to write on the canvas and that would have been a shame. The definition adds a lot, even though my handwriting lacks the romance of a stamped sentiment.



The woman that I sent my canvas to uses lots and lots of beads, which I absolutely love. I think it adds so much texture, depth and interest to her work. So I decided to take a note from her work and attached the ribbon with the fabulous bead work. Then I mounted my center piece. I still thought it was missing something so I went digging into my long forgotten embellishment box and found the wonderful round stickers. I painted them with the same paint and stamped Friends, individual letters, on each one. Then I placed them around the woman image until I liked their placement.

When all is said and done I really really liked the outcome and i hope that the recipient done too! I had a great time making this for my friend and I learned a lot.

I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed making it.