Canvas Art with your Kids

Summer is here and I don’t know about you, but we enjoy doing crafts together. And with gas prices the way they are, finding things to do with your kids... at home and with on-hand supplies is even better!

Not long ago I was blog hopping and came across a fun kids project by Arounna Khounnoraj at the Book Hour Craft Projects Blog. She created this amazing Alphabet Poster using old wood typeset letters & numbers. Such a simple, but beautiful piece for any wall and I was instantly inspired. What a fun project to do yourself and have your kids make one too!

At first I thought we could use some of the alphabet stamps I already have so it would be similar. But then I came across the large, 8 inch chipboard “M” by Making Memories that I bought forever ago. Who knows what I had planned for it way back then, but I’m glad I saved it because now I had the perfect project for it. It inspired me to do a monogrammed canvas instead! Isn't it funny how inspiration works!

Then the fun began with digging through all the chipboard, metal and other fun M’s that I could find in my supplies. I dug pretty deep, because if you've been scrapping for a while, you'll notice some older products on there too. Here's what I was inspired to create. A simple, colorful monogrammed piece of art.

My canvas is 14" x 18" and I have a pretty big variety of products on there. The largest M is from Making Memories. I think I've had that for at least 2 years, so I'm not sure if you can still find them or not. The large green M on the top right is from Creative Imaginations Bare Elements line and the pink M is a felt one that I picked up on clearance at Joann's. There's pretty much a little of everything on here. I even painted a few of my chipboard pieces with Twinkling H2o's. Just have fun using what you have on-hand!

I started with the large 8 inch “M” and then worked my way around it until I liked the way everything looked. I then took a photo so that I could refer back to it as necessary. Next I painted the bare chipboard pieces and my canvas. Once everything was dry, I started gluing.

Here’s the one my 9 year old son, Tyler made and he loves it! I kept his a little easier to manage by having him work on a 6 x 8 canvas. It was a Target $1 spot item I already had in my supplies. I then had him stick to mostly alphabet stickers, using just a few larger chipboard pieces. He sure had fun going through all of my alphabets to find what he liked! I really like the tan color he used for his canvas and the green he chose for the large T inspired me to use that color too.

You can find lots of fun & inspiring projects on the internet for all ages, including the one I linked above. And remember, your local library is always a good source for some kids craft books.

Go find something that inspired you and enjoy doing something crafty with your kids this summer!

Celebration of colour (color) : crackle paints

Hello everyone. It's Fiona here and I'm working with one of my favourite (favorite) mediums at the moment, Ranger distress crackle paints.

The little project I'm creating is a set of magnets.



My magnets usually find a place on our fridge, helping to hold precious photos or notes. We display lots of things on our fridge, for us our fridge is a photo album on display. Visitors to our house will stand in front of our fridge for ages looking through the photos.

So onto the project. Here's what you'll need for the first steps of this project: chipboard shapes (Maya Road), acrylic paint (Plaid Folk Art) and distress crackle paint (Ranger).



Paint the chipboard shapes with acrylic paint:



Leave these to dry throughly:



Choose coordinating colours (colors) of the distress crackle paint:



Paint on the distress crackle paint:



Warning: this paint is thick. You should try to apply it once and not re-work the surface. You can get a large crackle effect by using a thick layer. For a finer crackle effect, try to use a thinner layer of the crackle paint.



Leave to dry throughly again. You'll see the undercoat of acylic paint showing through the cracks of the top layer.



Sometimes I like to add a little gloss to the painted chipboard shapes. Traditional glosses can trap small air bubbles in the cracks of the paint, so I use clear embossing powder to give a glossy surface. You'll need your stamping supplies for this stage, VersaMark ink pad, clear embossing powder and your heat gun.



Apply the VersaMark ink to the shapes:



Sprinkle shapes with the embossing powder:



Use the heat gun to melt the embossing powder, giving the glossy finish to your chipboard shapes:



Add embellishments if needed to the chipboard shapes. I added buttons to the flower centres:



Use a hot glue gun to assemble the chipboard magents together:



Add magnets to the backs of the finished shapes:



Here they are again, all finished.



....and our fridge, well, here's a photo of the top half, lots of memories on display:



I'd love to see any little magnet projects that you make, leave a link in the comments, so I can see your work.

Hope you have a great week. Thanks for visiting.

Cheers

Fiona xx

Celebration of Color: Stamping and Watercolor

When I heard we were having a "Celebration of Color" on the Pursuit of Craftyness blog for the month of May, I immediately knew I would be using watercolor. In my pre-scrapbooking/cardmaking days, I was a watercolorist. I just LOVE watercolor - the transclucency, the layering ability, and softness - I love it all. So I'm going to share a few of my watercolor and stamping techniques and I hope you try them when you are stamping.

In this tutorial, the watercolors I will be using are artist's quality watercolors - but only because that is what I have on hand. You can use any transclucent watercolor paints you have.

You will need:
- watercolor paper (140 lb.)
- watercolor paint
- watercolor paint brush
- stamp
- embossing ink and powder
- heat gun


For my first card, "Love Letter", I stamped my image with embossing ink onto watercolor paper, and heat embosssed with black embossing powder. Next, I washed over the image with various colors of watercolor paint. Note that you can put the colors next to each other without making the color muddy, but you have to leave the colors alone or they will turn dark if mixed on the paper. To speed up the drying process, I used my heat gun to dry the paper. After the paper was dry, I went back and added some more color in various places to make some of the objects "pop".

I trimmed my image, matted it and used on this card.


Supplies:
-Cardstock: Bazzill
-Patterned Paper: We R Memory Keepers
-Watercolor paint (Grumbacher)
-Watercolor paper (Canson 140 lb. cold pressed)
-Stamp: Hampton Art (Correspondence/Quill Collage & Love Struck)
-Ink: Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Clear Embossing & Black Soot)
-Embossing Powder: Ranger (Black)
-Other: Jute

On my next card, I used the watercolors as you would colored pencils or markers - that is, adding color to specific places of the image and even outlining. On my "Forever & Always" card, I stamped the image with black pigment ink, then added paint to the background behind the doves. Again, I used the heat gun to dry the first wash of color. Next, I applied the same color but only closer to the birds, to darken the area closest to the birds.

Next, I used the fine tip of my watercolor brush and outlined the wings with blue, and outlined the banner with green. I added yellow to their beeks. For a bit of sparkle, I used white stickles on their wing caps and let dry. I trimmed the image and used on this card.


Supplies:
-Cardstock: Bazzill
-Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants, Dream Street Paper, Flair Designs
-Stamps: Hampton Art (Love Struck;Intention
-Watercolor Paint (Grumbacher)
-Watercolor Paper (Canson 140 cold pressed)
-Flowers, Felt and Button: American Crafts
-Ink: Brilliance Pigment Ink (Archival Black)
-Stickles: Ranger (Star Dust)
-Border Punch: Fiskars
-Other: Thread, Corner Rounder

I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the wonderful world of using watercolor paint and stamps together. I'd LOVE to see what you create, so please share. Have a wonderful day and check back in a few days for more colorful inspiration!