Sunday, December 16, 2012

Stamping a Winter Canvas

 

Peaceful Winter Moments

Some stampers shy away from working on stretched canvas feeling the canvas has "too much give" to get good images with their stamps. But there are many ways to use stamps.  Here are some details on how I use stamps to create the focal image and other images on this canvas.




I started by applying a generous coat of gesso to the top surface of the canvas using a credit card sized piece of packaging plastic. To create the surface dimensional texture I pressed an inkless swirl foam stamp into the gesso and in other areas laid the plastic card on the gesso (see center of right edge) and pulled up on it.  I immediately washed the stamps and other tools. I let the gesso dry to a very solid surface. 
 
I painted the background and ran gold acrylic dabber paint over some of the raised edges to add interest. I stamped several images around the edges with ink and/or acrylic paint. 
 
The Stampendous snow bird is stamped on thin white tissue paper with permanent ink. The image is colored with permanent ink pens and acrylic paints. When dry I tore the tissue around the image and then I smooshed the tissue into a wad and open flat. Gel medium is added to the canvas and then the image is place on top. Another layer of gel medium on is brushed on top of the tissue with strokes to continue to flatten the image to the canvas. The edges disappear like magic. I cannot detect the tissue paper even when I take a close look...so cool.
 
Once the gel medium is dry additional layers of acrylic paint are added onto the image as desired.

I added glossy accents to the berries and snow glitter to their tops and branches. Dry stardust glitter was sprinkled across a canvas prior to finishing with a layer of gel medium.
 
I strongly encourage you to try creating a stamped canvas.  Experimenting with making textures in the gesso base is a ton of fun.  There are a lot of magically moments in how easy this seemed to come together for me--Totally FUN! 
 
Wishing you lots of wonderful creative moments now and into the New Year!...Jan

9 comments:

  1. Oh Jan!! That is absolutely gorgeous!!! I love how you did the sweet bird and I can't wait to try it with the tissue paper too! How awesome!!

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  2. OK, it's official....I'm a stalker, LOL! I just had to come back and look at this again!

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  3. Oh, how gorgeous!! I ordered this beautiful bird stamp, and it arrived today. Love how you used it on a canvas, so pretty. Thanks for the instructions.
    Also, thanks for putting the blogbanner up, and linking back to my blog.

    Happy Holidays!

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  4. This is exquisite! Thank you so much for your detailed instructions.

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  5. Jan, this is so beautiful. Thank you so much for describing the process. I love the texture and colors; the image is wonderful. I've been eyeing that image on eBay!

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  6. OMG, this is really beautiful! Love your banner too :)

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  7. Wow Jan, this is so gorgeous!!! LOVE all the textures on the canvas and the bird looks absolutely wonderful. That is such a sweet stamp and your colouring is so pretty. TFS!!

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  8. Oh how lovely! Stamping on canvas is now on my list of things to try in 2013! Beautiful work (as always :))

    Amy*

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  9. This is beautiful! I love the tissue stamp technique. Thanks for sharing. xoxo

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