I never promised you a rose garden

    Hello everyone! Welcome to Laurart! I hope you like what I have made today....

    First of all a mention about the title....this and my next post are titles of songs and I have looked to the genre of Country music which I adore. In England, sadly Country music doesn't fall into the 'cool' category. However I never have or will be a 'trendy' person - I like what I like and I was raised listening to the delights of Johnny Cash, Dolly and Porter, Tammy Wynette and all the greats and I listen to them to this day and smile. So this blog is a tribute to one of my favourite songs - In fact my little girl sang it for me at my birthday party in front of a huge audience because she knew I loved it so much.

      So onto the craft stuff - I had been a bit stuck recently - no ideas and the one project I started came to a halt rather rapidly - before it had even really begun. I had recently got my first pot of texture paste and of course impatient me couldn't wait to get stuck in. I grabbed a small canvas, a stencil of some ivy and began to apply the paste.

    I found it a bit tricky - as all new things are. I soon got the hang of it and suddenly after a few false starts I had three corners of the canvas decorated in gorgeous trailing ivy...I liked how it looked but then it dawned on me...I had NO idea what to do next! Do I paint? Ink? Collage?....Oh crikey!!!!

    So I did my usual panic thing of putting it away. Then I remembered that Gesso seems to be mentioned in work on canvas on other blogs I have read - so I slapped some Gesso on hoping that the action of painting would cause inspiration to come flying into the room. Sadly no, there was plenty of paint on the canvas but no ideas to be found anywhere.

    The canvas sat there for several days and I tried not to feel bad about it. I finished some other work and tried to ignore the canvas sitting there. Then I was looking on the internet, hopping around the blogs and I landed at Frilly and Funkie....And there was a new challenge - Layers! Well, I was really happy. The first word had ideas bouncing everywhere as I LOVE layering - Total comfort zone!

    and..."Focus on a single word" - I can do that!...So I glanced at the DT work - WOW! they were ALL amazing and as I scrolled down enjoying every single one I began to realise that I could complete that poor sad little canvas who was currently feeling abandoned....

    Now....I am not too used to doing canvas work. Or rather, I do use them very happily to paint still life with acrylic paints, but the whole collage, stains, inks, tissue, stamps, canvas thing is very new. Although my head was full of ideas I was really unsure how to put them onto the canvas.....

 First I needed to work on the background - I really wanted to use my New Tim Holtz 'Melange' Tissue. So I cut and tore out two pieces and stuck them to the board. After the glue had dried I realised the images were too dark and so I lightened them with a coat of Gesso.

     I desperately wanted to use Tattered Rose (I LOVE that colour!) - In the ideas that were floating around my mind I had visions of pale peachy-pink, beige and green, lace, script, flowers, torn edges, wire, vintage shabby chic. I recently got my first lot of Distress stains -

I am just learning how to get the best effects and I only had Tattered Rose in the stain version so I grabbed the Tattered Rose, Antique Linen and Bundled Sage stains - Deep breath....and here goes....

   I swiped them over the canvas - wasn't even sure if that was how you are meant to do it but I kept telling myself there isn't a wrong way! Tattered Rose in one corner, Bundled Sage in the opposite corner and Antique Linen over the rest. Blended it all together with a large soft brush...I liked that a lot so it was a good start. I put it aside to dry and then began to work on the layers.

•    Card covered in Tattered Rose stain and then stamped with script in Gathered Twigs

•    Card covered in Tim Holtz 'Melange' Tissue paper and covered with Antique Linen stain.

•    Card covered in Antique Linen stain and stamped in flourish stamp in Antique Linen

•    Card made using wrinkle free distress with Tarnished Brass/Bundled Sage/Antique Linen Stains and then cut into heart shape and stamped with script in Gathered Twigs

•    The word 'Promise' embossed on card and covered in several applications of Antique Linen stain, cut out and stuck onto card stained with Tarnished brass/Bundled Sage/Antique linen wrinkle free distress and edged with Gathered Twigs

There were other layers too...

    Layer of embossing paste
    Layer of Gesso
    Layer of tissue
    Another layer of Gesso
    Layer of Stains
    Layer of stencils using DI's
    Layer of script stamp

   

After constructing all the different card layers, the canvas was dry and I began to add some more canvas decoration. I stencilled some ivy using Bundled Sage DI. I then stamped some script across the canvas with Gathered Twigs DI. I then blended a little bit of Gathered Twigs across the embossing paste ivy leaves to emphasis the texture.

I began to arrange the layers....adding some crochet lace first around the centre of the board...It looked too bright and new next to the other colours so I dabbed on some Antique Linen stain to give it more of a vintage look and then applied it to the board.

The layers took shape and I began to add in some flowers. I decided to add some roses but these were too pale so I applied some Antique Linen stain to the craft mat, spritzed with water and dabbed the roses in the liquid. I also did some smaller roses at the same time. A twig heart and some rusty wire and I had done the canvas!

     I do hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by...I hope you are having a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

I am entering this into the following challenges -

Frilly and Funkie  - Layer it on and share a word
Anything challenge - Vintage shabby chic
The Artistic Stamper - Hearts and Flowers
Stampavie  - Lots of Layers
Tim Holtz  - Tattered floral challenge