Posted: January 16th, 2021 by helen

How Fragile We Are | Canvas

Hello and Happy weekend! We have Heather here on the blog today with an amazing mixed media canvas featuring lots of our stamps and stencils with our ‘How Fragile We Are’ sentiment stamp…

Hello to you all and a very happy new year to all of you. I’m back with some new Visible Image inspiration for you and I’m hoping to ‘up my game’ a bit this year and push myself into new directions.

My first make for 2021 is this 8×6″ canvas using Shining Bright, Glimmer of Light and How Fragile for the main focal images of the piece.

how fragile we are | moth stamp | lightbulb | mixed media canvas

I’ve been having a bit of a clear out in my craft room of late. I gave a huge amount of paper pads away to some neighbours and in my clearing up I found some half used canvases of which this is one.

Before I gave it a couple of coats of gesso, the canvas was a pale blue with various stamped images, it even has some tissue paper strips down one side but none of the bothers me as I love a bit of texture!

Once I’d gesso’d it (gesso is a primer so is a good base for most surfaces) I clear embossed Fibonacci in a couple of random places so that once I added ink, the image would come through and give some white texture in the background.

I used Distress Oxide Sprays (Chipped Sapphire, Rustic Wilderness and Evergreen Bough) for this make as I love their matt and almost chalky finish and just dabbed them on using the tiny straw in the bottle and brushed them on. I did go over them using blender brushes just to neaten the surface slightly before adding crackle paste with the fabulous Count Me In stencil.

While the crackle pastes dries I began on the little circle (5″ in diameter) and this is just to break up the rectangle really, to add more interest and somewhere to focus the images. I’ve used Organics to continue the crackle theme that I’ll be using on the main bulb. Having stamped it using VersaFine Clair Morning Mist, I used a clear embossing powder to add a bit of sheen and to protect the stamping as I wanted to add Distress Oxide inks over the top.

Like the canvas, I added crackle paste through the Count Me In stencil again to tie the two together.

With this complete, I dripped Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Bittersweet Vine) onto both the circle and the canvas and then used a watercolour fan brush to sprinkle on watered down gesso.

When stamping the bulbs, I masked out the middle images from the larger ones. To do this, I used masking tape cut to cover the image and removed it after the ink. Having then stamped the bulb onto a sheet of scrap paper, I cut out the bulb interior so I could stamp the shattered glass effect from How Fragile We Are. The bus were stamped in VersaFine Clair Nocturne and the shattered glass in Morning Mist. Both were heat embossed using clear embossing powder.

You could use whatever you prefer to colour the bulbs but I love these Arteza Brush Pens as the colour is beautifully vibrant and that’s kind of what you want in a bulb, no?! With the colour in place, I used a watercolour brush pen to blend and neaten them up.

To highlight the broken effect, I used Glossy Accents to add a glass look to the bulb and Organics on the circle and it looks amazing!

With the bulbs and crackle paste drying, I turned my attention to these gorgeous moths from Glimmer of Hope. Stamped in Nocturne VersaFine Claire again, these too were heat embossed using clear powder before being coloured with brown shades of the Arteza pens.

Having trimmed all the images, I added foam tape to the backs to give them extra dimension on the project. Having looked at the bulb wondering how to attach it, I decided to wrap some wire around the cap so it looked like it was almost hanging.

With everything made, it was time to layer the images up and secure them into place. It was at this point I felt the larger moth needed some extra dimension so I stamped the wings again onto vellum and attached them slightly lower than the original so you can see his second set fluttering away.

I now have this hanging in my craft room and it looks just fabulous (even if I do say so myself!). Although your eyes are naturally drawn to the bulbs, you’re pulled down by the texture from the Count Me In stencil, and the smaller moth.

These are the Visible Image stamps and stencil sets I’ve used for this make…

I’m really excited to push myself this year… get out of that comfort zone and experiment more than I usually do and I’m excited to see what new designs Mark and Helen make for us because I know they’ll be spectacular as they always are!

There’s been lots of inspiration over the Christmas period in the Visible Image Facebook group so do pop in and if you’ve made anything new why not post it up! I love to see everyone’s makes and ideas.

Thats’ all from me today. Look after yourselves and I’ll catch up again soon.

H xx

Woweee this is an amazing canvas Heather! So much detail, gorgeous layers, and wonderful texture! Your sentiment choice is so perfect right now. Thank you ♡

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We will be back with more fabulous inspiration here on the blog very soon!

Sending our best wishes and we hope you have a good weekend.

Stay safe and well.

Helen & Mark xx