Spring Inspiration and the Evolution of a Canvas

Today here in Australia is the first official day of Spring - with the Spring Equinox at 0.49am this morning.  Needless to say I wasn't awake to celebrate its arrival I was however inspired by Spring to create my latest canvas.

Spring is a time of new beginnings, a time of starting over.  Personally spring makes me feel revitalized, I so love getting outdoors and enjoying all that nature has to offer.  For me its a magical time of year.  It also is a bit of reminder given its also when I celebrate turning another year older that life is short and we should be living each moment and going after our dreams.

Starting with my blank canvas, I covered with a layer of acrylic primer and stuck down torn pieces of my chosen papers from Crafty Individuals Background Papers Book 1.  Leaving some black space.

I then applied some paint in similar colors to my chosen papers to fill in the gaps.  My paint colors were muted down with some white paint so that they were close to the colors of my papers.

I then applied some more paint without the white added as well as using some white gesso and my punchinella to add a little bit of texture.  Once the gesso was dry I washed some watered down paint over it so that it blended in with the rest of my canvas.

This close up shows the gesso with the washed color, some stamping simply for mark making in black archival ink, my clouds and sentiment stamped on white cardstock and glued onto the canvas were also given the color wash treatment. The girl is the "I Love you This Much' Image from Elisabeth Bell.  I have printed her on white, colored with my tria markers, cut her out and adhered to my canvas.

Some of my stamping such as the stars were stamped onto torn strips of my starting background papers and then adhered to the canvas.  Pre-made paper flowers added further texture and color.  Whilst the Butterflies were stamped and cut from some of my Shaving Foam and Dye Reinker Background Papers I made last week.  I initially stamped the Follow Your Own Star onto a piece of the background papers and stuck it on my canvas but didn't like it.  I wanted it to stand out more so I stamped it on white and gave it the color wash treatment and then stuck it over where I had placed my original one.  

All the stamped images and quotes apart from the image of the girl are from the Unity Stamp Company.  

And yes you guessed it I add to add a little bling in the way of Dew Drops from the Robin's Nest.  Pink Metallic Dew Drops highlight the quotes, turquoise dew drops highlight the butterflies whilst two clear colored dew drops add shine to the stars.  

I hope you like it and enjoy what remains of this wonderful Sunday.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

The Artistic Stamper - September Challenge - Splatters and Speckles
Unique Crafters Challenge - September Challenge Anything Goes
Let's Create Anything But a Card - Challenge #2
Anything But a Card Challenges- #2 Texture
Fab N Funky Challenges - Challenge #139 Things with Wings