Many people make several resolutions at the beginning of a new year with the best of intentions to improve their life. It can be difficult to make many changes all at once, and this is why I find the One Little Word concept helpful. I learned about this idea from a memory keeper named Ali Edwards and have chosen a word most years since 2006. This year my word is choose.
To make my word visible I created a mini canvas inspired by this art journal page and this mixed medium canvas by Shari Carroll. I love the color, texture, and contrast of her page and canvas and I was inspired to create something with these features for my word. I started with some gesso and scraps of paper, lace, and chipboard. The gesso acts as an adhesive as well as toning down the colors.
I didn’t have all the same materials on hand so I improvised. I used some clay and molds to create the flower strips and some of the single flowers. I cut the shanks off some old buttons and added some random beads and some little stones from an orphan earring. While hunting through my crafty stash I found some Dew Drops I had forgotten about and added some of them too. I had the chain from an old light and I used my tin snips to create some of the little balls. I also had some new chain and I cut some of it apart as well.
I used some clear liquid glue to adhere the buttons and beads since I wasn’t sure if the gesso would hold the heavier pieces. It doesn’t look very pretty before I add more white gesso.
I decided to create two mini canvases since I had all the materials out and was making a huge mess. After the white gesso was dry I used some Distress Inks with a water brush to put down some color . I also used some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Heidi Swapp Color Shine Sprays. Adding water with the colors and tipping the canvases let the colors run. I wanted to have the effect of an old piece that had been weathered and stained.
Waiting for everything to dry was the hard part – I am impatient so I used my heat tool to speed things up. Since I had my heat tool out I decided to add some embossing powders. I have some Distress Embossing Powder in the Verdigris color and it is one of my very favorites. It gives the look of metal that has been left outside for a long time.
Time to add my word. I didn’t have a die for choose so I used my Cameo to cut ‘choose’ out four or five times. I glued them together to make the word dimensional and painted it black ( I cut most everything out of white card stock on my Cameo.) I added some liquid glue to make it shiny and added it to the smaller canvas. Tying some twine on the end finished it off.
I did have a die for the word wonderful so I cut it out of black card stock four or five times and glued them together for the larger mini canvas. The twine didn’t look right so I just left it off. The wonderful canvas doesn’t look as balanced as the choose one but it was okay considering I was making it up as I went along.
I had fun making these – until it was time to clean everything up. Yikes, I can really make a mess but I didn’t get any photos of that.
Thanks for stopping by!
oneartsycottage 