Botanical Canvases
One Friday, just after an order of Winsor Newton canvases arrived,
Jess and I got to talking about them and what else they could be used for in
addition to the obvious. Serendipity being what it is, there were some
other products nearby that caught our eyes as we speculated on possible uses.
One was the Cavallini sheets of gift wrap. We store them on a rack to keep
them from getting creased and as it happens the rack is adjacent to the
cutting table where we had the canvases laid out.
We've been working together long enough that we've learned how to bounce
ideas off one another, letting the creative process happen till we devise an
idea that's worth taking further. Within a few minutes we'd dragged out
several sizes of the canvases, three styles of the Cavallini gift wrap, and some
of the Nunn Designs photo corners along with the Claudine Hellmuth Studio
Paints.
These photos are the result of that creative idea session. We talked about
it, Jess gathered a bunch of supplies for me, and off I went!
The first thing we did was decide which of the Cavallini papers would be the
most suitable. We ended up with these three...
Botanica Natural History
Natural Wonders
Bird & Nest Natural History
The common theme is that they're all segmented into panes. I decided to
cut them apart and mount them on the canvases. My tools of choice were a
rotary cutter, ruler, and cutting mat. If you want straight cuts with
little effort, that's the way to get them.
I ended up working with the Botanica Natural History and Natural Wonders and
once I'd made up my mind about them, the next step was to decide on a color
palette for each. I started with the Natural Wonders paper for my first
attempt and that's the one you'll see document here. I have finished
photos of both, and you'll see them at the end.
Once I cut the paper up I laid the squares out on some canvases until I
figured out just what I wanted to do. It's a little difficult to see in
this photo (but easier if you look at the full sized photo above), but the two
images that are mounted individually on the 5" x 7" canvases have the border
around them. The three I used on the 6" x 12" canvas have the border
trimmed away. You can also see the colors of paint I settled on to
coordinate with the colors on the paper.
Here's my palette with the paint laid out and ready to go. I used
Claudine's Traditional Tan, Modern Red, Classic Teal, Charcoal Black, and
Painterly Pink. The next step was to mix up a color of teal for the
background. The Classic Teal as it came out of the bottle was too vibrant
for the look I was aiming for. I took a good sized bloc of Traditional Tan
and added some of the Classic Teal till I was close to the color I wanted.
I added a bit of Charcoal Black to tone it down a bit since it was still too
vibrant. That color became the background for all three canvases. It
looked a little bland so I decided to liven it up by adding some color to the
edges of the canvas, in the areas I knew would not be covered by the paper.
I picked up various colors on the brush and tried to just lay them down over the
background teal and decided I didn't like the look. That's the section of
canvas you can see all the way to the right. I tried again, this time
stippling the colors on, blending some but also making sure not to go overboard
since I didn't want to muddy them. Since red is a prominent color in the
pictures I wanted to be sure that there was red in the stippled colors. I
made sure to paint and stipple on the edges of the canvas too as they'll be
visible when this is finished.
This is what my palette looked like by the time I was done stippling. Two
brushes, lots of paint. and some cool colors!
When the background was complete the next step was to glue the paper to each
canvas. I have been using Claudine's Multi Medium in the matte finish a
lot lately to adhere paper to journal pages and since I love the way it works, I
decided to use it here as well. I tried this process several ways; first
applying the medium to the back of the paper and laying it down on the canvas.
One word of caution, the moisture in the multi medium will cause the paper to
curl. It's not impossible to deal with, but it does require a bit of care.
That worked ok, but it felt like there must be a better way. Next I tried
applying the multi medium to the canvas itself and then laying the paper on top.
This too produced ok results. Ultimately what I discovered was the
applying the Multi medium to the canvas and then to the back of the paper and
then applying the paper to the canvas was the most effective method. I
didn't feel too rushed and also didn't think that I was leaving sections
unglued. Once I had all of the images applied to the canvases I applied a
thin layer of the medium over the top of the paper and the canvas that was not
covered. The whole thing was dry in a couple of hours which led to the
next step... adding some decorative elements to the corners.
These are the Nunn Designs Scallop Photo corner in silver. I really liked
the look and decided that was the overall look I was trying for. I added
the corners to each of the canvases...
These are the two 5" x 7" canvases. The ribbon you see here is what I
intend to use as a bow/hanger, though I ran out of time and wasn't able to get
that done. Jess took a photo of the trio...
The plan is to hang the 6" x 12" canvas in the center and have the 5" x 7" ones
flank it on either side.
What follows are the photos Jess took of the trio I made using images cut from
the Botanica Natural History sheet of gift wrap...
The 5" x 7" canvases. Here too I kept the border on the images, though
I
trimmed them for the three images that are mounted on the 6" x 12" canvas.
I mixed a pale pink color, matching the pink in one of the images cut from the
sheet. This one was stippled with Traditional Tan and Blank Canvas and the
overall look is more more subtle than the other trio
These photo corners are also from Nunn Design, the flower version, also in
silver. Because the flower style is slightly smaller than the shells, I
was able to add corners to all three images on the 6" x 12" canvas. The
shells I used on the other set were too large to do the same.
I love these flowers!
Here's the entire grouping and you can see the silvery green ribbon that will
become the bow and hangers. This photo was taken prior to me adding the
photo corners to the inner corners of the images.
UPDATE - 1 week later and the flower canvases now have pretty green and silver
bows to act as a hanger.
SUPPLIES:
Canvases - I used two 5" x
7" and one 6" x 12" for each of the two trios. You can see all of the
canvases
here.
Cavallini decorative gift wrap - I used two different sheets and would
have used the third if I'd had the time. The shells and coral images are
from the
Natural Wonders sheet while the flowers were from the
Botanica Natural History sheet of gift wrap. Go
here for the Natural Wonders sheet and
here for
Botanica Natural History. If you want the birds, that one is
Bird & Nest Natural History that you can see
here.
Cutting tools - Olfa rotary cutter, 6" ruler, and cutting mat. If
you want straight, consistent cuts, this is the way to get them. Go
here to see all three.
Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints and multi medium - I used the matte
finish version of the multi medium, though the gloss would be fine too if you
prefer a bit more shine. You can see both versions of the multi medium as
well as the complete line of Studio paints
here.
Nunn Designs Decorative Photo Corners - I used the flower and scallop
photo corners, both in silver. You can see the flowers
here and the scalloped version
here. Both styles are also available in a gold finish, too. You
can see all of the Nunn Design metal stampings
here.
Ribbon - I used the 1.5" metallic organza ribbon in the green/silver
colorway. You can see all of the
colors available
here.
I hope you enjoy creating your own botanical canvas trios!
