Guest Designer Mandy Collins Mail Art Canvas

Thank you Splash of Color for the invitation as a guest designer on your blog.

As a teacher my workshops often focus on the use of color and Luminarte Paints {both watercolor and the new acrylic silks} are a great choice on so many different textures.  On my blog Pearl Maple you will find tutorials on the themes of texture and color (or colour depending on what part of the world you are in).

The canvas project we are sharing today was part of a recent on line workshop with My Creative Classroom.  Using gesso or texture paste for the background lets all those paint colors shine.

Mail Art Canvas
Products used:

• Luminarte Silks acrylic paint in Solar Yellow, Olive Vine, Ginger Peach, Emperor’s Gold and Carmen
• Canvas 28 or 30 inches x 12 inches
• 4 mini canvas 5x7 inches (or cardboard as an alternative)
• Gesso or texture paste
• Fan brush
• Chipboard letters to spell out LOVE IS HOME  

The canvas is a jumbo sized project to show off all the different techniques we taught in the workshop on the leaf shapes and mail art envelopes that are decorative accents.

The canvas uses gesso or texture paste to achieve a worn barn board effect. The texture paste is pulled up and down the length of the canvas, leaving wrinkles or ripples and imperfections for interest. This is not smooth royal icing but a base for texture.

At the top left of the canvas scrape gesso or texture paste to mount the title Love. Negatives from chipboard letters are a handy stencil shape for letters.

Or if you have run out of some letters, why not try other shapes like this tiny photo frame.  To blend the title into the overall texture glue the letters in the corner and add more texture around the letters.  The hard part is waiting for the base to dry.

With the fan brush paint long stripes up and down the length of the canvas using the beautiful Luminarte Acrylic Silks ~ Solar Yellow, covering about 1/3rd of the canvas.  Add a few thin squiggles of Luminarte Acrylic Silks ~Olive Vine and some thicker stipes of Luminarte Acrylic Silks ~ Ginger Peach. You will find a fan brush makes quick work of thin washes of color.

Dry and add a top coat of Luminarte Acrylic Silks ~Emperor’s Gold all over the canvas and over the stripes of color. Some of the other colours will shine through from underneath or catch on the texture creating a nice variation in tones.

The mini canvas shapes act as a frame for the mail art and treated with the same background technique of gesso and paint.  For quick mail art simply cover envelopes with newsprint or dictionary paper. Glue the envelopes onto mini canvas shapes and then onto the large canvas.

Paint the other chipboard letters to spell out the words IS and HOME with Luminarte Acrylic Silks ~Carmen red. When dry attach to the canvas.

Add leaf shapes around the edge of the collage and you have completed a canvas featuring mail art, texture and lots of color.

Thanks for the warm welcome and hope to meet up with you all again soon.   
Mandy

Comments

[LynneF]

Mandy.....this is just BEAUTIFUL!!!!

[Martha Richardson]

Stunning work as always!!!